One room at a time
Most loops are three to five sessions.
A session here is one conversation, a screening call, hiring manager, or peer panel. Add a session for each.
How to prepare for each session
Think in terms of audience. The search committee, the hiring manager, senior leadership, future peers, direct reports, HR. Each room is asking a different question underneath the surface question. Tune the takeaways and the questions you ask back to who is in front of you.
When a question lands sideways, fall back on a structure you can trust.
Frame
What is this question really about at a strategic level?
Risks
The real pressures, tradeoffs, and failure points.
Approach
What you would do, and why in that sequence.
Story
Ground the answer in a specific example with a concrete outcome.
Not a script. A structure to trust when the room gets quiet. The four beats explained in full →
1Session title
Who is in the room, and what you want each person to take away.
| Who is in the room | What I want them to take away |
|---|---|
Questions you want to ask this group.
See a fully-written session
- Title
- Search committee, board representatives plus chief of staff
- Who · takeaway
- Board chair. That I am calm under regulatory scrutiny and treat governance as a feature, not friction.
- Who · takeaway
- Chief of staff. That I will be a partner who tells her what is actually happening, not a curated version.
- Question back
- What is the board most worried about that the public posture does not yet acknowledge?
- Question back
- Where would you want this role to be visibly different in eighteen months, and where would you want it to look unchanged?
Questions they might ask you.
Anticipate their questionsList the questions this group is likely to ask. You won't get them all, and that's why you also practice cold. Tag each with a theme, and its stance follows.
The question you hope they don't ask
Write it down once, here. Naming it takes the sting out, and makes it something you can actually prepare.
Writing anticipated questions makes them concrete. Use the cold open to face one unprepared, then plan your response in Compose.
★
Before you walk in
One gratitude · One intentionGratitude
One thing you're grateful for as you walk in. It helps you steady yourself.
Intention
Who you intend to be in the room, named before you walk in.