The Benefit of CEO Peer Groups with Jim Porcarelli

Intro: Welcome to the Daily Bolster. Each day we welcome transformational executives to share their real- world experiences and practical advice about scaling yourself, your team and your business.

Matt Blumberg: Welcome to The Daily Bolster. I'm Matt Blumberg, co- founder and CEO of Bolster, and I'm here today with Jim Porcarelli. Jim is a CEO coach and executive coach. He's a Vistage Forum chair. He's a longtime media and advertising executive, and I'm delighted to have him here today. Jim, good to see you.

Jim Porcarelli: Thanks for having me.

Matt Blumberg: All right, so one of the things that you do in life as a Vistage chair is you moderate peer forums, CEO forums, and some key executive forums as well. For people who know me and who've been listening to this for a long time, I'm a huge fan of that as a developmental tool, a really fundamental tool for CEOs to scale themselves up. I've been in my own group for years and years, so I'm a big fan of that, but we've never actually had someone on the show to talk about what are the things that CEOs actually get out of a peer group. So usually we do top threes. Today, we have a bonus. So what are your top four, Jim?

Jim Porcarelli: So I'll start with unbiased feedback, because every leader really does very much need, and good leaders want, unbiased feedback. And it's hard to get unbiased feedback from people who report directly to you or are somehow involved in your business, your lawyers, your bankers, your finance folks. The forum really is great because it allows you to take recommendations and thoughts that others might not offer and you might not be so ready to receive. So it gives you more options, more opportunities to look at other ways of solving the issues that confront you.

Matt Blumberg: Yep. Unbiased feedback is great and there aren't a lot of places to get it because the people on your team, they'll be more informed than people in a forum, but they have their own bias they bring to it, as you say. So, all right, what's number two?

Jim Porcarelli: So number two is the imposter syndrome. I would say that every successful leader, and all leaders, should sometimes feel that they're not really ready for the role that they're in because what got them to this role isn't what now is expected of them to do. So by having a peer group, you hear that everybody's going through the same thing. So you then begin to realize that the reason you're in this leadership position as CEO or President is not because you have the answers, it's because you have the ability to find the right answers.

Matt Blumberg: That is an excellent point, and it is true. Most great CEOs do have imposter syndrome, and I think there's a myth out there that you don't when you get there, where it's limited to first- time CEOs or something like that. But that's a good one. So, all right, what's number three?

Jim Porcarelli: So number three is a combination of vulnerability and empathy. By coming to a peer group, a group of people who are highly successful and motivated as you are as a leader, you begin to feel comfortable letting them know what you don't know, and to elicit empathy from them to say, gosh, I've been in that position. I can tell you what it's like and I can also tell you how I solved it.

Matt Blumberg: Okay. Yeah, I mean, again, empathy is one of those things that's a little harder to come by when you're one- of- one in your organization.

Jim Porcarelli: Very difficult.

Matt Blumberg: Yeah. Okay. And the fourth and final and bonus.

Jim Porcarelli: Bonus one really is I don't think anybody ever has enough options. For many of us who are lifelong students, we like to know what options are out there and which ones haven't we considered and which ones have worked for other people. So bringing leaders together in a peer group as opposed to just one- to- one coaching, gives you the opportunity to hear how other people have addressed the situation with which you're confronted, or the solutions that they've found, or some of the things that they found out after they made their decisions. So it gives you real insight into how many options you may have before you make that critical decision.

Matt Blumberg: All right. Jim Porcarelli, CEO coach, Vistage Forum chair, thank you for being here today. I love all four of these things.

Jim Porcarelli: Thanks for having me, and happy holidays.