CEO Expectations for
Senior Vice Presidents

Leading and Operating as One Team
Vantage Leadership Consulting

As Senior Vice Presidents, you are first and foremost members of the enterprise leadership team. Your primary responsibility is the health, results, and long-term success of MITRE as a whole.

For each of the 7 CEO expectations below, please rate how well the ELT is modeling the behavior and how well you personally are modeling it on a scale of 1–7.

All survey responses will remain anonymous.

Expectation-by-Expectation Ratings

Rate each expectation from 1 (not at all) to 7 (fully modeling).

1 Team Comes First
  • You will prioritize enterprise outcomes over functional optimization.
  • You will not advocate for your area at the expense of what is best for the company.
  • Once a decision is made by the Team, you will fully support it—publicly and privately—regardless of your original position.
Performance Expectation: Enterprise results improve, even when it requires tradeoffs within individual functions.
How well the ELT is modeling the behavior
How well I am modeling it
2 Trust Through Vulnerability
  • You are expected to be open about challenges, mistakes, and capacity constraints.
  • You will ask for help early and offer help without being asked.
  • You will not use information as power or withhold concerns to protect yourself or your function.
Performance Expectation: Issues are surfaced early, addressed quickly, and resolved collaboratively.
How well the ELT is modeling the behavior
How well I am modeling it
3 Healthy Conflict Is Required
  • You will actively engage in productive, respectful debate on key decisions.
  • Silence, artificial harmony, or side conversations are unacceptable.
  • Disagreement must occur in the room, not after decisions are made.
Behavioral Expectation: You challenge ideas, not people, and you do so in service of better outcomes.
How well the ELT is modeling the behavior
How well I am modeling it
4 Commitment to Decisions
  • You will leave Team meetings aligned and committed, even when consensus is not achieved.
  • You will communicate decisions clearly and consistently to your teams.
  • You will not re-litigate decisions or allow ambiguity to persist.
Performance Expectation: Your teams understand priorities and execute decisively.
How well the ELT is modeling the behavior
How well I am modeling it
5 Accountability Is Mandatory
  • You are expected to hold yourself and one another accountable—directly and respectfully.
  • You will not rely on the CEO to resolve peer performance or behavior issues.
  • Avoiding difficult conversations is considered a leadership failure.
Behavioral Expectation: Issues are addressed quickly between peers, not escalated by default.
How well the ELT is modeling the behavior
How well I am modeling it
6 Results Over Status
  • Your success is measured by collective outcomes, not individual visibility or power.
  • You will share credit freely and take responsibility when results fall short.
  • You will actively develop successors and strengthen leadership beyond yourself.
Performance Expectation: The organization performs consistently at a high level, independent of individual egos.
How well the ELT is modeling the behavior
How well I am modeling it
7 What Will Not Be Tolerated
  • Siloed thinking or “my team vs. your team” behavior
  • Undermining decisions or leaders after alignment is reached
  • Political behavior, blame-shifting, or passive resistance
  • Loyalty to function over company
Consequence: Failure to operate as a Team for MITRE will be treated as a performance issue, not a style difference.
How well the ELT is modeling the behavior
How well I am modeling it

Reflections

Given the challenges we faced in 2025, how is the ELT doing today, and what have we learned?
Where is our biggest opportunity for demonstrating enterprise leadership in 2026?
What is getting in the way of the ELT exemplifying the tenets of Mark’s SVP Expectations?
Are there any particularly tough but important topics or dynamics that the ELT is shying away from?

Thank you for your feedback.

Your responses have been recorded anonymously.
Vantage will analyze the data and share themes with the leadership team.