Stage 4 of 7

Senior leaders

The further your decisions reach, the fewer people tell you when they land badly.

Senior leaders are directors and VPs who lead through other leaders. Most of the people their decisions affect never report to them directly. What changes is reach: a mood, a priority or a hiring call now travels through several layers, and less honest feedback travels back up.

The short answer

The biggest challenge for senior leaders is that their choices reach far more people than they can see, while honest feedback thins out. What helps is making that reach visible: counting who your decisions touch, checking trust with peer leaders, and asking the people two layers down what it is really like.

Drafted with AI for Jay Sampat, Chief Mirror Holder · coach review pending

You’ll know these

The six tests

  1. 19RippleLiveSenior leaders · How many people your mood and decisions reach
  2. 20Presence CheckLiveSenior leaders · How you come across in the rooms that matter
  3. 21Cross-Team TrustLiveSenior leaders · How strong your relationships with peer leaders are
  4. 22Change LoadLiveSenior leaders · How much more change your organisation can absorb right now
  5. 23Talent MagnetLiveSenior leaders · Whether good people want to join and stay on your team
  6. 24Cost of a Bad BossLiveSenior leaders · What manager-driven exits cost, in your currency

Senior leaders

What changes when you become a senior leader?

Your reach grows faster than your view of it. As a director or VP, most of the people your choices affect sit 2 or 3 layers away. They feel a change of priority, a tense all-hands or a manager you chose to keep, and you rarely hear how it landed.

That is why this stage’s tools are about reach. Ripple counts how many people your bad Monday touches, and how a leader’s mood spreads explains why it matters. Cost of a Bad Boss puts a figure on the managers you keep in place; what a bad manager costs a company walks through the sum.

How do you come across in the rooms that matter?

Presence isn’t volume; it’s whether the room changes when you speak. Presence Check gives you a profile across calm under pressure, clarity, listening and visibility, with your strongest dimension and the one to grow. What executive presence really is covers the habits behind it.

How strong are your ties with peer leaders?

Your peers decide how far your team can get, often more than your boss does. Cross-Team Trust maps up to six peer teams as strong, mixed or at risk, with one repair move for the weakest, and how to rebuild trust with another team shows what to do next.

How much more change can your teams absorb?

Less than you think, and less each time a change is left half-done. Change Load shows your team’s load on a gauge and what to pause or finish first. What to do when there’s too much change at work has a worked example.

Do good people want to work for you?

Good people join leaders they’ve heard about. Talent Magnet scores growth, recognition, fairness and your reputation as a manager to work for, and how to keep your top performers covers the other side.

What can you do this week?

Start with 3 small habits that need no tool.

  • Ask one level further down. Pick 2 people who report to your managers and ask what slows them down. Listen more than you explain.
  • Check one peer relationship. Name the peer leader whose team yours depends on most. If you can’t recall your last honest conversation, book one.
  • Count your changes. List every change you have asked your teams to absorb this quarter. If the list surprises you, it will surprise them more.

For a picture of your own habits, The 42 Test is live, free and needs no sign-up.

Drafted with AI · coach review pending

From the Question Library

  1. How do you build trust between teams?Senior leaders · 9 min read
  2. How do you keep your top performers?Senior leaders · 9 min read
  3. How do you know there’s too much change at work?Senior leaders · 9 min read
  4. How far does emotional contagion at work spread?Senior leaders · 8 min read
  5. What is executive presence, and how do you get it?Senior leaders · 10 min read
  6. What does a bad manager cost a company?Senior leaders · 6 min read

Questions people ask

What is the difference between a manager of managers and a senior leader?
A manager of managers leads the people who run teams. A senior leader usually leads a whole function or several, sets direction across it and spends as much time with peer leaders as with their own reports.
Why do senior leaders get less honest feedback?
The more senior you are, the more people have a stake in how you see them. Small concerns get softened on the way up, so problems reach you late and smaller than they are.
Are the senior leader tests free?
Yes. All six are live, free and need no sign-up, and your answers stay in your browser. Two are calculators. Presence Check, Cross-Team Trust and Talent Magnet are built for others to rate you too; that mode is coming, and for now you rate yourself.

I let someone make a decision I’d have made differently.

Drafted with AI · coach review pending