10 REASONS to Test-drive a Vistage Peer Group
I invite you to an opportunity to experience a CEO peer advisory group in action and hear from a world-class speaker.
On Thursday, November 3, I’m hosting an invitation-only breakfast meeting to allow CEOs and business owners the opportunity test drive a Vistage group meeting. We’ll tackle a real issue that someone in the room is facing. Then, as a group of CEO peers, we’ll provide new perspectives, ideas, and solutions. This is a chance to see the real magic of a peer group meeting, which isn’t normally open to visitors. Test-driving the Vistage CEO peer group process is the best way to experience the power of peers.
Our guest speaker, Herb Meyer, will speak on how key trends in politics, economics and culture affect business leaders and their companies in today’s global market. Herb is credited with being the first senior U.S. Government official to forecast the Soviet Union’s collapse, for which he later was awarded the U.S. National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal.
I know you’ll get a lot of value from the breakfast meeting, I hope you’ll be able to join us. Let me know if you have any questions, or reserve your seat at the table at www.vistage.com/seattleleaders.
Location/Venue:
Bellevue Club (Olympic Ballroom)
11200 SE 6th St
Bellevue, WA 98004
Take care,
Kevin
Kevin McKeown, Vistage Chair
LinkedIn | Leadership Close Up | Twitter
P.S. Here are 10 reasons why a business owner or chief executive should join a CEO peer group:
Growing your business is never easy. With apologies to Aristotle, Richard Franzi likes to say: ‘The whole effort of CEOs working together is more than the sum of those same CEOs working separately.’ Personally, I have belonged to many CEO peer groups and have derived great benefit. –Henry DeVries, Forbes contributor
DeVries pulls this Top 10 list for his Forbes article from Franzi’s book, Critical Mass: The 10 Explosive Powers of CEO Peer Groups:
1. Safe Haven
Confidentiality allows each member to be totally open about issues. It provides a safe environment where a CEO can work through topics that he or she is unable to discuss with others directly associated with their business.
2. Solid Reasoning
When a CEO peer group is working on a challenge for one of their members, having diverse perspectives can pay huge dividends for the quality of the discussion and the depth of the exploration undertaken.
3. Real Feedback
When a peer member asks for unfiltered feedback, he or she gets just that. Truth can be hard to swallow sometimes, but it is good for business leaders to have their ideas challenged sometimes.
4. Guidance
The CEO peer group allows the executive to create their own personal guidance system. This steering committee of seasoned pros can be helpful when charting a course through difficult waters
5. Motivation
The element of accountability can be underestimated by members when they are new to a CEO peer group. Everyone, from time to time, can benefit from having a respected peer hold their feet to the fire.
6. Magnification
The power of a CEO peer group includes the ability to focus the collective awareness of many executives on one specific issue. The result is an intensity of thought capable of delivering much greater mental energy.
7. Illumination
An ever-present challenge for CEOs is to continue to discover information previously not known to them. When a member receives new information from the group, it is as if a light goes on for them and they can see clearer.
8. Molecular
The power a CEO peer group creates in its members a new structure for gathering fresh insights The groups not only help solve problems, they help members grow as a leader and as a person.
9. Explosive
Most businesses, even successful ones, can develop organizational inertia that is hard to overcome. A CEO peer group can give members “escape velocity” to free them from earth-bound issues (at least for half a day each month).
10. Insurance
The majority of new businesses fail. By sharing in the wisdom of others, the CEO can increase the chance of the firm to survive and thrive. By taking this one simple act, CEOs begin to turn the odds in their favor.
“Most executives who join a CEO peer group stay in the program,” says Franzi, who estimates the renewal rate to be 80%. “The reason they remain are as varied as the individual members. But the power of the process is undeniable.”
I look forward to seeing you Thursday, 11/3. If you can’t make 11/3 then let’s talk about opportunities to engage my CEO groups on 11/17 or 12/15.
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