Why Success Is Often Elusive at the Highest Echelons

During recent discussions with friends, one common theme that crops up very frequently is how success has remained rather elusive to recent higher level hires at their companies.

By “higher level hires”, I’m referring to not just senior managers, directors, and VPs, but also very senior engineers (think principal level) who’re tasked with shaping or steering the organization’s engineering innovativeness, productivity, and culture. As often as not, these hires have a solid track record of success over the course of many years at elite tech companies (think a 6–8 year stint in senior engineering or engineering leadership at Netflix or Google), have solid references, some might even have a prominent public profile, and are generally competent and smart people.

Yet, none of these past laurels help them replicate this success at their new workplace, where they struggle to make any meaningful inroads, and often exit (or are tacitly pushed out) within 18–24 months. Sometimes they go back to their old companies who welcome them back with open arms, or they end up somewhere new.

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