Know-How by Ram Charan

Know-How : The 8 skills that separate people who perform from those that don't
by Ram Charan

What the book meant to me:

Know-How to me is a giant skill, that combines leadership qualities (have the vision where the group should go, singular clarity on the single most important concept necessary to get there, picks the hedge-hog concept, etc.) with the skills of great management (reads peoples passions, skills, strengths accurately and matches them to a job they will succeed in, plays chess with future needs and human resources, captures efficiency by delegating a task to a specialist in the group, etc.)

So, if Know-How is the combination of great leadership and management, then it is the link between Buckinghams "One Thing You Need to Know to Succeed" and Jim Collins "Good to Great" Hedgehog leadership clarity.

Know-How is someone who reads the current market and future conditions accurrately, translates that to a "Where can we win?" question, and rebuilds everything to produce the next level of change needed: the social system, reporting and communcition, culture of being candid, openness in groups to new ideas, accountability. Success of the company is the most important thing, and other considerations take a back seat (egos, personal fear of failure, unnobtainable goals, group fears of change, etc.)

The beauty of this book is the way Charan explains that a group decision can be better than any single individual when solving an internal problem. External problems are probably best read by the CEO doing in depth research, investigation, probing, market watching, and setting up systems to follow key metrics, etc. Internal change is bought into when the right people are in the right seats in your 1st level group. You have evaluated them and placed them in positions of their strengths for their own and your groups success.

These key people together can solve their problems when they know everything the leader knows about how the future outlook appears and how the company can win. Realism, experience, and previous repositioning successes can help you gain credibility and opportunity to make these assessments. The group candidly, regularly, and under the tutelage of the leader forges the solutions.


The Eight Know-Hows
1. Positioning and Repositioning: Finding a central idea for business that meets customer demands and that makes money

2. Pinpointing external change: Detecting patterns in a complex world to put the business on the offensive.

3. Leading the Social System: Getting the right people together with the right behaviors and the right information to make better, faster decisions and achieve business results.

4. Judging People: Calibrating people based on their actions, decisions, and behaviors and matching them to the non-negotiables of the job.

5. Molding a Team: Getting highly competent, high-ego leaders to coordinate seamlessly.

6. Setting Goasl: Determining the set of goals that balances what the business can become with what it can realistically achieve.

7. Setting Laser-Sharp Priorities: Defining the path and aligning resources, actions, and energy to accomplish the goals.

8. Deatling with Forces Beyond the Market: Anticipating and responding to societal pressures you don't control but that can affect your business.


Personal Traits that can help or interfere with the know-hows:
Ambition: to accomplish something noteworthy BUT NOT win at all costs.
Drive and Tenacity: to search, persist, and follow-through BUT NOT hold on too long.
Self-confidence: to overcome the fear of failure, fear of response, or the need to be liked and use power judiciouisly BUT NOT become arrogant and narcissistic.
Psychological Openness: to bre receptive to new and different ideas AND NOT shut other peopel down
Realism: to see what can actually be accomplished AND NOT gloss over porblems or assume the worst.
Appetite for Learning: to continue to grow and improve the Know-Hows AND NOT repeat the same mistakes

Cognitive Traits that improve the Know-Hows
A wide range of Altitudes: to transition from the conceptual to the specific
A Broad Cognitive Bandwidth: to take in a broad range of input and see the big picture
Ability to Reframe: to see things from different perspectives.

How to be Happy in Business

Retweet @cooltweets June 15 2009

Leadership: do Good

Leadership

Your Business Can Inspire People The Way Nonprofits Do

Terry Barber, Forbes.com

It's not so hard, if you do real good, as nonprofits do.

Look at some of today's best corporate promises and slogans. You would think they belonged to nonprofit organizations. Here are a few of my favorites:

"To inspire and nurture the human spirit"--Starbucks ( SBUX - news - people ).
"Your potential, our passion"--Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ).
"To improve the lives of the world's consumers--now and for generations to come"--Procter & Gamble ( PG - news - people ).

Those aren't just lines from press releases about social responsibility. They are core statements of mission and purpose displayed on the corporations' Web sites. As brands today attempt to differentiate themselves from their many competitors, more and more of them have to be truly inspiring.

