C-Suite Ready: The Star Executive Accelerator

The C-Suite is not simply a bigger version of your current job—it’s a different way of working. What is rarely obvious to candidates is that your crucial stakeholder relationships change, scrutiny intensifies, and leadership behaviors that produced success in your current role derail you at the enterprise level. In this program, executives practice the high-stakes interactions through which boards, CEOs, investors, colleagues, employees, customers, HR leaders and media decide whether a leader is truly C-Suite Ready.

Whether you are preparing for the C-Suite yourself, developing successors as HR or talent leader, or you’re coaching executives through selection and transition, C-Suite Ready builds the ten stakeholder fluency to prepare yourself and others for the role. Each of the ten Stakeholder Challenges is anchored by real CEOs and board members you’ll meet in this session who have occupied these seats, bringing firsthand perspective before you practice the challenge yourself. Through ten immersive C-Suite Ready Stakeholder Simulations, participants rehearse (with faculty and AI Agents) the crucial conversations, decisions, and relationships that shape C-Suite selection and success—combining executive frameworks, peer learning, and AI-customized agents you’ll continue to use back at work.

Why This Program

C-Suite Ready executives earn readiness twice—first to become qualified, then to become selected. You must not only add a few new skills, but must become the obvious, trusted choice for the greater enterprise. C-Suite Ready reframes executive readiness around the stakeholders who shape your selection, your legitimacy in the role and ultimate success.

Real leaders anchor every rehearsal. The program opens Tuesday afternoon in Nashville with an interactive leadership reception featuring Byron Loflin, Global Head of Board Advisory at Nasdaq; Ed Magee and Sheila Bangalore of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Nashville Chapter; Prof. Tom Steenburgh, Vanderbilt Dean of Owen School of Management; and Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, the world’s authority on executive coaching. Across the three days, additional Nashville-based global CEOs and senior executives will join in person and live video conference discussions to share what they listen for, what builds or erodes trust, and how leaders are judged at the top.

What You Will Learn

Think and communicate at a broader enterprise strategic level uniquely required in the C-Suite.
Move beyond functional expertise and demonstrate the judgment, priorities, and strategic scope expected of enterprise leaders. 

Build stakeholder trust before you need it.
Understand how different stakeholders evaluate leadership and learn to adapt without sacrificing authenticity or judgment.

Perform under board-level scrutiny.
Practice boardroom conversations involving strategy, governance, risk, succession, difficult tradeoffs, and unexpected questions.

Navigate the human dynamics of succession.
Prepare for changing relationships with the CEO, founders, peers, owners, employees, and other stakeholders whose support can accelerate - or derail - a transition.

Strengthen self-awareness and resilience under pressure.
Identify blind spots, fears, behavioral patterns, and personal routines that influence judgment when visibility and expectations increase.

Practice before the stakes are real.
Learn how to use ten AI-powered Stakeholder Simulation Tests to rehearse critical executive conversations and receive feedback on clarity, credibility, listening, judgment, and stakeholder alignment in class with tools you can continue to tune, edit and access at the office.

Build your transition plan.
Translate what you learn into an actionable readiness roadmap and first-90-day plan designed to establish trust, priorities, and momentum.

Who Should Attend

This program is designed for leaders preparing themselves - or preparing other executives - for greater responsibility.

• Senior executives and succession candidates. Business-unit and functional leaders preparing for C-Suite responsibility, including internal successors who want to strengthen readiness before a formal selection process begins.
• CHROs, Chief People Officers, and Talent/Succession leaders. Executives responsible for identifying and developing ready-now enterprise leaders and strengthening succession pipelines.
• Executive coaches and leadership advisers. Experienced practitioners who support senior executives through succession, assessment, promotion, and transition into high-scrutiny roles.

Continuing Education Credits

1.4 CEUs

Learning Hours

14 hours