The Window Closes: A Conversation on Making the Leap from Director to VP

Angee Linsey and Noreen Pratscher have known each other nearly 20 years — first as recruiter and candidate, later as coach and consultant, friends and collaborators on business ideas and content. What follows is a conversation about the leap from director to VP, why some people make it, and some don’t, and what it takes to close the gap.

ANGEE: The Call

I was working with a candidate who’d held a series of director-level roles. She was good — really good. I had put her forward for a couple of director-level positions myself. Strong candidate both times, mostly lateral moves with a bump in pay and scope, but not title. Both times, she came in second. That was never a reflection of her candidacy. She was a strong comms leader, full stop.

Then a VP search landed on my desk, and she went straight to the top of my list. She was ready. She just needed someone to open the door.

I called her. She was already in process for a senior director role working with people she knew, people she liked. Safe. Familiar. I told her it was time to go for the VP title, if that was the path she wanted.

She still reminds me what I said: “Your window is closing.”

NOREEN: The Decision

I had two offers in front of me: a senior director role, which was a lateral move, working for an executive I respected in an industry I knew,  and a VP role in a new industry, the one Angee was recruiting for. Her comment about my window closing stuck with me.

She gave me a piece of advice that helped me organize my thinking: list the pros and cons of both roles, give each one a value from 1 to 10, add them up, then trust your gut. The rest was mine to work through: Weighing the safety of a known environment against the opportunity of an elevated role, and the risk of getting stuck at the Director level against the risk of starting over in a new company and industry.

What tipped the scales was the opportunity to elevate my role and, as the company’s first-ever Communications VP, to lead, build, and shape the Corporate Communications function from the ground up. Access to the CEO and other key leaders mattered too. We connected during the interview process over a shared perspective on how Comms could influence business performance. During my time there, I was elevated to Chief Communications Officer, further demonstrating the strategic value I was able to deliver. And my next two roles remained at that executive level.

Why the Window Closes

NOREEN: When you told me my window was closing, what did you actually mean?

ANGEE: Not a window on your ability or your readiness. A window on how the market reads you. You had been in multiple director-level roles, and the people who knew you were calling you for another director role instead of reaching for VP. I knew you wanted to level up — you just needed the right opportunity. The window doesn’t close because time runs out. It closes because repeated choices eventually become an identity that people stop questioning.

NOREEN: So it wasn’t about me changing. It was about what I kept saying yes to.

ANGEE: Exactly. You were ready. You were just hesitating. Once you chose the VP option  instead of another director search, the story other people told about you changed too — not because you’d suddenly become more capable, but because you’d stopped letting the market file you under a title you’d already outgrown.

NOREEN: You’ve watched and counseled a lot of directors try to make this jump. What separates the ones who make it from the ones who stall?

ANGEE: A few patterns. First, knowing the business,  not just the tools and tactics of communications, but the language of the business itself. Second, understanding how to tell the story of your team’s work in terms of what it does for the business. Data matters, but so does the why behind it. How are you helping the organization reach its goals?

ANGEE: Noreen, how and when did that shift happen for you?

NOREEN: I’d always had a business mindset, but I formally learned the “business of business” through a master’s degree, and I made a point of working closely with Finance and Operations to understand what actually drives the business. At my prior company, I earned the right to own business strategy which was  unprecedented on that leadership team, and it raised some eyebrows at first. I started presenting myself as a business leader, not just the Communications leader. Once I changed my vocabulary, I built better relationships with other leaders and they started treating me as a peer. That positioned me well for the VP role, and it shaped how I communicated with the new leadership team once I got there.

Why Narrative Matters

NOREEN: You talk about “speaking the executive’s language.” What does that mean in practice, for someone who is still thinking like a director?

ANGEE: Many comms leaders are hired to execute. VPs are hired to think about the business the way the CEO does. CEOs don’t want to know how you built the clock — they want to know what time it is. If you’re telling your story in terms of what you did, you’re talking tactics and speaking as an executor. If you can tell it in terms of what it means for revenue, retention, risk, or growth, you’re speaking like a VP. How do you do it?

NOREEN: Whether I’m making a recommendation or considering a request, I start with “why.” How does this move the organization toward a stated business goal? It also helps to anticipate outcomes — peer around corners — to understand the implications before you act. When I decided to leave in-house work for consulting, I used the same pros-and-cons-plus-gut-check approach you gave me years earlier. It gave me clarity, and floating the idea with a few trusted advisors and colleagues gave me confidence that I would make it work.

Closing the Gap

A few ways to close the gap before the opportunity shows up:

• Translate your wins into business impact before you’re asked to. Don’t say “I led the rebrand.” Say “I repositioned the brand to support a 20% increase in qualified pipeline.” Practice this on every project, not just the big ones.
• Ask your boss for more exposure to business decisions. Be upfront that you want to level up, and that the only way you’ll be ready is with more exposure to how those decisions get made. If you can be in the room, be in the room. If you can’t, ask for a debrief about what happened during the decision process.
• Sit in on strategy conversations even when you’re not required to. Ask to shadow a budget review or a board prep session. You’re not there to contribute yet — you’re there to learn the language. Follow up with some of those in the discussion to reflect on what you heard and learned and ask additional questions.
• Rehearse your answer to “why should this be your role” before someone asks. If you can’t say it in two sentences that reference business outcomes, you’re not ready to say it in the interview.
• Watch for the moment you talk yourself out of raising your hand. That hesitation is usually not about competence. Evaluate what’s actually driving it, and whether this is a move you really want to make.
• Instead of staying mired in the day-to-day, prioritize work and carve out time to think through new ideas that will have business impact. Float them with a few senior leaders for early reaction, then adjust before making a formal presentation.

If you’re hovering at director or senior director, ask yourself what you’re actually doing to position yourself to make the leap. Daring to be deliberate about your career means pursuing opportunity, not sitting back and waiting for the right opportunity to find you. There are big and small things you can do — inside your current role and beyond it — so that when a company decides it’s time for their next leader, your name is already on the list.