IDEAS

The things nobody puts in the leadership handbook.

The things nobody puts in the leadership handbook.

How senior leaders think, communicate, make decisions, build trust and decide who is ready for more.

How senior leaders think, communicate, make decisions, build trust and decide who is ready for more.

The unwritten rules, mental models and operating principles that start to matter as your scope gets bigger.

START WITH THE SECOND SKILLSET →

START HERE

The Second Skillset

The Second Skillset

Doing excellent work gets you into the conversation.

The Second Skillset determines whether you are trusted with more.

JUDGMENT

Making strong decisions when there isn’t a playbook.

COMMUNICATION

Turning complexity into the information people actually need to make a decision.

INFLUENCE

Building alignment before authority becomes necessary.

PERCEPTION

Understanding how your decisions, communication and leadership are interpreted by the people determining your scope.

EXPLORE THE SECOND SKILLSET →

FEATURED

Ideas for operating at the next level.

Ideas for operating at the next level.

01

JUDGMENT

How senior leaders make decisions when there isn’t a clear right answer.

How senior leaders make decisions when there isn’t a clear right answer.

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02

MANAGING UP

What changes when your manager expects judgment, not just updates.

What changes when your manager expects judgment, not just updates.

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03

COMMUNICATION

How to turn a week’s worth of information into the five minutes leadership actually needs.

How to turn a week’s worth of information into the five minutes leadership actually needs.

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04

INFLUENCE

Why the meeting before the meeting often matters more than the meeting itself.

Why the meeting before the meeting often matters more than the meeting itself.

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05

PERCEPTION

The behaviors that quietly make senior leaders question whether you’re ready for more.

The behaviors that quietly make senior leaders question whether you’re ready for more.

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06

CAREER STRATEGY

How to build evidence, position your work and make the case for bigger scope.

How to build evidence, position your work and make the case for bigger scope.

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BROWSE BY TOPIC

Read by the part of the job you’re working on.

Read by the part of the job you’re working on.

01

Judgment

Making the call when there’s no clear right answer.

02

Managing Up

Giving your manager judgment, not just status.

03

Communication

Turning complexity into what people need to decide.

04

Influence

Building alignment before authority is required.

05

Perception

How your work and decisions get read by others.

06

Promotion Strategy

Building the evidence and the case for bigger scope.

07

Career Strategy

Deciding where to apply the effort.

08

Decision Making

Knowing which choices are reversible and which aren’t.

09

Leading Through Ambiguity

Operating well without a playbook.

10

Team Leadership

Building mechanisms that scale beyond you.

FROM INSTAGRAM

Start here.

Three ways to explore how I think about leadership.

01

HOW I OPERATE

5 AI Prompts I Run Before I Bring Anything Important to Executive Leadership as a Fortune 10 Senior Manager

5 AI Prompts I Run Before I Bring Anything Important to Executive Leadership as a Fortune 10 Senior Manager

The systems, practices, questions, AI use and decision-making approaches Anne actually uses operating at senior levels.

VIEW ON INSTAGRAM →

02

MIDDLE MANAGER VS SENIOR MANAGER

Middle Manager vs. Senior Manager: How to Manage Your Manager in 6 Common Situations

Middle Manager vs. Senior Manager: How to Manage Your Manager in 6 Common Situations

The same workplace situation viewed through different levels of judgment, interpretation and altitude.

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03

THE SECOND SKILLSET

5 Communication Habits That Make Highly Competent People Sound Less Senior

5 Communication Habits That Make Highly Competent People Sound Less Senior

Judgment, communication, influence and perception — the skills that become increasingly important as scope increases.

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MENTAL MODELS

The ideas I come back to again and again.

The ideas I come back to again and again.

Not rules. Reference points I check my thinking against.

01

Execution is the ticket to entry.

Execution is the ticket to entry.

02

The meeting before the meeting matters.

The meeting before the meeting matters.

03

Never let your boss be surprised by something their boss already knows.

Never let your boss be surprised by something their boss already knows.

04

One-way doors and two-way doors should not be treated the same.

One-way doors and two-way doors should not be treated the same.

05

Talk about the mechanism before the person.

Talk about the mechanism before the person.

06

Get to the fifth why.

Get to the fifth why.

07

Blame doesn’t scale. Mechanisms do.

Blame doesn’t scale. Mechanisms do.

08

Your work does not speak for itself.

Your work does not speak for itself.

09

Being needed is not the same as being senior.

Being needed is not the same as being senior.

10

The right people need to understand what the evidence says about your judgment.

The right people need to understand what the evidence says about your judgment.

THE LWS NEWSLETTER

The ideas I’d send you before your next leadership meeting.

The ideas I’d send you before your next leadership meeting.

A short piece most weeks on judgment, communication, influence and the decisions that come with a bigger scope. Written to be read before the meeting, not after.

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WORK WITH ANNE

Reading the ideas is one thing.

Applying them to your actual career is the work.

Reading the ideas is one thing.

Applying them to your actual career is the work.

When the gap is not effort but judgment, communication, influence or positioning, that is the work we do together.

WORK WITH ANNE →

You don’t need more generic career advice.

You need better ways to think about the decisions in front of you.

You don’t need more generic career advice.

You need better ways to think about the decisions in front of you.