Companies that can genuinely leaven their commercialism with a sense of higher purpose are more likely to build powerful connections--intellectual, emotional and spiritual--with their customers. Those are exactly the kinds of connections you need to acquire and sustain a loyal and passionate following these days.

However, it isn't easy. Unless you are willing to genuinely associate with and support an inspiring cause, your customers will strike back with a vengeance. As the Cone 2004 Corporate Responsibility Report noted, when a company is perceived as acting badly, 90% of its customers will consider switching to other products or services.

In anticipation of a new wave of businesses entering the waters of inspiration, I'd like to provide four guiding principles that I have used with nonprofits for years. They can be used by anyone in business who aspires to inspire.

1. To inspire the consumer, you must help him believe in something he once thought was impossible. This is where innovators will thrive and hidebound institutions will die. Innovators think in quantum-leap fashion. Most institutions think incrementally. If you can only describe your company's dreams and ambitions in the context of a percentage of growth, you will inspire no one.

Here are two types of inspiration busters to avoid: "We want to be the best," as in AutoNation's ( AN - news - people ) "Driven to be the best," and "We want to be the most recognized," as in United Airlines' mission statement, "To be recognized worldwide as the airline of choice."

Both are noble. Neither is the least bit inspiring. Making me believe in something I once thought impossible takes words like imagine, dream, accelerate, change, empower and energize. A dramatic illustration of this was when Microsoft announced its HealthVault initiative, with a vision to build a platform that would store electronic medical records for every American--for free. It would then sell the service in other countries and ultimately transform health care for good.

Ask yourself this question: What would the world look like if you were to fulfill your mission tomorrow? Try asking that at your next team meeting. You will learn very quickly whether or not you have the capacity to inspire.

2. To inspire the consumer, you must show genuine appreciation for her business. Most nonprofit organizations are exceptionally good at making their donors feel special. Even the small contributor receives a thank you note, and usually at the $100 level there's a phone call too. By those standards, how many companies should you have received a thank you call from? I should get calls from the CEOs of Whole Foods ( WFMI - news - people ), Starbucks and American Express ( AXP - news - people ).

Loyalty programs are effective for retaining customers--until a better loyalty program comes along. People recognize that things like so-called customer-appreciation days are typically traps for more selling, so their loyalty is understandably tentative and short term.

Conversely, expressing genuine appreciation can start a lifelong relationship. Imagine how you would feel on receiving a voice mail that said simply, "Thank you for being such a great customer. We are not calling to sell you anything. We only want to say thank you." I received such a call recently. It was from my local nursery guy, on whose business my wife and I spend much of our discretionary income. His call was short, genuine and simple: "I am calling to tell you how much I appreciate your business." I received a similar call from someone at DirecTV ( DTV - news - people ) the same week. Now I won't even consider going elsewhere to buy plants or get a television signal.

3. To inspire the consumer, you must help him see that he is a part of a community of world changers. One of the most powerful fundraising terms is the word join. "Join the fight." "Join the cause." "Join me." Those exhortations all indicate that you can be a part of something bigger than yourself. More than ever before, our identity is defined by the communities we are a part of, even virtual ones.

If business wants to follow the lead of nonprofits, its leaders should participate in social media for the sake of connecting customers to other customers. Customers will then, like donors, show the way to new relationships and new markets. Create or tap into platforms for connecting people in and around your mission. Harley-Davidson ( HOG - news - people ) has done this very effectively with its "Join the Family You Have Always Wanted" campaign. What can your business offer that consumers will enthusiastically join you in?

4. To inspire the consumer, you must convey how you are making the world a better place. A short time back I had the privilege of traveling to Guatemala with the child sponsorship organization Compassion International. I had supported CI in a modest way for years, but after that firsthand look at how my dollars were being used to help truly impoverished children, my giving level will never be the same.

I saw this principle illustrated most dramatically when I toured the Huntsman Corporation's ( HUN - news - people ) offices in Salt Lake City. Throughout the building, wall photos showed people in towns and villages around the world where the company and its employees were providing medicine, clean water and education. The underlying message was: What we are doing as a company is helping make the world a better place. I also see this when I walk into a Chick-fil-A store and see a life-size poster of the founder, Truett Cathy, side by side with pictures of young people in whose lives his company is investing. I see it at the headquarters of International Paper ( IP - news - people ), on whose Web site there is actually a link to donate to the World Food Programme.

