Two doors. One window.

Hi there!

Last week we covered why the calls have gone quiet at Head and Director level. Two thirds of the market is having a conversation you are not in.

This week, where that conversation actually happens. And the four moves you run to be in it.

The signal

There are two doors and a window into a senior role. Most senior leaders spend their time on the doors. The work is at the window.

The front door is Seek and LinkedIn Jobs. About 30% of Head and Director roles are filled this way, and you're competing with everyone else who's also applying.

The back door is the old boys' network. It's closed unless you've spent the last decade keeping it warm.

The window is the 70%. The conversations that happen before the role is advertised. By the time the ad runs, the hire is substantially decided.

You don't need a new door. You need to stop knocking on the doors and start working the window.

The pattern

The system is four moves. Thirty days. Five focused hours a week.

1. Position. Decide what you want to be known for. One sentence, specific enough that the right people can repeat it back to you accurately.
2. Signal. Make it visible. Your LinkedIn must read level, scope, and impact in six seconds. Resume rebuilt to match.
3. Target. 20 organisations, 80 named decision-makers, one-page intelligence on each.
4. Relationships. Peer-level outreach. Real conversations. In-person where you can.

Most senior leaders try one or two of these and call it a job search. The market doesn't read one or two moves. It reads all four.

Skip Position and your Signal lands on the wrong audience. Skip Target and your Relationships are random. Skip Relationships and your Position is just a thought in your head.

Run all four, for thirty days, and the conversations show up. That is the system.

The prompt

Of the four moves, which one have you done the least of in the last six months?

Position. Signal. Target. Relationships.

Most senior leaders honestly answer Target or Relationships the first time they look. Position and Signal are the moves people work on alone. Target and Relationships are the ones that feel uncomfortable, so they get skipped.

The skipped ones are the ones doing the work.

The window

This week, build the first ten of your twenty.

Write down ten companies you'd most want to work for in eighteen months. Not the ones hiring right now. The ones you'd want a seat at if a Director-level role opened in a year.

Next to each one, write the name of one person already working there at your level or one above. Head of, Director, GM. Not the CEO. Not the recruiter. The peer whose seat is closest to the seat you want.

That's the start of your Target move. Ten companies, ten peers. The Relationships move runs from there.

You don't have to message anyone yet. You need to know who you'd message if you did.

The next step

Want to know how your Position and Signal are reading to the people on that list right now?

Get my Positioning Report · $0 · 3 Minutes

It's a personalised read of your LinkedIn profiel against the four moves. Position, Signal, Target, Relationships. You'll see where your profile is strong, where the gap is, and the order to fix things in.

Most senior leaders read it and know the next move inside the first page.

See you next Thursday!

Stop Applying. Get Approached.

Cheraine

P.S. If the four-move framing fits where you are, hit reply and tell me which one you've been skipping. I read every reply, because the answers tell me what to write next.