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The First 90 Days
as VP:
Executive Presence
Playbook

The exact framework used by 200+ Senior IT Leaders to make the Director-to-VP transition — without losing their technical credibility.

200+
Senior IT Leaders
90 Days
Structured Framework
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The Invisible Ceiling

You're technically excellent.
You're still being passed over.

Most Senior IT Directors hit an invisible wall around Year 10. Their technical delivery is flawless. Their teams perform. Their systems run. And yet — the VP role keeps going to someone else.

The gap isn't capability. It's visibility, positioning, and the ability to speak the language of the board.

The first 90 days in a VP role — or preparing for one — are the highest-leverage window of your career. Most leaders spend them proving technical competence. The ones who get noticed spend them building executive presence and strategic credibility.

"You're invited only when things break — never when the strategy is being shaped. This playbook changes that."
— Rajiv Upadhyay, Gravitas Academy

Inside the Playbook

Five frameworks. 90 days. One clear path forward.

Not theory. Not inspiration. Frameworks you can use in your first week as VP — or your first week preparing for the role.

01

The Executive Presence Audit

Diagnose exactly where your presence is strong and where it's costing you C-suite credibility — in under 20 minutes.

02

The Stakeholder Map (Days 1–30)

Identify your five critical relationships and the precise sequence to build them — before your first all-hands.

03

The Strategic Communication Shift

Convert your technical updates into board-level language using the SCRAP framework — with worked examples.

04

The Positioning Playbook (Days 31–60)

Build cross-functional visibility without self-promotion — the moves that get you invited into strategy rooms.

05

The 90-Day Review Template

The exact format to present your first 90 days to the C-suite — demonstrating strategic thinking, not just delivery status.

What Leaders Are Saying

The framework works. Here's the evidence.

I'd been a Director for six years. Six months after working through Rajiv's frameworks, I had my first conversation with the CHRO about the CTO path. The stakeholder mapping alone changed how I spend my Mondays.

AVP Technology

Indian MNC, Financial Services

I kept being told I needed to "be more strategic" with no indication of what that actually meant. This playbook gave me the specific language and behaviours — not the theory. I used the SCRAP framework in my next ExCo presentation and it landed differently.

Senior Director, Platform Engineering

Global Technology Company

Rajiv Upadhyay

About the Author

Rajiv Upadhyay

Executive Coach · Gravitas Academy · 200+ Senior IT Leaders Coached

Rajiv works with Senior IT Leaders at the inflection point between technical expertise and executive leadership — helping them make the Director-to-VP transition with clarity, not just confidence.

His methodology, the Gravitas Shift Model, addresses the three specific gaps that technically excellent leaders face: Presence, Positioning, and Political Savvy — the capabilities that separate a high-performing Director from a credible VP.

This playbook distils the frameworks he uses in one-on-one coaching into a self-directed 90-day structure you can start this week.

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