Cracking the C-suite 'How to Get and Master Key Executive Roles'

4.8 (30)

·

2 Days

·

Cohort-based Course

Learn actionable skills for top performance in VP, SVP, & CXO roles: Strategic Influence, Scale Culture, Develop Talent, Executive Presence.

Previously at

Amazon
Mariposa Leadership

Course overview

Cracking the C-Suite: How to get and master key executive roles

Course Content (6 hours live class, combining lecture and real-work case studies in small groups)


Topics. You are already someone who has a track record of great results. Many of your peers also do. So how do you shine so your boss and your boss’s peer notice? And further, how do you make the most impact for your company. Four ways:


(1) STRATEGIC INFLUENCE

The mindset of being a steward of your company. Moving up to the C-suite means going beyond strategic planning. Strategy and influence go hand in hand. You must develop strategies, vision, and thought leadership that make the business better. Explore/know the market, outside forces, and ecosystem like no other, translate this information so it aligns with your company’s needs, and effectively sell your message to your peers, boss, and team.


(2) SCALE CULTURE

Scaling to large numbers - how do you lead when your team is too big to even know names, let alone what people are doing? Use the skills of principles, processes, and people engagement to demonstrate the mindset of a conductor for your company.


(3) DEVELOP TALENT

An emphasis on guiding/coaching a high-performance team. How do you select high-level leaders and make them great in only the small bits of time you have? How do you teach your directs how to coach their team?


(4) EXECUTIVE PRESENCE

A particular focus on navigating through the highly political world of the top. Leaders who make it to the C-suite are excellent communicators. They are clear and inspiring, and they have a particular kind of confidence and gravitas that sets them a part. What are the best ways for you to upskill both your formal and informal speaking? How do you best cultivate your network and inspire your followers with impact?


High emphasis on case studies:

Ethan and Sue built cases based on real-work examples. Example: “How do you shift your knowledge-base toward what your CEO values most?” 


Dive deep group discussions:

- Illuminate your executive presence with “Pick your moments, NOT your battles.”

- Optimize your coaching with your directs with “Stop solving all your leaders’ problems.” 


Learn what it takes to break through and succeed in VP, SVP, & CXO roles: 

- How to think strategically and be seen as an influential leader who enhances the whole company in 3 ways: Explore/Know, Translate, Message

- How to influence and optimally lead large teams in 3 ways: Principles, Processes, People Engagement

- How to teach your directs how to coach in 3 easy steps: Rapport, Assess, Re-frame

- How to develop and demonstrate executive presence and confidence in 3 ways: Gravitas and Grace, Humor + Stories, Superpower

- How to see around corners (e.g. think long-term and have a multi-year approach)

- How to become a scaled deep leader, change agent, and trusted decision maker

- How to manage your organization to execute with little oversight, take calculated risks, and deliver results

- How to cultivate peer relationships and inspire your followers


Scope, organization size, and consistent high-impact results are important...But are not enough. We will teach you specific actionable steps on how to prioritize the things that matter most to top-level executives.


Bonus material:

- Video recording of all live sessions available via Maven platform

- 120 minutes of prework content, specifically, a 60 minute prework video recording from Ethan & Sue plus another 60 minutes of prework articles and actions.

- 100+ page electronic “Living” Resource Guide from Mariposa Leadership

- Class slides as a PDF

- 20% off all career development on-demand courses

- $1000 off 1-1 executive coaching from Mariposa Leadership


Proven ROI for leaders getting to and succeeding in top executive roles: Together Ethan and Sue have worked with over 500 executives in operational and coaching contexts. Many of Ethan's executive team members at Amazon have now moved on to either their own VP roles at the company or to SVP/EVP roles across the tech industry, including as VCs, startup founders, and executives at Oracle, Google, Toyota, and more. Sue has worked with over 400 VPs+ who have boosted their effectiveness and results for their companies, including presidents at two $10 Billion+ companies, CEOs at 8 start-ups, and SVPs/VPs at numerous tech companies like: Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Credit Karma, eBay, GoFundMe, Guru, HPE, Intel, LinkedIn, Microsoft, MongoDB, Monite, Paypal, Pinterest, Roku, Twitch, Yahoo!, Zuora, and Zynga.


