…get important things done, number one.
I often get asked what separates the VPs who progress into executive leadership from those who plateau.
The answer is rarely intelligence, experience or technical expertise.
The VPs who thrive understand that their job is no longer to be the best functional expert in the room. Their job is to create outcomes through other people, influence decisions beyond their authority and help the business succeed as a whole.
When I look at the most effective VPs, I’ve created 10 principles for professional success.
1. Get important things done
Many VPs are busy. Fewer are effective. Your value is not measured by the number of meetings you attend or initiatives you start. It is measured by your ability to move the handful of things that matter most to the business.
2. Seek out truth and reality
Weak leaders protect stories. Strong leaders surface facts. You need to know what customers are really saying, what is actually happening in your team and where the risks sit. The higher you rise, the more people will try to protect you from uncomfortable truths. Your job is to go looking for them.
3. Only take on what you can successfully complete
One of the quickest ways to damage your reputation is to overcommit. Every promise you make creates an expectation. Every missed commitment reduces trust. Great VPs are ambitious, but they are also realistic about capacity, resources and timing.
4. Understand how the company makes money
This sounds obvious, but many leaders operate as functional specialists long after becoming senior executives.
- A VP of Product needs to understand sales economics.
- A VP of Marketing needs to understand retention.
- A VP of Engineering needs to understand customer acquisition costs.
The best VPs think like business leaders first and functional leaders second.
5. Understand how your function contributes to that success
Every team exists to create value somewhere in the system. If you cannot clearly explain how your team helps the company grow revenue, improve profitability, retain customers or create strategic advantage, you may be running activity rather than outcomes—and that makes you vulnerable when re-orgs happen.
6. Do things to increase your capacity to contribute to your company’s success
Many leaders reach VP level because they are exceptional individual contributors. They stay at VP level because they continue behaving like one.
Your value is no longer measured by what you personally produce. It is measured by what your team, your peers and the wider organisation achieve because of your leadership. That means building stronger teams, developing successors, improving decision-making, creating clarity and removing obstacles.
The question to ask yourself is simple: “How can I create ten times more value without working ten times harder?”
The answer is rarely found in doing more yourself. It is usually found in enabling others to perform at a higher level.
7. Maintain a positive value account with the organisation
Every leader has a reputation balance sheet. Do you create more value than you consume? Do colleagues leave conversations with greater clarity, confidence and momentum? Or do you create friction, complexity and politics? The best VPs build goodwill long before they need it.
8. Always do what you say you will do
Trust is built through consistency. People remember whether you followed through. Your peers remember. Your CEO remembers. Your team remembers. Reliability sounds boring, but it remains one of the most powerful career advantages available.
9. Build strong working relationships across the business
At VP level, success becomes increasingly cross-functional. Most strategic priorities sit between departments, not within them. The ability to build trust with peers, solve problems together and navigate competing priorities often matters more than your technical expertise.
10. Create a portfolio of successes
Your career is built on evidence:
- Successful product launches.
- Strong hires.
- Turnarounds.
- Growth initiatives.
- Strategic projects.
The leaders who progress are rarely the ones with the strongest opinions, thankfully, they are the ones with a track record of delivering meaningful outcomes.
Ultimately, that is the job of a VP. To help the company succeed, not just your department. To think beyond your function, to build trust across the organisation, and to repeatedly turn strategy into results.
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