If you’re being interviewed for a senior leadership role, tell your DAVE story
- Phil D'Adamo
- Feb 28
- 2 min read
Watching the Winter Olympics this week, I was struck by how riders are assessed by judges.
It made me reflect on how leaders are assessed in interviews, from my own experience being interviewed, sitting on executive panels, and now coaching senior leaders preparing for them.
We’re encouraged to use STAR when asked, “Tell me about a time when…”
Situation. Task. Action. Result.
It’s a useful framework. It provides structure and helps demonstrate achievement. But for senior leadership roles, it’s often not enough.
STAR helps explains what you did.
But it doesn’t always capture the judgement you exercised under pressure, the complexity you navigated or what it took to lead strategic change in uncertain environments.
In freestyle skiing and snowboarding, judges score athletes using DAVE:
Difficulty: How technically challenging was the run?
Amplitude: How high did you rise?
Variation: What range of skills, creativity and tactics were demonstrated?
Execution: Did it land cleanly?
That feels much closer to how senior leadership, particularly change leadership, should be evaluated.
How difficult was the operating environment?
What was at stake during the reset, transformation or turnaround?
What breadth of leadership capability did you draw on?
How much influence did you need to exert?
Which stakeholders had to be brought with you?
What resilience did you need to sustain?
In my coaching, I see many leaders undersell this.
They can describe the task and outline the process but they don’t articulate the degree of difficulty or the amplitude of expectation they were carrying, especially when leading complex change.
At executive level, differentiation matters in recruitment.
By all means, use STAR to structure your answer.
But elevate the narrative. Tell your DAVE story.