Student testimonials from the first cohort of Cracking the C-suite:

- "This course was fantastic! Actionable frameworks, tools, and sage advice from both Ethan and Sue. Highly recommended!" — Executive Director of Product Management, Disney


- "Uplevel yourself with the skillsets and framework to make the jump into the C-Suite. This course gets straight to the point while providing ample time for coaching, questions and networking among a group of highly successful leaders across the industry. Walk away with actionable next steps to get you from here… to there." — Head of Sales, AWS


- "Wealth of knowledge gained from real-world experiences, unexpected curveballs, and people issues shared in 2 days! Super productive course with a ton of learnings and actionable tips. Highly recommended!" — Group Engineering Manager, Microsoft


- "This two-day course distilled over 50 years of collective leadership experience from Ethan and Sue into a concise 6 hours of content. Packed with practical frameworks condensed into easily digestible segments, it provides immediately applicable tools for daily leadership growth. I emerged with fresh perspectives on conveying executive presence through intentional awareness of how my actions shape others’ sense of value and belonging." — Senior Director of Product Management, Workday


- "Excellent class. I liked to have all the content I've been reading or listened in one place." — VP Engineering and Research, LILT

Who is this course for

01

Directors, Sr. Directors, & VPs from all disciplines who have the ambition and confidence to crack the C-suite.

02

Managing large groups and multiple organizations. Seeking top roles Amazon and Google L10, Microsoft 70/80, Meta D2+.

03

Startup Founders and anyone in CXO roles wanting to maximize their leadership impact with the right skills.

04

Not open to junior roles.

What you’ll get out of this course

How to stand out and influence

Learn how to stand out strategically so you can influence the direction of your company.

How to scale up and develop talent effectively

Scale up and coach your team and make them great in small bits of time.

How to demonstrate Executive Presence

Upskill your communication style and messages to inspire your organization.

Optimized actionable advice for Directors & VPs who want to get a higher executive role, internally or externally

Content is developed by Ethan's experience as an Amazon Vice President with input from Ethan & Sue's network of executives, coaches, VCs, army officers, and startup founders. You will get specific examples from Sue’s coaching clients.

Learn from Ethan's personal stories (not theory)

Hear Ethan's break through experience first hand and learn from the specific actions Ethan took with his direct reports to help them break through to the C-suite.

Learn from Sue’s real examples (not theory)

Hear how Sue helped executive clients succeed and how she demonstrates executive presence leading her Mariposa team.

High emphasis on case studies

Ethan and Sue built cases based on real-work examples. Example: “How to you shift your knowledge-base toward what your CEO values most?” 

Dive deep group discussions

- Illuminate your executive presence with “Pick your moments, NOT your battles.”

- Optimize your coaching with your directs with “Stop solving all your leaders’ problems.” 

A powerful network

Network and cultivate peer relationships with other high-performing leaders.

This course includes

2 interactive live sessions

Lifetime access to course materials

7 in-depth lessons

Direct access to instructor

Projects to apply learnings

Guided feedback & reflection

Private community of peers

Course certificate upon completion

Maven Satisfaction Guarantee

This course is backed by Maven’s guarantee. You can receive a full refund within 14 days after the course ends, provided you meet the completion criteria in our refund policy.

