Your biggest risk isn’t compensation — it’s the room you’re walking into.

Thoughts while flying vertical!

I was recently practicing for an upcoming aerobatic competition. I was in the vertical and a thought crossed my mind…

Traps. Specifically: employment traps.

My mind wandered to this post, part of which I quoted here, and applies to all levels, not just executive ones:

OK, I’ll let you in on a little secret.

The biggest risk in any executive job move isn’t the compensation. It’s not the title. It’s not even the scope. It’s the team you’re walking into.

The politics. The support you’ll get when the heat’s on. And the battles no one warns you about.

Because at the executive level, you don’t “execute a strategy.” You execute a strategy through people who have their own priorities.

And yet, too many seasoned candidates ask questions like:

• “What’s the 90-day plan?”
• “What’s the company vision?”
• “What’s the culture like?”

Nice. Polite. Useless.

Those questions produce rehearsed answers.

What you need is signal.

You need to know:

• Who actually has power (and who thinks they do).
• What gets rewarded (and what gets punished).
• How conflict is handled (directly, politically, or not at all).
• Whether leadership protects outcomes… or protects egos.
• Whether you’ll be backed in public — or sacrificed for optics.

Because “culture” isn’t posters and perks. Culture is what happens when:

• the numbers miss,

• a launch slips,

• a security issue hits,

• a customer escalates,

• or the board wants a head.

That’s when you find out what the place really is.

And this is why the line matters:

Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Strategy is what you say you’ll do. Culture is what your organization will allow you to do.

So before you say yes, don’t just negotiate comp. Audit the operating system you’re about to inherit.

End question: → When was the last time you chose a role based on the team you were walking into — not the title you were walking toward?