No matter what kind of business you are in, you can learn from the nonprofit sector how to inspire your customers--but only if you are making the world a better place and can show it. Give them something to believe in that they once thought was impossible. Demonstrate genuine appreciation for their business. Help them connect with other customers as part of a larger community. And communicate how your business is improving the world.

Terry Barber is chief inspirator for Grizzard Communication Group, which advises nonprofit health care organizations and colleges and universities on philanthropic branding. His latest book is The Inspiration Factor. His Web site is www.inspirationblvd.com.

Positivity.org


If you're successful half the time, try doubling your efforts.

Build on the Good that you have now --- family, happy clients, whatever it is you have you love - make it better, build on your strength!

On a positive note I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. · ·

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. · ·

I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life. · · I've learned that making a "living" is not the same thing as making a "life." · ·

I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. · ·

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back. I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can,happiness will find you. · ·

I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. · ·

I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one. · ·

I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch - holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. · · I've learned that I still have a lot to learn. · ·

I've learned that you should pass this on to someone you care about. · ·

I just did. Sometimes they just need a little something to make them smile. Note: People will forget what you said, People will forget what you did, but People will never forget how you made them feel... "

Positivity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Positivity is a term popularized by journalist Albert Nerenberg to mean an emphasis on the positive in the face of the gloominess of the 21st Century. Nerenberg was surprised that officially, Positivity is not truly recognized as a word. The term was featured in a series published by the Montreal Gazette^[1], which featured new trends in culture and science which emphasized hope, intelligence, and human progress in face of war, fear and climate change. Also the term might simply be a calque or loan translation from the French positivité, something possible in a city like Montreal where language interference (English-French and French English) is a common occurrence.

PositivityBlog.Org

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
- Anais Nin

I think that one of the most effective ways to improve your life is simply to think in a more positive way.

This is of course nothing new and not that simple. If it was, well, then at least most of us would already be doing it.

So, why aren’t we more positive? I can think of a few reasonable reasons.

We think it is like it is - It´s easy to confuse what has happened to you, the story of your life, with now and the future. The past does not necessarily equal the future. If you believe it does then it does. But if you don´t if you believe it does then it doesn´t. If you change your way of thinking you can change your behaviour, habits and your life.

Social programming – A big reason many think that things are like they are and will always be that way is because no one ever told them that there was an alternative. The school, newspapers and other influential forces tells us we have a life and an identity that is us throughout our lives. And at least in much of the media, negativity is the normal filter to view the world through. We hear this every day when we are young and very impressionable. Then we continue believing it and it becomes a part of our sense of self. And we continue our lives on that path.

Lack of energy – Changing the many negative and neutral thoughts in our day to day life to positive ones can take quite a bit of energy. If you are stressed out by work and your personal life, if you aren´t eating and sleeping well and don´t take time to exercise there will be a lack of energy. And with that lack it´s easy to just feel too damn tired to change your thoughts, to just give up and revert to the familiar way of thinking.

Too reactive and mindful of what others may think – You may think, if I change and become more positive, what will other people say? That I´m weird, hyper, over-compensating or unhappy on the inside? Will they laugh, mock me and question this change in outlook on life? Or perhaps, they will actually like it and it will give me new opportunities down the line. Maybe it will bring success and my relatively comfortable life will be shaken up and change. Yeah, such thoughts can be some scary thoughts.

Lack of motivation –Not knowing exactly what´s in it for me on a personal and beneficial level.

Wanting to be right – Most of us have an ingrained sense that what we believe is right. Even though a belief we have might not be that useful. Or makes our lives out right miserable. It can be hard to give up a belief because then we have to give up being right.

We tried but failed (once or twice) – Throughout our lives, in school and society we are taught that we should not fail, that it is bad. This can make us very reluctant to take chances and keep trying beyond the initial attempt.

A lack of knowledge/too much disempowering information – You will most likely fail several times at first. You will make mistakes. You may be met with negativity or disinterest. It may take more than a weekend to get the success you envision. It may take longer than you think, perhaps months. And that is ok, that is normal.

