Sébastien Louyot

I asked a friend, an Executive Vice President with a 3,000 person team, about lessons they learned from scaling to that size. Here is a powerful excerpt from their response: "There are always politics and they come in different shapes and sizes. For example, at [Company X], technical knowledge affected your credibility. I watched two VPs of Engineering washout and change roles because others thought poorly of their tech skills despite being very well credentialed. On the other hand, when I was at [Company Y], they couldn't care less about technical depth. They were much more focused on Finance skills, which is usually a huge blind spot for senior engineering execs. My current CEO at [Company Z] comes from a strategy consulting background, so problem decomposition and story telling about the solution are a huge part of the culture. The lesson here is that it is important to understand what's valued in the corporation so you can develop and demonstrate those skills. This will be specific to each company, so don't assume its the same everywhere." There are at least two powerful points in this excerpt. The first is that understanding corporate financials is an important part of being an executive. Most individual contributors do not need to understand them, but executives do. I had to go through my own financial learning curve as an executive in order to be able to understand and participate in important discussions. If you ultimately want a seat in the C-Suite, you need to start learning what your Finance team does. The second is that what is valued in an executive varies based on the culture of the company. All three companies he mentions are household names that you would know, but the language of influence and credibility was different at each one. Technical, financial, and communication skills all carried a unique weight at the different companies. So, here are the actionable lessons: 1. Start learning about Finance. It takes time, so start now. 2. Figure out the "currency" of your company’s culture. Is it Finance? Tech? Analysis? Learn to speak the native language of your company leadership! 3. Be flexible in how you approach other leaders. My mental model for this is "it does not matter what I want to say, it matters what they can hear." You have to meet them where they are and build from that point of connection. Readers- does this resonate with you? What is the “currency” in your current company?