Peer Groups
Have You Considered Joining a Peer Advisory Group?
When you are running a business you are often the sole decisionmaker, the person everyone turns to – but you may not have a trusted place to turn yourself to pressure test ideas and decisions.
You may have an accountant, an attorney, a strong team, but you are still wrestling with important decisions alone.
At PLC, we bring business owners and presidents together in confidential peer groups to work through the real challenges of running a company in real time.
It is lonely at the top. You can be surrounded by people all day and still have no one you can speak to completely openly.
You can’t tell your employees you’re worried about making payroll. You may not want to tell your partner you’re questioning the relationship. Your family is tired of hearing about the employee that is driving you crazy.
The things owners need to discuss in a peer group often sound like:
“I know I need to make a change, but I’m afraid to leave the devil I know.”
“I can’t get away, everything depends on me.”
Or, “We are growing, but everything still comes back to me. It’s exhausting.”
Professional advisors bring essential expertise. A peer group adds something different: an ongoing relationship with other business owners who understand the responsibility because they carry it themselves.
At PLC, owners have a confidential place to take off the brave face, ask the uncomfortable questions, and work through what comes next.
Here’s an example:
A president who wants to relieve some of his decision-making pressure and create space to spend more time in a visionary capacity. He promotes his VP to president and re-titles himself CEO.
The new president has been a very loyal employee for a very long time and knows the operation of the business inside and out.
A few months into the change, the CEO is frustrated. An example feeding that frustration is when the new president took a pass on a great opportunity because he felt the current staff was at capacity.
The other employees are frustrated because whenever anyone suggests a change, the new president says, “No, this is how we’ve always done things.”
The CEO is torn because this employee has been so loyal and has done a great job in the past.
The CEO brings this issue to his PLC group. The group asks questions. They do not jump to conclusions. They do not tell the CEO what he “should” do. They ask questions, like:
“Have you clearly defined what the role requires?”
“Does this person know they are falling short?”
“Are you keeping him because of loyalty or because you think it’s the right seat for him?”
“He’s an operational expert, but have you provided the training and education he needs to be in this kind of leadership role?”
Through the conversation, the CEO may discover that the only option is not to keep this employee or fire him. There may be a better role, a clearer performance plan, or a conversation that probably should have already happened.
Having thoughtful peers to work through the challenge can help turn intention into action.
The PLC approach can be explained in three steps:
Bring the real issue: Members need to be able to speak honestly. A confidential environment creates a safe place.
Broaden the perspective: Members ask questions, challenge assumptions, and share experience, expertise, and perspectives.
Commit to a next step: The discussion should help the member decide what to do. The group provides support and accountability.
A couple of central ideas:
A business does not have to be in trouble for its owner to benefit. Growth creates difficult decisions.
Experience doesn’t eliminate the need for perspective. Everyone has blind spots.
When being the only person in the room with all the answers starts to feel like a questionable business strategy, call me. Lori Dann | 847.287.4523 | [email protected]