Course syllabus

Week 1

Oct 5—Oct 6

    Prework Video Recording, Articles, and Actions (120 minutes of content)

    1 item

    Oct

    5

    Session 1 - Strategic Influence & Scale Culture

    Sat 10/54:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)

    Oct

    6

    Session 2 - Develop Talent & Executive Presence

    Sun 10/64:00 PM—7:00 PM (UTC)

Post-course

    Session 1 Follow-up Materials - Strategic Influence & Scale Culture

    1 item

    Session 2 Follow-up Materials - Develop Talent & Executive Presence

    1 item

Bonus

    Video recording of all live sessions available via Maven platform

    0 items

    100+ page Mariposa Leadership Resource Guide

    1 item

    20% off all Ethan Evans career development on-demand courses

    1 item

    $1000 off 1-1 executive coaching from Mariposa Leadership

    1 item

    ALL MATERIALS (single resource document)

    1 item

4.8 (30 ratings)

What students are saying

Meet your instructors

Ethan Evans

Ethan Evans

Amazon Vice President, retired after 15+ years; 70+ patents; led global teams of 800+; Executive Coach currently

In Ethan's 15+ years at Amazon, he led global teams of 800+ and invented well-known businesses and products such as Prime Video, Amazon Video, Amazon Appstore, Merch by Amazon, Prime Gaming (formerly Twitch Prime), and Twitch Commerce.


  • Hold 70+ patents.
  • Reviewed 10,000+ resumes and conducted 2,500+ interviews.
  • Was an Amazon Bar Raiser and Bar Raiser Core Leader, responsible for training and maintaining Amazon's group of interview outcome facilitators.
  • Helped advocate for and draft the Amazon Leadership Principle (LP) “Ownership” — the words, “They never say ‘that’s not my job.’” are Ethan's.


Ethan has promoted 8 reports from Senior Manager (Amazon L7) to Director (Amazon L8), contributed to 25+ Director promotions, hired 10+ Directors internally and externally, drove the promotion of 3 engineers to Principal, and of his former reports 2 are current Amazon VPs (L10) and 5 are C-Suite outside of Amazon.


Ethan retired from Amazon as a Vice President in September 2020 to focus on paying forward his good fortune to others.


Prior to Amazon, Ethan spent 12 years at 3 startups.


Follow Ethan on LinkedIn and subscribe to his newsletter to get candid career advice.

Sue Bethanis, Ed.D.

Sue Bethanis, Ed.D.

Executive Coach & CEO/Founder, Mariposa Leadership; has coached 400+ tech executives + has led the Mariposa team for 27+ years

Susan J. Bethanis, Ed.D., is the CEO/Founder of Mariposa Leadership, Inc., a 15-person San Francisco- based firm, which provides executive coaching and design thinking to high-tech leaders.


Sue is the author of the well-received business book Leadership Chronicles of a Corporate Sage (Kaplan Publishing, 2004) and hosts the popular show WiseTalk, a monthly leadership forum, and WiseSpace, a Zoom coaching community.


Sue regularly facilitates strategy offsites and delivers keynotes on influence, coaching, and innovation. Most recently, Sue has been focused on supporting executives to pivot strategies and enhance culture given the Hybrid/Remote work environment.


Using real-time, relevant business issues, Sue helps executives:

  • Energize their leadership skills that results in increased influence across the organization.
  • Energize their leadership teams that results in increased engagement, motivation, and productivity.
  • Energize their leadership creativity that results in innovative and sustainable organizational strategies, structures, and culture


​Sue has worked with many Silicon Valley and San Francisco companies and non-profits, including C-level Executives and VPs at Amazon, Apple, Cisco, eBay, EqCA, Expedia, GoFundMe, Google, Guru, HPE, Intel, LinkedIn, Microsoft, MongoDB, Monite, Paypal, Pinterest, Roku, Twitch, Workday, Yahoo!, and Zynga.

