Executive longevity, especially through leadership changes, depends less on past performance and more on a willingness to internalize and act on feedback. This "survival instinct" shows adaptability and a commitment to growth, which new leaders value highly.

To transition from working 'in the business' to 'on the business,' Snowflake's CRO was told his hands-on, 'deal hound' approach wouldn't work at scale. The solution was to hire other capable 'drivers,' trust them to do their jobs, and hold them accountable. If a leader has to do their team's job, it's a problem with the team member.

Snowflake's CRO, Chris Degnan, kept his job through multiple growth stages where he could have been replaced. His longevity wasn't due to a pre-existing "scale" playbook, but his intense coachability and ability to "morph" and adapt his strategies based on direct feedback from the board and new leadership.

Effective leadership in a fast-moving space requires abandoning the traditional org chart. The CEO must engage directly with those closest to the work—engineers writing code and salespeople talking to customers—to access unfiltered "ground truth" and make better decisions, a lesson learned from Elon Musk's hands-on approach.

As leaders rise, direct reports are less likely to provide challenging feedback, creating an executive bubble. To get unfiltered information, leaders should schedule regular one-on-ones with employees several levels down the org chart with the express purpose of listening, not dictating.

As an organization scales, some leaders become skilled at managing up while being poor managers to their teams. Executives must conduct regular skip-level meetings with frontline employees to get direct, unfiltered feedback and catch these bad behaviors that would otherwise be hidden.

Feedback often gets 'massaged' and politicized as it travels up the chain of command. Effective leaders must create direct, unfiltered channels to hear from customers and front-line employees, ensuring raw data isn't sanitized before it reaches them.

An early-stage sales leader's greatest strength—being the superstar individual contributor involved in every deal—becomes their biggest liability at scale. A hands-on leader must be forced to evolve into a true manager who trusts and enables their team, even if it feels unnatural.

A senior hire was instrumental in getting Snowflake's CRO promoted. Eighteen months later, that same person was found to be 'cancerous to the organization.' The CRO had to fire them and go on an 'apology tour,' a painful but necessary act of leadership to protect the company culture.