Live Data Technologies gives us a stat that's rough if you're building a career toward the C-suite: the average CRO now lasts about 18 months, and it's been getting shorter for years.

Behind that number is a punishing schedule: if you give a new CRO even a two-month grace period to find their footing, then account for how long it actually takes a board to source and hire a replacement, most CROs aren't getting a full year of real performance in the seat before the board has effectively already decided to move on. That's not enough time to be fired for missing a number. It's enough time to be fired for not being trusted with one.

I've outlasted that 18-month average for most of my career — not because I never missed a target, but because I stopped treating the number as the whole story. Break the target into its real parts (renewals, price increases, upsell, new logos, and the productivity you're betting on from sellers who haven't even been hired yet), and tell your board which piece is wobbling before they have to ask.

By showing your math, a miss becomes "here's what happened, and here's what we're doing about it" instead of just "we failed." That's what actually buys you time — not because boards enjoy bad news, but because they trust the person delivering it.

I wrote the longer version of this for Management Matters, and it's the subject of its own chapter in The CRO's Guide to Winning in Private Equity.