From VP to CXO: How to Lead with Impact

You’ve earned your seat in the C-suite. But what comes next isn’t a continuation of your VP playbook—it’s an entirely different game.

As a functional leader, success was clear: drive pipeline, execute campaigns, hit retention targets. Now, as a CXO, your job is enterprise alignment. You’re expected to unify go-to-market strategy, guide cross-functional outcomes, communicate at the board level, and shape the future of the business—all while proving you belong.

The shift isn’t just about more responsibility—it’s about thinking, operating, and leading in fundamentally new ways.

The Real Difference Between VP and CXO

One of the fastest ways to see the leap is to compare the role side-by-side:

As a VP, your influence was strong inside your function. As a CXO, your decisions ripple across the business—and you own the outcomes.

Four Core Shifts Every New CXO Must Make

Stepping into the role isn’t about scaling what you did before. It’s about making four deliberate changes:

1. From Executor to Architect
   Your value is no longer in doing the work—it’s in designing the systems others can execute within.
   Example: Building a scalable onboarding program instead of running every new-hire training yourself.
   

2. From Owning a Function to Orchestrating Outcomes
   Revenue is no longer Sales’ job alone—it’s a shared GTM responsibility. Your job is to align Sales, Marketing, CS, Product, and RevOps around a common mission.
   

3. From Deep Work to Narrative Work
   You’re now narrating the business, not just running it. That means telling a clear story in executive forums and translating strategy into concise, compelling messages.
   

4. From “In the Work” to “Above the Business”
   You can’t be in every meeting. Dashboards, OKRs, and strategy reviews become your levers for driving performance without micromanaging.
   

Your first 90 days are the runway that sets the tone for your entire tenure. Pavilion’s 30-60-90 Day CXO Guide includes role-specific plans for CROs, CMOs, CCOs, and RevOps leaders—plus templates for dashboards, QBR cadences, and pipeline reviews.

Download the function-specific guides here to start strong.

The First 90 Days: It’s About Clarity, Not Just Activity

One of the biggest mistakes new CXOs make is equating motion with progress—filling calendars, jumping into every deal review, and chasing every KPI.

The most effective leaders use their first 90 days to:

• Diagnose reality — understand how the business truly operates
  

• Align peers — get every GTM leader working toward the same definition of success
  

• Build trust through early wins — by enabling the right outcomes to happen without you in the room
  

A strong operating rhythm, cross-functional accountabilities, and a concise narrative for the CEO and board set the foundation for long-term impact.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Even high-performing VPs stumble when they don’t adapt quickly enough. The three most common traps:

• Doing the job you had instead of the one you have
  

• Over-indexing on tactics while under-communicating strategy
  

• Becoming isolated from peer and CEO feedback
  

The leaders who succeed early are the ones who delegate fast, establish a visible strategy, and invest in relationships with peers from day one.

Build Influence, Not Just Strategy

At the C-level, trust is built through pattern recognition, strategic clarity, and how well you navigate ambiguity with others in mind.

That means:

• Asking peers what they need from your org to be successful
  

• Presenting updates in the CEO’s language—outcomes, not activity
  

• Tying board conversations to levers, risks, and scenarios
  

Influence is your ultimate force multiplier. It earns you the benefit of the doubt, clears the path for priorities, and cements your credibility.

Your Ongoing Playbook

The first quarter is only the beginning. The leaders who grow into strategic partners for the CEO and board have systems to:

• Maintain cross-functional alignment
  

• Track the right enterprise-level KPIs
  

• Communicate in a board-ready format
  

• Map and strengthen stakeholder relationships
  

Pavilion’s CXO Resource Kit includes board deck templates, stakeholder alignment tools, OKR frameworks, and a self-assessment to identify your leadership leverage points.

Access the full resource kit here to continue building momentum past day 90.