Latest / Executive Careers with Fexingo: VP, C-Suite, and Senior Leadership Career Strategy / How Senior Leaders Map Hidden Power Centers Before a Move
Transcript
- Lucas: You're a VP of Sales at a mid-market tech firm. A recruiter calls you about a Chief Revenue Officer role at a larger company. The money's right, the title's right, the board seems impressed. But before you say yes, how do you really know who runs the place? Luna: That's the million-dollar question, isn't it? The org chart only tells you so much. I've seen people take a great title and then get steamrolled because they didn't see the real power structure coming. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where organizational network analysis — ONA — becomes a game-changer for senior leaders. Look, we don't run ads on these shows. If you've ever gotten value from one of these episodes and want to keep it ad-free, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep the content independent. Anyway — back to ONA. Luna: Right. So how does a senior leader actually do that before they're even in the door? Lucas: It starts with a systematic approach. I talked to a VP of Sales last year — let's call her Sarah — who was considering a CRO role at a company three times her current firm's size. The formal org chart showed a clear chain of command. But Sarah did something extra: she spent two weeks before the final interview mapping the informal influence network. Luna: How did she map it without being an insider? Lucas: She used her network. She found former colleagues who worked with people at the target company. She also checked LinkedIn to see who was central in discussions, who was connected to whom. She asked each contact: 'If a big strategic decision needs to happen here, whose buy-in actually matters?' The pattern emerged quickly: three names kept coming up — none of them senior VPs. Luna: So the real power was with people below the C-suite. That's classic. And then she factored that into her decision? Lucas: Exactly. She realized that to be effective, she'd need to build relationships with those three influencers before she even started. In fact, she added a 'listening session' request into her pre-offer process — she asked to speak with a few cross-functional leaders as part of her diligence. Two of the three were on that list. Luna: So she used the listening tour strategy we covered a few episodes back, but with an ONA lens. Smart. Lucas: Exactly. And it paid off. She got the offer, negotiated a 90-day onboarding period that included structured meetings with those influencers, and within six months she had already driven a major pricing change that had stalled for two years. Luna: That's remarkable. So the ONA gave her a roadmap of who to recruit as allies before day one. But is this something only a few top executives do, or is it becoming expected? Lucas: It's quickly becoming table stakes. I've seen search firms start to informally advise candidates to do this. And boards are more aware of it too. A recent survey of Fortune 500 CHROs I saw — and I'll paraphrase — found that nearly 60 percent of them believe a candidate's ability to assess organizational culture and politics is a top differentiator for C-suite roles. ONA is one concrete way to do that. Luna: But not everyone has Sarah's network. For someone earlier in their senior leadership journey, how would you start? Lucas: You can start with LinkedIn data. Look at who comments on the CEO's posts, who gets tagged in strategic announcements. Tools like OrgMapper or even a simple spreadsheet can track connections. The key is to ask specific questions: Who does the current leadership team turn to for advice? Who gets mentioned in quarterly earnings calls as a 'key contributor'? Those are often the informal power centers. Luna: And what about red flags? If you do an ONA and find that all the influence flows through someone who's known as a blocker or a political operator, does that become a deal-breaker? Lucas: It should at least be a yellow flag. I talked to a software engineering SVP who mapped a potential CTO role and discovered that the real technical authority resided not in the CTO but in a senior principal engineer who had been passed over for promotion. That principal engineer had a reputation for sandbagging new initiatives. The SVP ultimately turned down the role because he felt he'd be set up to fail. Luna: Wow. So the ONA directly prevented a bad move. That's a powerful return on a few hours of work. Lucas: Absolutely. And it works both ways. Sometimes you find that the hidden power center is actually a great ally that you hadn't considered. I know a marketing executive who mapped her target company and discovered that the VP of Customer Success — who wasn't even in the interview loop — had massive influence over product decisions. She made a point to connect with that person ahead of her final interview. She got the job and the relationship was critical. Luna: So it's about gathering intelligence, not just for the interview but for the first 90 days. What's the one piece of advice you'd give a senior leader listening who's about to go through a major transition? Lucas: Don't trust the org chart. Spend 10 percent of your job search time on ONA. Create a simple map: list every person you can identify in the target organization's leadership and key cross-functional roles. Then, for each, note who they rely on, who they conflict with, and who they report to informally. You'll see patterns that no recruiter will tell you. Luna: And that map becomes a tool not just for getting the offer, but for succeeding once you're in. Love it. Lucas: Exactly. Because the real work of leadership is not on the org chart — it's in the network of influence and trust you build. ONA just makes the invisible visible.