A business can be performing well and the assessment can still be moving against you.
Most CEOs know how they're performing. Far fewer know how they're being judged. Those are two different scorecards, and only one of them shows up in the monthly pack.
I had three separate conversations this month, with three different CEOs, and they all kept circling back to the same thing. Different businesses. Different sectors. All performing. And in each case the CEO felt something was off without being able to point to what.
You may recognise the moment it starts
A board meeting that went fine but didn't quite land. A question from the lead partner, sharper than the numbers warranted, that stayed with you on the drive home. A quiet word from the chairman, framed as supportive, that hit home because it was true. Or a peer CEO leaving a similar business after sixteen months, the official story "mutual agreement", and you doing the quiet arithmetic on your own timeline.
None of it is a crisis, and that's exactly why it gets filed under "something to watch".
A number that changes the conversation
In AlixPartners' 10th annual PE leadership survey, 86% of CEO departures from PE-backed businesses were initiated by the fund. Not the CEO resigning. Not mutual agreement. The fund deciding.
The real story is in how those decisions actually get made: gradually, through operating partner calls, chairman debriefs, and conversations after the board meeting that you're never part of. By the time someone says the concern out loud, the conclusion has usually already formed.
Which means the absence of negative feedback is not evidence that confidence is growing. Sometimes it just means the evaluation is happening somewhere you can't see it.
And the ground is moving underneath all of this. The average PE holding period has reached 6.6 years, the longest on record. Longer holds change the scorecard. The relationship that felt solid in year two is being tested under different conditions in year six.
The assumption worth challenging
"If I keep delivering, the rest will take care of itself."
I believed that for a long time. Most capable CEOs do. It's the belief that got you here, and it's correct about almost everything. This is the exception. Building a strong business and building confidence with the people who ultimately decide your future are not the same work. Both matter. Only one shows up in the reporting pack.
One question
When did someone last tell you something genuinely uncomfortable about how you're landing in that room, and you could be sure it was the complete picture rather than the diplomatically managed version?
If you can't name the person, that's the signal worth examining most carefully.
First published on LinkedIn, 29 July 2026. Adapted for this site.