Hi {{ subscriber.first_name }}, Before we jump in, we still have a few seats available for our next CEO roundtable in London on March 24th (private dinner). If you're a CEO of a mid-market company and interested in joining a candid conversation with other CEOs, reply with "ROUNDTABLE" and I'll share the details. And now... let's talk about the Lane Trap. The Lane Trap Here's a pattern I see constantly working with CEOs and Executives: Someone sharp, proven, respected gets offered a role outside their functional expertise. And they turn it down. Not because they can't do it. Because their identity is welded to the thing they've always been known for. The finance leader who won't touch operations. The commercial head who won't step into product. The CTO who won't lead a P&L. They call it "staying in my lane." I call it the Lane Trap. And it's one of the most expensive mistakes a high-performing leader can make. The real risk At a certain level, organisations don't need narrower expertise. They need leaders who can integrate. Product, operations, technology, culture: these don't run as separate systems anymore. The leaders who can't move across them become bottlenecks, no matter how brilliant they are inside their own domain. I've watched this play out dozens of times. A leader builds deep credibility in one function, gets promoted, and spends the next three years defending their territory instead of expanding their impact. Their team stays strong. Their influence stays flat. And eventually, the organisation grows around them. The irony is that the thing they think protects them - their expertise - is the thing that's limiting them. What the best leaders do differently I sat down recently with Cameron Drinkwater, Chief Product and Operations Officer at S&P Dow Jones Indices, for an episode of The World Class Leaders Show. Cameron's career is a masterclass in what I'm describing. She was CFO. Loved the role. Had a 360-degree view of the entire business. But she started developing conviction about where the industry was heading, and realised she couldn't act on it from the finance seat. She needed to be closer to where value is created. So she moved into product and operations. A completely different function. Leading 500 people. And she did it using a framework I think every senior leader should steal: stretch your function or your domain — but never both at the same time. When Cameron was CFO, the domain was new but the function was familiar. Once she'd learned the business, she could stretch into a new function while standing on domain expertise. Sequenced. Intentional. Not reckless — strategic. Why most leaders won't do this Because it requires something deeply uncomfortable: showing up as a non-expert. Cameron was honest about this. She comes into every new role with humility, openly acknowledging what she brings and where she'll need to lean on the team. She identifies who's receptive, who holds the institutional knowledge, and she builds trust with those people first before trying to drive change. That tracks with everything I've observed working with CEOs. The leaders who fake expertise get compliance. The leaders who name their gaps get commitment. And commitment is what compounds. There's something else Cameron said that stuck with me. Early in her career, a mentor told her: "The easiest job someone will offer you is a job that looks just like the one you did before. Don't take it. It's just double-checking the same box on your CV." Most leaders play it safe and stack the same credential over and over. The ones who end up running the whole organisation are the ones who sequence risk intelligently building range without losing credibility. Your question this week Where might staying excellent in your current role be limiting the impact you could have elsewhere in the system? The Lane Trap feels safe. It protects your reputation. But it caps your influence at the exact moment the organisation needs you to expand it. The best leaders don't just go deeper. They go wider. And they do it before it's comfortable. Full conversation with Cameron Drinkwater: 🎧 Watch on YouTube Andrea Petrone The CEO Whisperer - CEO Coach and Strategic Advisor - Keynote Speaker - Author One more thing. If you're a CEO navigating a transition right now — new role, bigger scope, unfamiliar territory — that's exactly what my Transformation Labs are built for. Reply LAB and share in a few words what you're dealing with. If accepted, I'll set up a call to discuss if the LAB is right for you. |