The Shift That Changes Everything

Something happens in coaching sessions that I never get tired of witnessing.

A senior leader... 

accomplished, experienced, with a track record that genuinely speaks for itself... is walking me through how they answered a tough interview question. They replay it the way most leaders do. The situation. The challenge. The actions they took. The result they delivered.

Clean. Competent. Forgettable.

Then I ask a different question. 

"If you walked into that same situation tomorrow... different company, different team, different industry... what would you do? Walk me through your thinking."

I ask it that way deliberately. Because the moment I remove the specific story, the specific company, the specific year... they can no longer recite history. There is nothing left to recite. 

The only thing they can answer with is their method. The way they actually think. The sequence they always run. The pattern they have been repeating across every role, every challenge, every turnaround they have ever led. This is their Repeatable Success Strategy (RSS).

That is what I am looking for. Not the story of what happened once. The strategy that makes it repeatable.

And that one shift unlocks everything.

The Difference

They start talking differently. Slower at first, then faster. The words come from somewhere deeper. 

They describe how they read a room full of competing agendas, how they identify the real constraint hidden beneath the stated problem, and how they build alignment before they build anything else. 

They are not recounting a story anymore. They are describing a method.

And then, and this is the moment, they stop mid-sentence and say some version of the same thing I have heard hundreds of times in 35 years of coaching:

"I've been doing this my whole career. I just never had a name for it."

That is the shift. Not a correction. Not a revelation of something broken. A discovery of something powerful that was always there... and that just became promotable.

What You've Been Giving Away for Free

Most senior leaders in high-stakes interviews or promotion conversations answer using the STAR format. Situation. Task. Action. Result. They tell the story of what happened. The team they built, the turnaround they executed, the platform they scaled. All true. All impressive.

They tell a story of what happened.

And all of it says the same thing to the executive across the table: this person is a very good operator.

What gets you chosen at senior levels is not the story of what you did. It is the revelation of how you think. The method underneath the result. The pattern that runs through every role, every win, every crisis you have ever walked into and walked out of, stronger.

Instead of sharing their strategy to help move the organization forward.

That is your Repeatable Success Strategy. And most high performers have been running it on instinct for their entire career... without ever giving it a name. Without ever offering it as a solution.

Every time you answer in STAR and stop there, you leave the most valuable thing about you on the table. You leave the room wondering whether what you did once is something you can do again... when you could be showing them the framework that makes it repeatable, transferable, and worth betting on.

STAR Gets You Noticed. START Gets You Chosen.

In my Executive Interview Playbook, I draw a distinction between two kinds of leaders. The leader who answers STAR describes an operator. The leader who answers START reveals an executive.

Most people know STAR. 

It has been the gold standard of behavioral interviewing for decades, and it works well up to a point. Situation. Task. Action. Result. Clean, structured, credible. At the manager and director level, it is exactly what is needed.

But at the SVP, EVP, and C-Suite level, STAR quietly works against you. Not because it is wrong. Because it is built for the wrong altitude. Here is what I mean.

First, STAR is episodic, not repeatable. 

It tells one story about one time. It never shows that you have a method... so the interviewer is left wondering whether your success was skill or circumstance. Did you do that once, or do you do it every time?

Second, STAR is execution-only. 

Task and Action are nearly the same move. Both describe what you did. Which means your judgment... the competing priorities you weighed, the call only you could make, the strategic and financial consequences you held simultaneously... stays completely invisible. And judgment is the single thing that separates an executive from a strong operator.

Third, STAR is self-contained. 

It ends at Result and stops. The interviewer has to connect your story to their world on their own. Busy interviewers often don't. You have proven you did a thing. You have not shown them you can do their thing.

Fourth, STAR starts too small. 

It opens with a contained situation... a single event in your lane. But at the senior level, a real problem is almost never contained entirely within one unit. It bleeds into revenue, other functions, the board's commitments. STAR never names that ripple. And naming it... in your first breath... is itself an executive signal.

STAR keeps you answering and proving... reciting history, waiting for the next question. 

START

START moves you to thinking and connecting... demonstrating a repeatable method and showing the room you already understand where they are trying to go.

Here is what START actually looks like.

S... Situation and Challenge. 

You are not just setting a scene. You are framing a business issue. The challenge that lands on a senior executive's desk does not stay in one box. It ripples into revenue, other functions, the board's commitments. Name that blast radius briefly. Set the stage, then move on. You are signaling enterprise-level thinking before you have described a single action.

T... Trade-offs. 

This is the executive's slot. Before you acted, what were the competing priorities? The strategic, financial, and operational consequences you had to weigh simultaneously? What was the decisive call you made, and why that call over the others? This is where judgment lives. Not deliberation for its own sake... clarity under pressure. This one element is what STAR never has room for. And it is the element that tells the room: this person does not just execute. This person decides.

A... Approach and Strategic Action. 

