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The 5 Keys to Becoming a Trusted Strategic Advisor to the C-Suite

For the people analytics professional, becoming a trusted advisor to the C-suite requires more than just technical expertise—it’s about building trust, offering strategic insight, and empowering executives to make better decisions.

However, a critical distinction must be understood: your role is to provide advice, not make the final decision. Like any successful consultant, your role is to provide the c-suite with what you think is the best option given the circumstances. Success is measured not by whether your recommendations are followed but by whether they enhance clarity, confidence, and strategic alignment. The final decision is up to your client—the CEO.

There are 5 keys to becoming perceived as a trusted strategic advisor:

    1. Embrace the Trusted Advisor Mindset.

      2. A trusted advisor serves as a guide, not a decision-maker. Your role is to clarify options, highlight risks, and provide actionable insights, but the responsibility for decisions remains with the CEO. Focus on enabling informed decision-making.


    2. Understand the CEO’s Strategic Priorities.

      3. Your insights must align with organizational goals and executive concerns. Understand what keeps leaders awake at night—whether it’s growth, cost control, culture transformation, or something else—and tailor your insights accordingly. That is, speak their language and focus on business outcomes and not just on the data.


    3. Deliver Actionable, Tailored Insights.

      4. Many executives do not want to see the raw data—they prefer clear recommendations framed around strategic trade-offs. However, be ready to share as much detail as your audience wants.

      Ensure your analysis leads to tangible next steps. Be sure to present options as well as your informed preferred solution. By presenting options, your audience will know you have done your homework. In addition, it will allow your audience to debate the pros and cons of different approaches before making a final decision.


    4. Be Proactive, Not Reactive.

      5. Trusted advisors don’t wait to be asked—they anticipate issues and act early. Your value and influence as a trusted advisor increase if you can use data to spot risks and opportunities before they become an issue. Also, be sure to provide regular updates on progress of recent decisions and actions, including any additional actions needed due to changes in priorities or circumstances.


    5. Don’t Take it Personally if Your Advice is Not Taken

      6. Remember, your goal is to help your CEO make what they consider to be the best-informed decision, not to ensure they follow your advice.

      Sometimes the CEO will not agree with your advice because they may:

        • Have access to other critical information you don’t.
        • Have different priorities.
        • Be concerned with risks they do not want to share with you.
        • Prefer one of the other options you shared.

      If they choose a different path, continue to be a trusted advisor by using your skills to help a successful implementation of their chosen path.

Applying the Keys to Becoming a Trusted Advisor: An Example.

When presenting your advice, it is best to start with a short, 3-4-minute high-level overview. You do not want to overload them with lots of data. First, they need to decide that time spent discussing what you have to offer is time well spent. Your goal for this initial presentation is for your audience to feel excited about your advice, ask for more details, and engage with you in a conversation.

they need to decide that time spent discussing what you have to offer is time well spent.

For example, instead of presenting, "Employee turnover increased by 15%," and showing slides with lots of data, say:

    • “As you may know in the past 6 months we have lost Sally Jones and Eduardo Estevez, two of our brightest and best managers. And they are not the only high-potential managers we have lost recently.

    • Our analysis indicates that increased turnover among high-potential managers could cost us $5 million in lost productivity next year.
    • Our analysis also indicates 6 possible critical root causes of why high-potentials feel misaligned with our company, two of these have the best chance for both immediate and long-term positive impact on high-potential retention.
    • Our root cause analysis indicates that our high-potential managers feel that (1) the criteria for advancement are unclear and (2) they are not clear on our corporate purpose.
    • By clarifying advancement criteria and our purpose, our data indicates these actions will have a positive impact on decreasing turnover. Therefore, we recommend taking action to clarify these misalignments.
    • While there is a risk that clarifying advancement criteria and our purpose may necessitate difficult conversations with some employees, additional training and support will equip supervisors to handle most issues. Thus, these risks are relatively small compared to continually losing some of our highest performing managers and the ensuing lost productivity.
    • I am happy to share our data on what we uncovered in our analysis, including other root causes of turnover, and to answer any questions or concerns.”

Ideally, your audience will say, “Tell us more!”

Final Thoughts

Being a trusted advisor in people analytics means guiding decisions, not controlling them. It means translating data into strategic insights, building trust through integrity, and communicating with clarity and empathy. Whether your advice is followed, your value lies in your ability to elevate the quality of executive decision-making.

Be sure to consult your audience as well as to your data. When the CEO faces a problem understanding what is going on and their first thought is, "I need your perspective on this," you’ll know you’ve succeeded—not as an analyst, but as a true strategic partner.