HBR Presents.

I'm Yario Wilkins and this is Coaching Real Leaders, part of the HBR Presents Network.

I'm a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful

leaders who've hit a bump in the road. My job is to help them get over that bump by clarifying

their goals and figuring out a way to reach them so that hopefully they can lead with a little

more ease. I typically work with clients over the course of several months, but on this show, we have

a one-time coaching meeting focusing on a specific leadership challenge they're facing.

Today's guest is someone who will call Randy to protect his confidentiality.

He's achieved a lot in his career and is now at the

executive VP level at his company. His aspiration is to make it to the C-suite, and he's been working

hard to do so. You know, I've tried for many C-level positions. It seems that I always get through

to the finals, but I never get the final decision to take on the brass ring or take on that job.

And I was just wanting to understand maybe there are things that I'm doing or saying or don't know.

That led to that. I've had just a couple recently that really I thought were just fantastic.

They loved my background, loved the interviews, had several interviews over several months, and then no opportunity.

Sorry, we're going to go another way. We think your background's outstanding.

We think you did an outstanding job with your interviews.

However, we don't feel that you will be happy with us.

Randy has faced this situation several times, where he gets close to getting the C-Suite role, but then doesn't.

As someone who has had a long-standing successful corporate career, he finds himself questioning

what exactly is going wrong. I should also mention that Randy is black, which adds a nuanced

layer to his experience. You start to scratch your head and say, what am I doing wrong?

...