Sit Down! Speak Up! Cash In!
A CEO's Guide to Peer Advisory Groups
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Lonely at the top? You don’t have to be! —Roger Goodell, Commissioner, National Football League
I have yet to find a comprehensive how-to manual for running a company. I believe that is because there is no exact science in doing so; running a business is not cookie-cutter. If it were, more people would do it and we’d all be successful. But no two situations are exactly the same. There are nuances that are all different at any point in time, like the competition, your team, and the economy, to name a few. With those differences, solutions are not the same.
It can be very lonely operating as an owner or CEO, particularly if you do not have a partner or partners and when there is no manual. Who do you talk to? Who can you confide in? Who can check your thinking? Who can inspire you with new ideas?
The short answer is your peers can help you help yourself and your company while you simultaneously do the same thing for them. That’s simply the beauty of joining a peer advisory group. As I said earlier, the benefits work on both a surface and a deep level. The benefits are the sole reason you’d participate.
I’ve been including snippets from the so-called trenches of business to assist in making my points. Let’s go into some depth now, where you’ll find several detailed illustrations to think about. First, meet Bill! He’s having a very bad day!
News from the Trenches
It’s shortly after seven o’clock in the morning, and as usual, Bill is already putting out fires. While driving his company truck to his first peer council meeting, he’s on a conference call with his management team. Bill needs a solution to his latest problem: how to please the general contractor without cutting into his construction company’s profits. Why does Bill always have to be the one to have all the solutions, all the right answers? Why can’t his senior project manager, Todd, fix this? Todd has been with him for a long time and should know how to do this.
He wonders why Todd hasn’t taken care of this issue and, instead, let it get this far. As a business owner, have you ever felt like Bill? When there is a mistake in your company, who owns it? Who makes it right? Who ensures it doesn’t happen again? And who pays the price? As in Bill’s situation, he will bear the consequences because he is the owner. It’s always the owner’s money, reputation, and expense at stake. As CEO, Bill has experienced this scenario far too many times. Bill’s problem was this: his largest client, a general contractor, wanted to change the design from the initial blueprint that Bill based his bid on. The underlying problem wasn’t just the change—in this case, it’s the way the situation is being handled by Todd. This wasn’t the first time Bill had to intervene to solve a client issue after Todd had mismanaged it. Todd has shown a consistent lack of communication and an inability to anticipate problems.
Bill knew the client was wrong, but Todd’s mismanagement had put his company on the defensive. With little time to spare, Bill had to keep his client on good terms while preventing further damage and profit loss. With the phone still in his hand, Bill sighed and shook his head, wondering why he was continually plagued with these situations.
As Bill neared the building to attend the council meeting, he wound his conference call to an end. His first thought was that he didn’t have time to attend the meeting. He was already working fifty-five to sixty-five hours a week, and today, like most days, his business and employees needed him. Bill shook his head and sighed, wondering how other CEOs did it. He must not have the secret. There never seemed to be enough time in the day. No matter how much time he spent working, he never seemed to approach the vision he once had for his business. Still, he had nothing to lose by attending his first peer council meeting. He parked the truck and went inside.
Slipping his phone into his pocket, Bill entered and first saw the My Transition™ chart. He was being asked to rank his mind-set at that moment on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. It was only 8:00 a.m., and Bill ranked his mind-set as a 2.
At times like these, Bill felt exhausted, knowing that he carried the burden of creating solutions. That certainly wasn’t what he envisioned when he started his business. Every day, another unknown or obstacle seemed to appear. Bill wished he had someone he could count on to provide him with advice and a different perspective. He wanted to make the right decisions, but he knew he didn’t have all the answers. Plus, he had nobody to share his concerns that understood. He couldn’t share his company setbacks with his wife, nor could he confide in his employees or his competitors. Bill needed unbiased feedback, but he’d quickly learned that business owners like him lack a supportive network. It was, indeed, lonely at the top.
Does Bill’s morning sound familiar? Do you hit the ground running before you even get your foot out the door in the morning? Are your workdays twelve to fourteen hours long on weekdays and/or on weekends? Long hours are a common complaint among business owners, who often need downtime more than anything. At the meeting, Bill had several problems he needed to solve—not only to enjoy the benefits of owning his own company, but also to keep his business growing. Bill already knows how to run a successful business, but he knows it can be even better, more successful.
