When I was a manager leading enterprise bargaining for doctors, I got to attend the Cabinet Budget Review Committee and present our case alongside the Director-General. I had to respond to direct questions from the Premier and then influence the Under Treasurer afterwards to avoid setting off a powder keg.
By then I had seen the whole process through. We had worked out the problem we were trying to solve, what the options were, what objections to expect and how to reduce the risks. At those tables I was the Director-General’s right hand, with the detail and a deep understanding of the context. I had to learn to read the room, because if I made a mistake they would be doing the cleaning up.
I had that seat because the Director-General chose to bring me in. I could just as easily have been left out and told what happened afterwards. It happens to many excellent operators.
CEOs of small and mid-sized organisations often tell me how hard it is to picture anyone on their team stepping into their role. Their direct reports are often excellent operational leaders, safe pairs of hands, with deep expertise inside their business.
Too useful to move
The qualities that make someone a trusted operational leader can also keep them where they are because the CEO needs them running things.
Being good at running the organisation is not the same as being ready to lead it.
What many of them haven’t had is the wider view of how a CEO works: how strategy is set, how stakeholder relationships are managed, how a big organisational change is prepared and led, and how to work with a board. Acting in the CEO role would give them some of that. But the CEO wouldn’t be there providing guidance and feedback along the way.
A BoardOutlook survey of more than 1000 directors worldwide, reported by the Australian Institute of Company Directors in December 2025, found that only 18 per cent said their board had strong visibility of their organisation’s talent pipeline or internal CEO candidates. In the same survey, talent and succession was the lowest rated governance capability.
Put your best operators inside a decision
Other routes into the same learning exist, and the CEO stays involved. In the same job I argued cases before the Industrial Relations Commission. That meant reporting up the chain, directly exploring how issues could play out with the most senior decision-makers, and hearing how the Commissioner, the unions and other stakeholders saw the same issue. Many of those cases were workplace disputes about achieving change.
Looking back, part of what made the difference was: being engaged in decisions and implementation alongside the person making the call, being expected to listen hard and speak up so the full picture was considered, then hearing directly from the people who disagreed.
Sir Ralph Norris, who led the Commonwealth Bank, Air New Zealand and ASB Bank, was quoted by the Australian Institute of Company Directors in December 2025 on how he did it:
“I’d get one of my team to present their part of the bank’s strategic review to the board. That helped with their development and gave the board a chance to see them in action.” — Ralph Norris
You can build opportunities like this into an operational leader’s role. Send them to represent the organisation in front of a regulator, funder or commissioner, initially with you and then reporting back to you. Ask them to lead a response to a review or audit. Have them write and present the board paper. Have them run the stakeholder conversations on a change and not only bring back what each party wants but also analyse and test the options with stakeholders.
Brief them before and debrief them after
Putting someone in a situation is only half of it. A lot of what I learned came from the pre-brief and the debrief. Before the meeting, we talked through what to expect, what could happen and what I was there to do. Afterwards, we talked through what had happened, why and what could happen next.
The people who guided me were investing in freeing up their own time later, and in reducing the risk of me making mistakes when they weren’t there.
A co-pilot learns the same way: they’re in the next seat, hearing the same calls as the captain, with a brief before the flight and a debrief after it. Without those conversations, a person gets the exposure without the added benefit of guided development.
If you are one of those reliable operators and want a bigger role one day, ask to be put inside a decision, and ask for the brief and the debrief that go with it.
When you give someone an opportunity, ask yourself how you are guiding their development in this context. What are you asking of them? How are you deepening their thinking and broadening their perspectives before the meeting and after it?
I work with CEOs and boards on building the next layer of leaders around them. If you are working out who on your team could step into a bigger role, and how to give them this kind of exposure, reply and tell me what you are facing.
Written with AI assistance. The thinking and the final wording are mine.