Course schedule

6 hours of LIVE class + bonus material

  • Saturday, October 5 - Strategic Influence & Scale Culture

    9:00am - 12:00pm US Pacific Time

    • Strategic Influence & Stewardship: Explore, Translate, Message - How to best utilize this framework to understand the ecosystem, align to your company, and shape audiences.
    • Scale Culture: Principles, Processes, People Engagement - How to influence and optimally lead large teams.
  • Sunday, October 6 - Develop Talent & Executive Presence

    9:00am - 12:00pm US Pacific Time

    • Develop Talent & Effective Coaching: Rapport, Assess, Re-frame - Coach your directs with little time. Coach them how to coach.
    • Executive & Top Presence: Gravitas + Grace, Humor, Superpower - Master the tools of projecting executive influence. Cultivate peer relationships.
  • Each session includes case studies, group discussion, and interactive Q&A

    An emphasis on real-work case studies, dive deep group discussion, and interactive Q&A.

  • Bonus — Prework Video Recording, Articles, and Actions (120 minutes of content)

    You will get a 60 minute prework video recording from Ethan & Sue plus another 60 minutes of prework articles and actions.

  • Important — Video Recordings will be Available

    All live sessions will be video recorded and made available to watch/rewatch at your own pace via the Maven Student Portal.


    Thus, if you cannot attend the full time or need to drop off at any point, you can catch up and watch the video recording.

Free resource

Cracking the C-suite (17-minute course preview video)

You are already someone who has a track record of great results. Many of your peers also do. So how do you shine so your boss and your boss’s peer notice? And further, how do you make the most impact for your company. Four ways:

  1. Strategic Influence
  2. Scale Culture
  3. Develop Talent
  4. Executive Presence


Join executive alumni from Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Visa, Disney, Workday, Expedia, Blue Origin, Nike, Databricks, PayPal, Splunk, Kimberly-Clark, and more.


To get a glimpse, enter your email to get a 17-minute video of the course introduction.

Get this free resource

Class is focused on four growth areas for C-suite success

Class is focused on four growth areas for C-suite success

High emphasis on real-work case studies and dive deep group discussions

High emphasis on real-work case studies and dive deep group discussions

Ethan and Sue have worked with over 500 executives in operational and coaching contexts

Ethan and Sue have worked with over 500 executives in operational and coaching contexts

Ethan & Sue Breakdown Executive Presence in this Maven Select Speaker Series (video recording)

EVP at Capital One (Ameesh Paleja) on what he learned from Ethan (video recording)

Ameesh was also ex-Google VP, ex-OfferUp CTO, Atom Tickets CoFounder & CEO, ex-Amazon Director

Read what Gagan Biyani, CEO and Co-Founder of Maven, said about the value of Ethan and Sue's course

Read what Gagan Biyani, CEO and Co-Founder of Maven, said about the value of Ethan and Sue's course

Testimonials from Sue’s executive clients (CEOs, SVPs, VPs):

        I have worked with Sue for several years, and she has helped all of my teams gain new insight about their own leadership skills and form a strong team bond. This has enabled my organizations to be highly successful and I am so glad to be working with her. I highly recommend Sue to any colleague looking to build a high performing team!
Bethany Mayer

Bethany Mayer

Former President and CEO, Ixia; Chair of the Board, Box
        Sue is my long-time leadership coach and was a true game-changer when I became a founder and to the whole of Monite’s history. Andrey Korchak and I wouldn’t be where we are if it weren’t for her wisdom, kindness, advice, and constant support.
Ivan Maryasin

Ivan Maryasin

CEO & Co-Founder, Monite
        I have known Sue for many years and recently as I changed career direction, she worked with me as she listened to my passions and helped me with strategies as to how to develop. Sue is a terrific listener and coach, creative with her ideas, and generous with her time and energy. I feel fortunate to have had her assistance along this journey.
Judy Little

Judy Little

Former SVP of Sales/Alliances, Ericsson; EVP & Founder, JLittle Group
        Making mistakes is essential to authentic leadership and having a coach who inspires you to make it your life’s work provides you with a unique advantage. Sue has proven invaluable to me in navigating the first 15 years of my leadership journey and can help you make the future you envision a reality.
Michael Hakkert

Michael Hakkert

VP Corporate Marketing, Gigamon

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Cracking the C-suite 'How to Get and Master Key Executive Roles'