Your plan. The sequenced steps you ran. How you aligned stakeholders, navigated conflicting goals and KPIs across departments, the milestones you built in. And critically: your Repeatable Success Strategy by name. This is where a war story becomes a methodology. Where 'here is what happened once' becomes 'here is how I think and move every time I face this kind of challenge.'

R... Result. 

Lead with the kind of value first, then the number. Increased production. Lower cost. Higher quality. Revenue growth. Then the whole-dollar figure. The result is the proof your method works... not just once, but consistently.

T... Tie-Back. 

This is where the executive fully emerges. You connect that result to their world. Their KPIs. Their growth agenda. The challenge they described in this conversation. But here is the technique most people miss: the Tie-Back is not a statement you recite. It is a reflective listening move.

Lead with what you heard, not what you want to say. 

Something like: 'What I am hearing is that scaling delivery without losing your top accounts is exactly the challenge here...' Then stop. Let the silence work. That reflection invites the interviewer in. They confirm, correct, or reveal what they actually care about. The conversation shifts. You are no longer a candidate answering questions. You are a leader already thinking alongside them.

The Difference

Let me show you the difference with a real example. Here is the same story told both ways.

STAR: '

I was asked to fix our delivery model. I restructured the team and renegotiated the vendor contracts. On-time delivery went up.'

START: 

'Our largest account... $56 million... was at risk because our delivery model could not scale. It was bleeding into sales, eroding the board's revenue commitment, and stretching operations past capacity. I had to weigh protecting near-term margin against the cost of rebuilding mid-contract, and I chose to rebuild. My approach was the same three-step reset I use for at-risk accounts: diagnose the failure points, realign delivery and sales around shared KPIs, then re-sequence the contract. We doubled the account to $112 million over three years. What I am hearing is that scaling delivery without losing your top accounts is exactly the challenge here... am I understanding the heart of your concern?'

The first answer says: this person executes what they are given.

The second answer says: this person thinks, decides, leads... and already understands us.

Same career. Same accomplishment. Two entirely different impressions in the room.

STAR answers the question 'What did you do?' START answers the one they are really asking: 'Can you do this for us?'

The RPD Radar: From Invisible to Inevitable

In my work with executives, I use a framework called the RPD Radar that maps the journey from high performer to obvious choice.

R... Radar. 

You cannot be chosen if you are not seen. Getting on the radar of decision-makers is not about self-promotion. It is about making your thinking visible in the rooms that matter. Contributing across enterprise lines, not just your function. Being the person whose perspective gets referenced after you leave.

P... Performance to Position. 

This is the pivot most high performers miss. Performance is what got you here. Positioning is what gets you to the next level. Positioning means framing your contributions not just as results... but as evidence of a repeatable strategic capability. You are not the person who grew revenue 40% last year. You are the person who knows how to find the lever that moves an organization forward. And you have done it before. More than once.

D... Distinction. 

Distinction is not volume. It is clarity. When the people evaluating you can describe what you do and why it works... after you have left the conversation... you have created distinction. That only happens when you have named your method and learned to offer it as a solution.

3 Moves to Claim Your Repeatable Success Strategy This Week

1. Find the through-line. 

Look at your last three roles. What problem did you solve in all three? What did people call you in for, regardless of your title? That is not coincidence. That is your Repeatable Success Strategy. Write it down as a method, not a list of accomplishments.

2. Add the Tie Back. 

Take a STAR story you tell often and add the fifth element. After the result, ask yourself: Why does my approach to this kind of challenge matter to the organization sitting across from me right now? That answer is the difference between a strong candidate and the obvious choice.

3. Practice the solution offer. 

The next time someone asks what you do, lead with this: "Here is the problem I solve, here is my method, and here is what changes because I am in the room." Say it until it sounds like a conversation, not a performance review. That is what it feels like to stop auditioning and start leading.

The Life You Carry This Into

I want to close with something beyond the interview room.

The voice that says 'I don't want to sound like I'm bragging' is the same voice that keeps people from naming their worth in every area of life. From asking for what they need. 

Naming your strategy is not arrogance. It is clarity. And clarity is an act of self-respect.

Napoleon Hill's Law of Cause and Effect holds that what we put out returns to us in kind. When you walk into a room still hoping someone connects the dots for you... that is what you get back. 

When you walk in owning your method, offering your solution, clear about what you bring and why it works... the room shifts. The conversation shifts. The outcome shifts.

You have been doing this your whole career.

You just needed to name it.

Your Invitation

If you are ready to find your Repeatable Success Strategy, build your RPD positioning, and walk into your next high-stakes conversation as the solution... not just another candidate... the Build Your Executive Edge Masterclass is where we do this work together.

The seat is not waiting for your track record. It is waiting for your method.

Come claim it.

Register Now: https://lcbgroup.krtra.com/t/XW0ugCeGwolF