"She's Not Enough Of A Pitbull": What Every Woman Prepping for a CEO Interview Needs to Hear

"Do you have any executive interviewing tips for women leaders, especially conversational interviews?"

That question landed in my inbox from a newsletter subscriber, and it's one I hear regularly in my executive coaching practice and over coffee with friends. It's also one I can answer with a real story, because I recently coached a longtime executive through this exact situation as she stepped up for the CEO role at her organization. 

“She’s not enough of a pitbull” 

My client had run operations for years, and she loved the mission, people, and culture of this organization. So when the board launched a retained CEO search, she assumed her strongest pitch would be: I care about this place, and I'll protect what we've built.

Before we started prepping for interviews, I asked the million-dollar question: What does the board truly care about most in this role?

There'd been complaints about the outgoing CEO's behavior — some surfaced in exit interviews, some passed along informally — and the board had heard them and done, well, nothing. When I ran her 360 interviews, one board member put it bluntly: "She's great and we love her! We need her to stay, but she's just not enough of a pitbull to be the CEO."

She couldn't see any of this clearly. She'd spent years as part of the staff under the outgoing CEO; she’d lived with the bad behavior the board was overlooking. To her, the board's silence was the injustice at the center of the whole story and she wanted to show the board that she could build something that wasn’t as toxic.

But the board didn't care about it — and, in my experience, boards almost never do. Organizational culture sits outside their lane, and technically, that's by design: a board's job is to hire and fire the CEO and evaluate results. Full stop. They don't look below that line, because the day-to-day experience of running the place belongs to the CEO, not to them.

So my first job as her coach wasn't just interview prep, it was helping her see that leading with what she cared about, however legitimate, would read to the board as someone stuck relitigating the last regime, when what they wanted was proof she was ready to run the next one.

And this was the turning point in our coaching work.

Because whatever she believed about how the outgoing CEO's behavior should've been handled, it was clear that wasn't the board's top priority. And leading with "I'll protect the culture" was the fastest way to convince them she'd stay exactly where she was — the steady, capable second-in-command who'd never rock the boat.

If she wanted the top job, the board needed to see a version of her that could stand in front of a room of skeptics, angry investors, or hostile reporters and hold her ground.

Tip 1: Preparation Is 80% of the Job

My number one piece of advice for any executive interview, conversational or otherwise: 80% of succeeding is preparation, and then you simply execute. That means researching the company and every individual interviewer, anticipating their likely questions, and honestly assessing your candidacy against the ideal profile the board is picturing, including where you fall short and where you have an edge only you can offer.

It also means building five strong success stories in advance. Know the position, know what they're likely to ask, and have real examples ready that show impact, not just activity.

For my client, we built out concrete stories that reframed her operational strength as strategic fire: moments where she'd made an unpopular call, held a hard line with a vendor or regulator, or driven a result the board hadn't expected from her. The goal wasn't to abandon who she was —  kind and caring. But we wanted to make sure the board saw the fuller picture of her leadership, including the parts she'd been underselling for years.

Tip 2: Rehearse Out Loud, With An Audience

Conversational interviews reward people who sound natural, but “natural” in the room is the product of real rehearsal beforehand. You don’t want to memorize scripts, but you do want to practice bullet points and role-play.

I ran mock sessions with my client where I played a skeptical board member. When she reached for a weak word or rushed past a moment that deserved a pause, I'd stop her: “Wait. Let's talk about why that word undercuts you. Let's talk about why you need to let that pause sit.”

You don't need a professional coach to do this. A spouse, a friend, even your kids can play interviewer. Having an audience, even an informal one, changes how you show up. 

Tip 3: Record Yourself And Watch It Back

Record your practice answers on video and then use my “Rule of Three”: 

• Listen without watching - Are your emotions aligned with your words? Are you enunciating well, speaking confidently and with clarity? Any awkward phrases or word choices that need to change? What are your key catch phrases that will stick in their minds?  

• Watch without listening (sound off) - pay attention to your body language.

• Watch a third time, the whole package — visually and with sound. 

  
  

Studies of video-stimulated recall — reviewing recorded mock interviews — have found it an effective tool for helping candidates reflect on their own performance, and interview-practice research consistently shows that watching yourself on video helps you catch habits like rushing, filler words, or losing focus that are hard to notice in the moment. You can also play the recording as background audio while you're doing something else, like getting ready in the morning, and simply listen for tone, energy, and pace.

Surprisingly, you’ll want to pay attention to how and when you pause. Cultures that value precision and brevity, boardrooms included, read pauses as confidence rather than hesitation. If you find yourself filling every silence, that's worth working on deliberately before the real interview.

Tip 4: Choose The Story the Room Needs

Every candidate has a go-to narrative, the one that feels safest to tell because it's true and it's flattering - I certainly do. But in situations like this, it’s more strategic to consider what story this specific audience needs to hear.

A board weighing a CEO successor typically isn't asking whether this person will maintain the status quo. They're asking whether you can represent the organization under pressure, in public, when it counts. If you're only offering evidence of stewardship, you're answering a question nobody is asking.

This is closely related to the groundwork I coach executives on well before the interview itself — the quiet, individual conversations that build support ahead of a big decision, sometimes called nemawashi. Knowing what a board privately worries about, before you're ever in the interview chair, changes what you choose to lead with.

Bringing It Together

Whether you're preparing for a CEO interview, a board presentation, or your next high-stakes conversation, the throughline is the same: know your audience, build your evidence, and rehearse until your best points come out naturally under pressure. 

These are the same muscles that make leaders credible when they're speaking to a board, trustworthy during a crisis, and confident guiding a team through change.

My client got the job. Our work together helped the board see her differently and realize all that she was capable of. That shift, more than any single talking point, is usually what separates a good candidate from the one who's ready to lead. 

If you have your own interview questions or leadership challenges you'd like me to write about, subscribe to my newsletter and reply to any issue. I read every response, and it genuinely shapes what I cover next.