Distinction Wins: Performers Apply. Executives are Chosen.

Author: Susan H Robertson

“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.” Peter Drucker

When I think about this quote, I think about how leaders show up—especially in interview rooms.

Are you positioning yourself as a commander, someone ready to think, lead, and operate at the enterprise level?  Or are you showing up as a soldier, a strong executor, tactical, loyal, and safe?

That difference in positioning is often the silent dealbreaker.

In today’s AI-saturated, competitive job market, where 911,000 jobs were recently erased on paper (Investopedia), and 70% of résumés are screened out by AI before a human sees them (Huntr).  The bar for executive roles is higher than ever.

What sets people apart isn’t just what they’ve done. It’s how they show up, what they signal, and how clearly they articulate their strategic value.

This is where your Executive Edge comes in.

Your Executive Edge is not built on tasks or titles; it’s built on influence, presence, and clarity. And it’s how high performers move from “great at what they do” to “the obvious choice” for SVP, EVP, and C-level roles.

1. Performance Gets You the Interview. Perceived Executive Potential Gets You the Offer.

If you're already getting interviews, it's because you’ve delivered results. But performance is just the ticket to the game. It’s not the game itself.

To win the offer, you need to shift from proving your performance to demonstrating your promotability.

Recruiters and decision-makers are listening for indicators like:

• Enterprise thinking

• Composure under pressure

• Strategic pattern recognition

• Influence beyond your team

If your stories don’t project these traits, you’ll blend in with the other 25+ applicants they interviewed this month (Huntr, Q2 2025).

This is where the 5Qs of Executive Intelligence become your differentiator.

2. Interview to Demonstrate Your Executive Edge Through the 5Qs

The most promotable leaders don’t just share results—they model how they think, lead, and influence.

Here’s how to activate each of the 5Qs in a high-stakes interview—and why each one earns trust, credibility, and confidence.

1. Business Intelligence (BiQ)

Definition: Business Intelligence is your ability to understand how value is created across the enterprise. It’s about commercial acumen, financial insight, and how your decisions impact the bottom line.

Do you think like an executive leader, or as a leader of a function or business unit?

“When supply chain volatility threatened our margins in LATAM, I worked with finance, pricing, and operations to redesign our contract terms—resulting in a 6-point improvement in bottom-line margin within two quarters.”

Confidence Signal: You speak the language of business, not just operations.

2. Strategic / Intellectual Intelligence (SiQ)

Definition: Strategic Intelligence reflects your ability to think long-term, see patterns others miss, and shape direction amid complexity. It's not just intellect, it’s strategic foresight.

Can you think beyond the urgent and see the unseen patterns others miss?

“Post-acquisition, integration stalled. I reframed the strategy around shared value creation. That led to two new joint initiatives that generated $40M in new revenue.”

Confidence Signal: You don’t just solve problems. You solve the right problems.

3. Executive Emotional Intelligence (EEiQ)

Definition: EEiQ is the ability to lead yourself and others through ambiguity, politics, and pressure. It’s about trust, perception, and being the calm in the storm.

Do you bring strategic calm, political agility, and influence under pressure?

“When tension escalated between sales and operations, I paused joint meetings and met with each VP to listen—not solve. That reset expectations and shifted the narrative from opposition to partnership.”

Confidence Signal: You are trusted in the storm, not just the sunshine.

4. Leadership Intelligence (LiQ)

Definition: Leadership Intelligence measures how effectively you inspire, empower, and elevate others, especially other leaders. It's how you build culture, trust, and long-term capability.

Are you seen as a leader of leaders—not just a high-functioning team manager?

“Three of my directs were promoted to VP last year. I built a development framework that’s now adopted region-wide to accelerate succession and deepen our bench.”

Confidence Signal: You’re not the hero. You build heroes.

5. Learning Intelligence (LeQ)

Definition: Learning Intelligence is your adaptability. It reflects how fast you grow, how well you take feedback, and whether you're improving at the rate complexity demands.

Are you evolving faster than the complexity around you?

“After receiving feedback that I was too operational in board meetings, I partnered with a coach and began distilling my updates into three strategic insights. It’s changed how I show up with senior stakeholders.”

Confidence Signal: You’re coachable, adaptable, and constantly leveling up.

3. Craft a Distinct Career Story That Signals Executive Readiness

McKinsey’s research confirms: the best CEOs and leaders shape the conversation; they don’t just answer questions.

To stand out, your career story must reflect more than what you’ve done. It should signal how you lead, what frameworks you use to win, and what unique value you bring to the business.

Here’s how to position yourself powerfully, using the three-part Executive Edge Formula:

1. Narrative – This is your concise leadership positioning statement. It ties your experience to your identity and showcases how you think, lead, and operate under pressure. It’s not a résumé summary—it’s a compelling story that says: “This is who I am, and here’s why I matter now.”

2. Repeatable Success Methodology – This is the framework or leadership approach you consistently apply to drive results. It shows your success isn’t accidental—it’s transferable. Great executives don’t just perform. They replicate performance through systems and scalable thinking.

3. Unique Value Proposition (UVP) – This is a one-line articulation of who you help, what you help them achieve, and how. It’s your executive brand distilled into a sentence. A clear UVP cuts through the noise and enables decision-makers to recall what makes you distinct.

Together, this trifecta of your narrative, methodology, and UVP creates a powerful perception: that you're not just capable of the job… you're already operating at that level. Can you make an infographic for this Executive Edge Formula for creating distinct

90-Second Narrative Examples.

“I’m a transformational leader who scales growth, aligns teams, and shapes strategy in moments of ambiguity. I’ve led businesses exceeding $300M, integrated acquisitions, and built VP pipelines. But the real value I bring is how I align vision with results and lead with clarity under pressure.”

🔁 Repeatable Success Methodology

“My leadership playbook focuses on three stages: align the team on purpose, build high-trust rhythms, and install a performance dashboard that ties effort to enterprise results. I’ve used this framework to lead turnarounds in three divisions across two regions.”

💎 Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

“I help underperforming or siloed business units accelerate results and alignment by building high-accountability, high-trust leadership teams. I lead with clarity, connection, and culture transformation that sticks.”

Your narrative, repeatable methodology, and UVP create a powerful perception: that you're not just capable of the job… you're already operating at that level.

4. Final Tips for Building Your Executive Edge

• Audit Your Brand: What do people really say about you when you leave the room

• Clarify Your UVP: Use the formula: I help [who] achieve [what] through [how].

• Reframe Your Interview Prep: Don’t just prepare to answer. Prepare to signal leadership altitude. 

• Use the ABC Reframing Model: Notice old beliefs (“I’m not ready yet”) and reframe them (“This role needs exactly what I bring now”). 

• Make One Bold Micro-Move This Week: Speak up in a senior meeting, post a strategic POV, or reach out to a sponsor.

You Don’t Just Belong in the Room. You Lead in the Room.

This isn’t just about getting the job. It’s about embodying the executive identity you’ve already earned through years of results, reinvention, and leadership.

Want to sharpen your Executive Edge and close the gap between high performance and high promotability?

Join me in the Executive Edge Masterclass, where I will give you the tools to rise with clarity, composure, and distinction.