Starting a new executive role is high-stakes. You have 90 days to prove your value, navigate office politics, and set a strategic vision—all while learning a new culture from scratch.

In this live coaching session, I work with "Paul," a newly hired Senior VP of HR at a 5,000-person company. He is stepping into a 100-year-old organization that is successful but stuck in its ways.

In Part 1 of this 2-part series, we break down the Preparation Phase. We discuss how to decode the hidden motivations of the C-Suite and how to build a 30-60-90 Day Plan that establishes immediate credibility.

In this episode, you will learn:

-The Key Objective: The #1 thing you need to do to ensure that the company, and the team, are glad they hired / promoted you.

-A 30-60-90 Framework you can follow to guide the expectations you set and achieve that makes it manageable and successful

-The "Tenure Trap": How to respect the history of a company without letting it kill innovation .

Resources:

-Join the Conversation: Join our Leadership Mindset 2.0 community on LinkedIn or Facebook

-Get Live Coaching: Move from listening to doing inside the Growth Leaders Collective. Start your $1 trial at RMichaelAnderson.com/GLC

Mentioned in this episode:

Join the Executive Coaching Certification here

Executive Coaching Certification - 2026

When top-tier executives come to me for coaching, their #1 request is always the same: "I want to know where my blind spots are." They know that the things holding them back aren't their obvious weaknesses—they are the invisible patterns they have accepted as "normal."

Finding those blind spots requires you to challenge your current thinking.

In this short, experimental episode, I am not giving you a framework or a 5-step process. Instead, I am going to ask you 11 "What If" questions.

These questions are designed to bypass your ego and force you to look at how you handle conflict, intuition, power, and ownership.

In this episode, we explore:

-The Intuition Gap: Why you are ignoring that gut feeling about the person in the wrong role—and what it is costing you .

-The Power of Apology: What if you apologized to fix a broken relationship, even if you aren't sure it was your fault?

-The "Nice Leader" Syndrome: Why holding back your passion and frustration is actually a disservice to a team that needs to be woken up .

-The Ownership Reality: What happens when you stop blaming your industry, your boss, or your team, and take 100% ownership of exactly where you are today?

💪 The Challenge for This Week: Don't just listen to this on 1.5x speed.

Listen to the 11 questions.

When one hits you in the gut, hit pause.

Take one immediate action—send a text, schedule a meeting, or put a task on your calendar to address it.

Resources

-Join the Conversation: Join our Leadership Mindset 2.0 community on LinkedIn or Facebook

-Get Live Coaching: Move from listening to doing inside the Growth Leaders Collective. Start your $1 trial at RMichaelAnderson.com/GLC

Whether you are a professional coach, a consultant, an HR leader, or simply a manager trying to influence the C-suite, you need to know how to interact with people at the highest levels of an organization .

Many talented professionals hold themselves back from these conversations. They assume they need more credentials or a better "model." But high-level leaders do not care about your certifications. And if you try to use standard behavioral tactics with them, they will show you the door.

In this special live Masterclass recording, we dive deep into the psychology of interacting with top-tier executives . You will learn exactly what C-suite leaders are actually looking for in an advisor, and how to position yourself to earn their trust.

In this episode, you will learn:

-The "Executive Mask": Why CEOs build armor to survive, the 3 types of masks they wear (Competence, Resilience, Control), and why your ability to break through it dictates your influence.

-The Behavioral Trap: Why standard frameworks (like asking, "What are your goals?") fail with executives, and why you must learn to coach their identity, not just their behavior .

-The 3 Keys to High-Level Influence: How to develop the Credibility to get in the room, the Tools to break the mask, and the Presence to tell a $2 billion CEO the unvarnished truth .

-Live Coaching: Listen as I challenge "Bob," a consultant, to stop accepting meetings at the bottom of the ladder and start demanding time with the CEO .

Resources

-Questions on this? Ask me in the Leadership Mindset 2.0 community on LinkedIn or Facebook

-want to coach c-level leaders confidently? Sign up here