Who Can a CEO Talk to When They Can’t Talk to Anyone Else?

Imagine you have begun questioning whether a longtime member of your leadership team is still the right person for the company.

Who do you talk to?

You probably can't discuss it openly with the rest of the organization.

Talking with other members of the leadership team could create uncertainty or political complications.

The executive in question certainly isn't the person you can use to work through your doubts.

Your attorney can help you understand the legal implications.

Your HR leader can explain the employment considerations.

Your spouse may listen and support you.

But none of those conversations necessarily gives you what you need: A confidential place to figure out what you actually think.

Some Decisions Are Difficult to Discuss Inside the Business

This problem extends far beyond personnel.

Should I sell the company?

I don't think my business partner and I want the same things anymore.

Our growth has stalled and I don't know why.

I'm worried about our cash position.

I don't know whether my child is capable of succeeding me.

I'm exhausted and I'm beginning to wonder whether I still want to do this.

These aren't always conversations a CEO can comfortably have inside the organization.

And yet they are exactly the conversations leaders need to have.

Confidentiality Changes the Conversation

There is tremendous value in having a room where you can put the issue on the table without worrying about organizational politics.

Not because the other people in the room have all the answers.

They don't.

The value comes from being surrounded by leaders who understand what it means to make decisions when the consequences ultimately come back to you.

They can ask questions.

Challenge assumptions.

Share experiences.

Point out something you haven't considered.

And sometimes simply say: “I've been there.”

That kind of conversation is difficult to replicate inside your own company.

The Room I Wish I Had

I spent more than a decade leading a business, and looking back, there were many times when better perspective would have helped me.

There were decisions I carried too long. Situations where I should have asked for help sooner. Times when the responsibility of running the company followed me home and affected other parts of my life.

Like many CEOs, I believed carrying that weight was part of the job.

Some of it is.

But carrying it alone doesn't have to be.

That experience is one of the reasons I became a Vistage Chair.

Vistage brings CEOs and business owners from noncompeting businesses together in confidential peer advisory groups where they can work through the business and leadership issues that are difficult to discuss anywhere else.

It isn't networking. It isn't a leads group.

And it isn't a room full of people telling you how to run your company.

At its best, it is a room full of accomplished leaders the challenge one another, give perspective, and help identify blind spots so we can make better decisions and drive better outcomes for our businesses.

Who's In Your Room?

Every CEO needs advisors.

But I believe there is a different question worth considering:

Where can you go when you need to have a conversation you can't have anywhere else?

If you don't have a good answer, I'd be happy to share more about the peer advisory group I lead here in New Jersey and what happens inside a Vistage group.

Email me at david.mazer@vistagechair.com

Next in this series: Why Smart CEOs Still Need Accountability.