FORMING A CEO PEER GROUP
Each CEO Advisory Council Peer Group has its own unique characteristics, and CEO placement into a group is something we take very seriously.
Before members are added to a peer group, they must go through a thorough screening process where we assess the following:
- Your business: its track record, prospects for growth, and key strategic challenges
- Your long-term goals and how you define success
- Your leadership style and your organizational effectiveness
- Your areas of expertise, and, correspondingly, your areas of development
Only with this knowledge in-hand do we recommend an existing CEO Peer Group, or seek to match several CEOs from our waiting list to form a new peer group.
Once our CEO Peer Groups are formed, they provide the following to our members:
- Structured time to clarify your company needs with people who truly understand your position
- The opportunity to improve both your business and yourself
- Resolution of truly strategic business issues
- Networking resources including partners, professional services and connections to CEOs from other groups
- A committed group of professionals whose goals and needs closely resemble yours
- A strategic facilitator who guides the meetings and guides the process with you one-on-one
The Member's General Experience
Each group of CEOs is chosen for their complementary skills, businesses, and personalities. Directed by an extremely experienced facilitator, peer groups meet regularly in a highly structured, yet flexible environment that focuses on individual preparedness; an agenda comprised solely of strategic challenges; and a methodology that enables efficient pointed insight. It is important to note that these are not networking groups. Our CEO Peer Groups drive results and accountability in a way no ordinary peer group can.
CEO Peer Group meetings are where members receive the stimulation, insights, and reinforcements to make big, quantifiable improvements in their own organization. Well prepared for and tightly facilitated, what strikes everyone most is the transparency and candor that infuses the room. Behind the doors, you will have the security of learning business’ greatest lessons from experienced and respected leaders with no ulterior motives–from leaders just like you.
A Typical Peer Group Meeting Overview
Each CEO Peer Group meeting should be one of your most valuable business days. Members are individually prepared through one-on-one time with their peer group facilitator, during which you’ll review your goals since the previous meeting, discuss progress against your strategic goals, and together identify an area that could benefit from the feedback of your peers. All our group facilitators require the following from each member:
Preparedness
Every CEO is thoroughly prepared to present and contribute.
Attendance
Built on the concept of active reciprocity and investment in your fellow CEOs’ success, attendance is never an issue. Every member of the peer group is present at every meeting. Of course, there are always exceptions; however, it is really important for all members to make every effort to attend each monthly meeting.
Accountability
Members begin each meeting by updating fellow CEOs on how they put their feedback to work since their last meeting. Presenting members close each meeting by communicating what they intend to act on based on their peers’ input.
Directness
Our members have valuable experience and wisdom, thus they are encouraged to tell it like it is. They tell other CEOs the blunt truth when nobody else will, truly providing feedback you can’t get anywhere else. Although, the “blunt truth” is always, always objective, and never personal. The CEO Advisory Council peer groups are based on mutually shared respect, support, and trust.
Confidentiality
The success of the CEO Peer Groups relies on complete confidentiality and the ability to discuss the most sensitive issues openly. For this reason, all members sign a confidentiality agreement and adhere to strict standards.
A 6-Month Glance At a Group Member's Experience
Month by month accountability and processing of advice is just part of the commitment. Working directly with the CEO Advisory Council’s facilitators one-on-one, making connections and maximizing the opportunities laid out for you with membership complete the year.
The following is an overview of what our members go through within each peer group over the course of 6 months. Of course, each peer group is different and the following is meant as an overview and is not prescriptive.
January
Meet one-on-one (i.e., your first 2-hour coaching session) with the group facilitator to draft your Annual Plan and Company Introduction in preparation for your first peer group meeting. This is where the group facilitator/coach will delve into more details pertaining to the results of your InsightDNA assessment.
Attend first peer group meeting and present your Annual Plan for feedback. The facilitator captures feedback, as well as key takeaways and plans for action. This starts your list of accountabilities for the year. Please note, even if you join an existing peer group in the middle of the year, you will still create your Annual Plan and Company Introduction as a means to get to know the other members of the peer group and vice versa.
February
Meet one-on-one with your peer group facilitator/coach to update the Annual Plan based on peer feedback, and document the core strategic goals in your own personal CEO Scorecard. Your CEO Scorecard acts as your main source of updates for your peers. The facilitator/coach will continue reviewing the results of your InsightDNA assessment and working with you to continue making progress towards areas you would like addressed. Of course, you will attend your next CEO Peer Group session where you will provide an update on the items emanating from the previous meeting you agreed to apply in your own work environment.
March
As an example, knowing that one of your goals is to learn more about how artificial intelligence (AI) may aid your company in being more efficient, your group facilitator may connect you with a CEO from another peer group who recently implemented AI in her manufacturing plant to share her lessons learned. During this month’s one-on-one, your facilitator/coach and you may focus the whole time on a solution you implemented based on feedback from your peers. The two of you may come up with new metrics to measure the success of the solution over time.
Attend your next peer group meeting and provide an update on the progress you have made since the last meeting and provide feedback to other members of the group.
April
Meet one-on-one with your peer group facilitator/coach to review your CEO Scorecard. You realize that in planning to hire a CIO, you may actually need a CTO, but aren’t sure which is the right move. Together you draft a business case for feedback from the group. The facilitator/coach may recommend that you consider using the InsightDNA assessment to help screen some of your CTO candidates since the assessment only takes 6 minutes to complete.
Attend your next peer group meeting and provide an update on the progress you have made since the last meeting and provide feedback to other members of the group.
May
Attend your next one-on-one and the next CEO peer group meeting. You may have come across a really good solution for a challenge that another member is experiencing so you plan to present your proposed solution in the next peer group meeting so that it can be vetted by the group and more importantly, it can be reviewed for consideration by the member who is experiencing the challenge.
June
Meet one-on-one with your facilitator/coach and review metrics to quantify the improvements in your workplace that you have made over the past 6 months. Your results will be shared with the rest of the members in the next peer group meeting where you will all share similar information.
During the one-on-one meeting, you will retake the InsightDNA assessment so that your facilitator/coach and you can review the results in the next one-on-one to determine if any changes have occurred since your baseline was generated at the start of your CEO Peer Group experience.