Learn like a CEO. A leadership discussion with Annina Müller

You are, finally, the CEO or a member of the C-Room of your organization, and you may think it’s time to go-go-go, execute, roll-out, and deploy, at full speed, what you know. It’s showtime, basically. It’s time for action, as you know what’s right and what’s needed. It’s more about what to do, fast and furious. Think again. Being at the top implies more than the perfect execution of a corpus of learnings gained as you climbed up the corporate ladder. Do CEO even know who they truly are, and are they able to communicate their vision, show up and have presence and impact?

This is why we (FP) sit down with Annina Müller (AM), who is an expert in the field. Here is our exchange.

Who are you, what do you do for a living and what’s your journey?

I help CEOs and top teams move from invisible influence on to visible impact, because in today’s transparent world, leaders who stay behind the curtain lose the narrative. Power used to be about posture. Now, it’s about presence: real, resonant, and rooted in truth. As the Head of Executive Advisory at LIFT.THAT.CURTAIN — a platform designed to multiply the success of CEOs and top teams through intentional positioning — and the Co-Founder of The Loft of Shared Dreams, I work with leaders who understand that visibility isn’t vanity, it’s strategic advantage. In an age where leadership is performed in real-time and influence is often mistaken for volume, I help leaders reclaim their narrative with precision, depth, and clarity, transforming presence into strategic power.

I started in the world of premium and luxury fashion. It was those experiences that led me into the world of management consulting, coaching and founding my own advisory firms. And ultimately, through guiding organizations and leadership teams, I uncovered my deeper question: how do power, purpose, and presence evolve in those tasked with shaping not just companies, but cultures and industries? I realized that powerful visibility is not a performance, but it’s a product of inner clarity.

Over the past 15 years, I merged disciplines from branding and transformation to strategic narrative and executive advisory, crafting a method that empowers leaders to show up with both authority and authenticity. My approach helps CEOs move from behind the curtain into the spotlight, not as performers, but as credible, human forces of influence. Whether through my proprietary Spotlight Framework or deeply personal advisory relationships, I equip leaders to lead with narrative control, emotional intelligence, and strategic foresight.

As a passionate ski instructor in the Swiss Alps, I see leadership like mountain navigation, requiring perspective, preparation, and the courage to move in uncertainty. I have built my career not by staying in safe zones, but by constantly asking: what does meaningful leadership look like, and how can we make it visible, to create an impact beyond?

Coaching CEO-s? Really? How do you do it? What are the steps of your own methodology? 

Working with top-tier leaders means operating at a high cognitive, emotional, and strategic altitude. These are people with limited time, high expectations, and sharp instincts, which means my insights need to be not only concise, but bold, original, and immediately relevant. Repeating what they’ve already heard and read repeatedly elsewhere is a fast track to irrelevance. This requires deep listening, peeling off the layers from the obvious to what’s beneath the surface, to not only work on the symptoms but also get to the root cause. Being a trusted advisor, if you want to be successful in business, you must be successful in life. Systemic thinking, connecting the dots, while using your intuition to guide the person through the process.

One of the biggest challenges is earning the space to challenge, not flatter. At the highest levels, honest opinions become rare; people around them often avoid saying the hard things. My role is to bring the kind of truthful friction that catalyzes growth. My clients don’t need more noise. They need clarity with edge. My methodology isn’t built on frameworks for performance or perception. It starts deeper, with identity. Not as a static label, but as a living core that anchors a leader through volatility, scrutiny, and scale. Identity, when clarified and owned, becomes presence. And presence, when intentionally shaped, becomes influence.

What’s the Spotlight framework?

At the heart of my work is the Spotlight Framework, a signature model of LIFT.THAT.CURTAIN that moves leaders through three pivotal transformations:

• Dimmed Light to Inner Light (self-awareness and strategic clarity)
• Inner Light to Spotlight (visible, aligned, and unmistakable presence)
• Spotlight to Legacy (expanded influence and lasting impact)

But methodologies are only as good as the courage they invite. I listen beneath the surface, connect systemic dots, and challenge with empathy. I am there to stretch, with precision and care. Leadership is personal. Influence is earned. And success is not just about business metrics, but the inner compass that drives CEOs.

What kind of C-Room do we need in the era of uncertainty and AI?

In a future of decentralized power and real-time transparency, trust will remain the core currency, but it will be harder to earn and easier to lose. The leaders who thrive will be those who combine emotional clarity and relational intelligence with systemic foresight. In an era defined by exponential change, AI acceleration, and fractured trust, leadership is no longer about having the right answers. It’s about asking the right questions, out loud, in public, and with integrity.

Today’s C-suites face a paradox: power is more visible, but also more vulnerable. The world is watching, reacting, and reshaping narratives in real-time. In this environment, performance alone is not enough. Presence, consistent, credible, and conscious, becomes the new differentiator. The leaders we need now are not louder, but clearer. Not perfect but aligned. The future belongs to executives who lead with both foresight and self-awareness. Those who understand that how they show up shapes what people believe, internally and externally.

Too often, visibility is either avoided or overplayed. Some leaders remain underexposed, losing narrative control and market confidence. Others over-perform, diluting their credibility through overexposure. Both miss the mark. Strategic presence is the middle path, where trust is built, and reputations are forged under pressure. The C-suites of the future won’t be filled with figureheads. It will be occupied by leaders who dare to be seen, not as brands, but as real, thinking, feeling, future-making humans.

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