When I met Bill, he was frustrated and tired of being tired. Bill had confidence from owning a multimillion-dollar business, but he wanted it to be so much better. I could see Bill was confident on the outside. Unfortunately, every decision Bill made was the result of trial and error. Bill has a good business that provides a quality service. But he knows that there is no handbook that tells business owners how to overcome the daily challenges they’re certain to face. The security and flexibility he thought would come with being his own boss were nowhere in sight. Unfortunately, Bill’s predicament is all too common among business owners.
As Bill began attending the council meetings, I noticed a change come over him that I’d seen before. He and his peers shared the angst of owning or running a busy company with each other, and the discourse offered on how to best manage the negativity, the operations snags, the ineptitude of others that occasionally created problems, the joys and triumphs of successful ventures, the freedom entrepreneurship can bring, and so much more contributed toward an ability for everyone in the group to form close bonds. In Bill’s case, he felt much less isolated and adrift in indecision.
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About the Book
Discover how a peer advisory group can reconnect you with the clarity, creativity, competitive advantage, and energy that first inspired you to start your own business or to take the reins of an existing enterprise.
“Tina nailed it! Every word is spot-on and accurate. I’ve been in peer advisory groups for the last twenty-five years, and 50 percent of the successful business owners I know and work with are in one as well. They are a must for any business owner who wants to maximize his or her full potential.”
—Gino Wickman, author of Traction and creator of EOS
“Tina captures not only the how but the why in this great read on peer advisory groups. As a banker committed to helping their clients, we learn that no one person can do it all. Tina’s peer advisory groups have helped us to help our customers reach their true potential.”
—Mary Ann Scully, chairman and CEO, Howard Bank
“I have been in many peer groups in my career. They have been powerful for my companies and my personal growth. This book gives insights I wish I would have had prior to being in these groups. This is a powerful how-to book.”
—Larry Linne, CEO, and author of Brand Aid and Make the Noise Go Away
“Structured, confidential peer mentorship groups have proved to be a particularly effective way for our members to accelerate their growth and reduce their risk, both as companies and as founders and owners.”
—Jim Flowers, executive director, VTKnowledgeWorks
About the Author
Tina Corner is the founder and CEO of LXCouncil, which is based in Annapolis, Maryland. The company name is derived from Leadership Exchange, and it’s quite fitting since the enterprise’s core mission is to assist businesses in finding the right peer advisory groups comprised of noncompeting business owners and leaders. These peer advisory groups offer participants an invaluable opportunity to exchange ideas on how to grow their companies, chart a path to enhanced success, and learn how to deal with business problems more effectively.
Tina’s vast experience in working with peer advisory councils goes back to when she owned a franchise of The Alternative Board. The firm specialized in the development of peer advisory groups for business owners. After nearly 10,000 hours spent successfully developing peer-to- peer councils under the TAB umbrella, Tina sold her franchise in 2012. At the time, it was the fastest-launched franchise in TAB history. Tina’s franchise membership grew to include nearly fifty Maryland companies in less than two years and nearly eighty upon her exit, making her the largest single-owner peer board franchisee in the world.
Tina was recently president at Intellectual Innovations, LLC, where she managed the intellectual property and implemented the executive training of the Noise Reduction SystemTM (NRS), which is the proprietary system developed from the book Make the Noise Go Away by Larry G. Linne. The training program is offered through universities and colleges, associations and partners located nationally and internationally. Now Intellectual Innovations is a strategic partner with LXCouncil, providing proprietary tools for its members.
Tina has more than twenty years of experience in senior executive positions in every size company from start-ups to a multibillion-dollar global telecom organization with P&L responsibility for over $1.2 billion and 1,300 employees.
She is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development, has a BS in marketing and business logistics from the University of Missouri, and is certified in DISC and PIAV behavior assessments.
To learn more about Tina and her company and about how a peer advisory council could help you and your business, visit www.LXCouncil.com or call 410-970-4771.