For many years our mission statement was: “We exist to improve the effectiveness and enhance the lives of CEOs.” The issues we work on at a Vistage meeting or a Vistage one-to-one are strictly confidential. While ninety percent of the issues with which a CEO is dealing are related specifically to business, 10 percent are something else. It might be personal stuff. It might be a failing marriage, a crazy uncle or a problem with drugs in the family or some other difficult family dynamic that we all experience. Very few people have the opportunity to talk about it confidentially in a safe environment. Again, what goes on in a Vistage meeting stays in the room. We have the ability to talk, quite literally about: everything. And when a Vistage group is performing at a very high level, that’s what’s going on. We are talking about the most important things. We’re not talking about surface stuff. We’re talking about serious things that impact the CEO’s business and his or her life.
So I want to know some of the misconceptions you think that are out there about the professional coaching industry.
That question for me is a little difficult to answer because I don’t consider myself a professional coach. I consider myself more a facilitator than a coach. It really goes back to, in a Vistage group setting, the group does the coaching. Sometimes that coaching isn’t very much fun. Sometimes it isn’t soft, warm and fuzzy coming from other members who may be quite direct with their advice. I avoid coaching. I’m more of a facilitator. We try to coach less and simply facilitate more.
Very good insight. What are some of the common fears a CEO might have about stabilizing and growing their business?
The reality is that CEOs are human beings and they make mistakes and sometimes they make big mistakes. One of my colleagues likes to say, “We were recruiting new Vistage members and a bunch of human beings decided to show up.” They’ve got fears, like all of us, that keep people awake at night. But CEOs are all real people. They’re smart people, but nevertheless they’re just people and they all have issues. They all have baggage in one way or another and it has a tendency to get in the way of making effective decisions. So again, that’s where a Vistage group can come in.
How does being part of a Vistage Group help CEO’s to overcome and address those fears?
The process we follow is designed to help members take a deep dive when we’re working on a problem. We’re working to peel back the onion layers on these issues. We are working to get at the problem beneath the problem.
What usually happens is, somebody will come with a problem with which they want some help. They state the problem and the implications of the problem. Members then will work on the problem. We spend a lot of time asking questions. It turns out that eventually the group helps problem solve, suggesting alternatives and options. So from my perspective, I like a lot of outside advice and counsel. I like advisory boards. I like CEO peer groups. I like individual mentors, or mentors and coaches. And in my experience, the most successful companies, the most successful leaders, are the ones who are getting lots of feedback and they’re getting it from multiple sources. Vistage serves as one of those sources.
One of the major obstacles for CEOs is the cost and time of being a part of Vistage: The cost of hiring a facilitator, mentor, or coach. What are some recommendations or thoughts you have for that perception?
As you know, we work primarily with small to medium size businesses. Membership fees are definitely a consideration. There is no doubt about that. But my question to candidates is: how much is one really good idea worth?
If we get one really good idea a year, what’s the ROI on that? Perhaps more importantly, again, because we’ve spent a lot of time on a CEO’s blind spot problem: What is it worth to avoid a really bad mistake? One really bad decision can be incredibly expensive and even risk the company entirely.
I know of no CEOs who have any extra time, but we have 22,000 members who are participating in Vistage. They must find some benefit to it, to take time out of their daily schedule to go to a Vistage meeting. Also keep in mind I have facilitated over 500 Vistage meetings and conducted more than 6000 one-to-ones over the course of my career. My observation is that the highest performing Vistage groups have members who are going to their meetings to “give” rather than to “get” something.
If you look at the numbers: 13 or 14 or 15 people in a group – you’re only going to be getting something 1/15th of the time. So most of the time you’re going to be giving your advice, you’re going to be giving your feedback, you’re going to be sharing what you know, what you have experienced, or just lending an ear to address issues of others.
I know that there are some common pitfalls and mistakes that CEOs make on their journey as a leader. Can you identify a common pitfall and how Vistage and the group itself can help them sidestep the pitfall?
