Perspectives on deep thinking under pressure for L7-L9 leaders (using Meta/Google terminology, which translates to Principle, Director, VP in most other companies. Please see levels.fyi for translation.)
This publication is focused on the gap between the thinking you already have and the thinking that you communicate out.
Experienced leaders do not have a skill problem, but they might have a thinking problem.
The work that got you to principal or director will not, on its own, get you to the next level. It will not, on its own, get you through a L7-L9 interview loop either.
You have shipped the work. You have led the teams. You do not need another framework. The thing being asked of you at the next level is the thinking under the frameworks, and frameworks were never going to teach it.
Thinking, not frameworks. That is the anchor for this publication.
The same kind of thinking shows up in different situations.
A skip-level 1:1 where the way you frame the conversation in the first 30 seconds decides what the next 30 minutes are about.
A performance cycle where the case for your level either gets made clearly or gets made in pieces that other people have perceived about you.
The first 90 days at a new company, when the real problem is rarely the one you were hired to solve.
A high-stakes interview loop, where the way you practice thinking now is the same way you will think when you walk into a C-suite review months from now.
A decision where AI gives you a draft that is almost right and wrong on the judgment underneath, and you have to know the difference.
It is the same kind of thinking, just different situations.
Here’s a recent client moment captures this gap between the thinking and the speaking: they came into our first session and told me they had just gotten through an executive review. The decision had landed where they wanted it to land. On the surface, the meeting went well. What they could not stop thinking about was one moment where the CEO had asked a question, and they had answered it tactically when they should have answered it strategically. The work was right. The thinking that came out of their mouth was a half-step behind the thinking they actually had. They knew it. Their CEO almost certainly did not.
That is the gap this publication is goal’d to help you close, so the thinking you already have shows up in the rooms where the outcome is decided.
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About me
Hi, I’m Nancy Chu. We coach senior leaders into the next tier of their career with $900K TC. Our clients have landed offers from Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta, Google, Amazon, Stripe, Netflix, Coinbase, and similar. The wins they care about most aren’t the offers; they’re the shift in how they think and how they communicate anytime, anywhere.
If that’s what you’re looking for, you’re in the right place.
