How This Works
This brief connects the demands of a senior, executive, or CEO-level role to the competencies that determine effectiveness in it. Complete the sections in order. What you generate here is a starting point for a coaching conversation, not a conclusion.
Say whether you are the leader or backing one, and name the role.
Place all 32 competencies into Critical Now, Important, or Watch.
Assess current strength on the 16 competencies that matter most.
See the gap, the questions worth asking, and what to watch for.
Submit to your coach and use the brief to structure the conversation.
1. Who You Are and the Role in View
Start by identifying your perspective. This shapes how the brief is written and how the coaching questions are framed.
Leave blank if this brief is about your current role.
2. Demands of the Enterprise Role
Enter what the role actually requires at the enterprise level. Score each demand for stakes, urgency, and unfamiliarity. The highest-demand items should guide how you sort the competencies.
How much rides on getting this right, in enterprise results, credibility, board confidence, or risk.
How soon this needs to be handled well for the enterprise to stay on track.
How much this asks of the leader that has not been tested at this scope before.
3. Sort: What This Enterprise Role Requires
This pass is about the role, not the person. Sort every competency by how much the role demands it, setting aside current strength. The limits are deliberate. They force real tradeoffs.
Every card has three buttons at the bottom. Click Critical Now, Important, or Watch to place it. Your choice is marked with a check. Click a different button any time to move it.
You can also drag a card into a stack, drag it between stacks, or drag it back to the library to reconsider.
Without these, this leader will struggle in this role in the current horizon. Non-negotiable.
These matter to the role and will need attention, but they are not the first constraint.
Valuable at this level generally, but not what this role is asking for right now.
Critical Now
0 / 6Required for effectiveness in this role.
Important
0 / 10Matters, but not the first constraint.
Watch
0 / 16Not what this role is asking now.
Competency Library
32Unsorted cards live here. Use Details to see the definition and what strong looks like at the enterprise level.
4. Rate: Where This Stands Today
Complete the sort in section 3 first. The 16 competencies placed in Critical Now and Important will appear here.
Now assess current strength honestly on the 16 competencies the role requires most. Rate current strength, not potential. The gap between what the role requires and where this stands today is the substance of the debrief.
Little experience here, or a known point of exposure under pressure.
Handled reliably in familiar conditions but not yet tested at this scope.
Others would name this as a strength others can rely on.
5. The Executive Brief
This is a starting point, deliberately, not a conclusion. Full detail (what strong looks like at the enterprise level, coaching questions, an enterprise stretch to discuss, and a derailer to watch) appears below once the sort and self-rating are complete.
Enterprise Demand Snapshot
Where Attention Concentrates
Bring This to Your Coaching Debrief
A sort captures one view at one moment, and self-ratings carry blind spots by design, especially at the top, where fewer people volunteer honest feedback. The questions above are meant to be explored out loud, not answered alone. Submit this brief to your coach, and use it to structure the conversation rather than to replace it.