Not knowing how the world (most of the time) works can discourage you. And the information about how the world works that you get from media, the people around you and society may not always be that accurate and effective. Instead, seek out relevant information for yourself to set your expectations to a reasonable level. Get information from a variety of different sources. And get it from people that have experience and knowledge about what you are interested in. A good starting point can be your local library, bookstore or amazon.com.

10 reasons why you should become more positive

1. You will create a better world around you as your surroundings will become affected and change due to your positive thoughts and actions.

2. You will make better first impressions. Everyone stereotypes, whether they want or not. A positive first impression can mean a lot in many situations and have a lasting effect throughout your relationship with that person.

3. You will focus on the good things in people. Not their faults. This will make things much better overall and improve all kinds of relationships.

4. It´s easier to become more productive when you stop laying obstacles in the middle of the road in the form of negative thoughts.

5. Work becomes more fun. Everything becomes more fun.

6. You become more attractive. People like positive people. Positive people make other people feel good about themselves and they don´t drag the mood down. Also, a positive attitude is an indicator – and source - of high self-confidence, a quality that just about everyone is attracted to.

7. Being negative has very little concrete advantages and is not a very empowering way to look at life.

8. It opens up your mind to focus on other ways of looking at things. Sometimes wonderful new ways you might not ever have thought about or experienced before.

9. It puts the Law of Attraction to better use. The Law of Attraction basically says: whatever you think about you attract into your life. As you replace the negative thoughts with positive thoughts you will start to attract more positive opportunities and people into your life.

10. You´ll waste less time. Negativity can be like a self-feeding loop. First you think one negative thought. It leads you to three more. And then you start examining your life in deeper detail through a depressing lens. When you get into a vicious cycles like this it can eat up hours, weeks and years of your life. It can drain a lot of your energy whilst trapping you in paralysis by analysis. And you probably won´t become that much wiser in the process. As mentioned in the Where is you time really going?, we live for about 24-28 000 days. Don´t waste them.

The how to do it

“Between stimulus and response is the freedom to choose.”
- Viktor Frankl

The Positivity Challenge is this: For 7 days you will try to only think positive thoughts. Whatever happens to you will see the good side of it and what positive things you can learn and take away from it. By the end of the week you will have started to discover the very real benefits of a positive thinking, how much negative thoughts there are both in you and the world (you might be surprised) and begun establishing a new habit to replace your old, less constructive one. And then you can continue from there.

What I suggesting here is not a mindless kind of positive thinking where you pretend everything is ok whilst the house and your bed is actually on fire. Instead it’s you noticing a situation or stimuli and then choosing a positive and useful response to it instead of reacting in a knee-jerk way.

It´s you focusing on what could be a more positive and useful solution for you. Or even better, what could be a win-win situation if the situation involves other people (which many important situations in our lives do). A win-win solution is more often an even more satisfying and beneficial solution than the one where only you win.

Now, how to go about it? Here are three tips for the first week.

Cut the negative threads quickly. Only allow yourself to go on a negative thread of thought for a set time-period, perhaps 30 seconds or a minute. Then just cut it off, drop it and think about what positive things you can get out of this situation. Don´t feed the negative thoughts with more energy or you might trap your mind in a downward spiral for quite a while. If you start going down a negative thread of thought it is important to cut it fast.

Realise that it is possible to choose what you think about and how you react. You don´t have live your life in reaction. Being reactive to everything is not very empowering. You have a choice. But it might take some time to make this click in your mind. Even though I understood this intellectually pretty fast it took a longer time to understand and accept it emotionally and on a deeper level.

Focus on the gap between stimuli and reaction. The more you think about this and try to use it by consciously choosing, over time (for me it was months but it can surely be achieved quicker) the gap will appear larger and larger and that will make the process easier.

Accept your feelings, don´t deny or refuse them – Although it´s often possible to just quickly cut off negative thoughts sometimes it might not be enough. Negative emotions can build up within you over time or you might feel be overwhelmed by a certain situation. Then you can try the counter-intuitive way and not keep the feeling out by fighting it.

Instead, accept the feeling. Say yes to it. Surrender and let it in.

Observe the feeling in your mind and body without judging it. If you just let it in and observe it for maybe a minute or two something wonderful happens. The feeling just vanishes. It sounds weird but give it a try.

In addition, here´s a bunch of other suggestions – some of them you might not be able to use fully within a week but instead over a longer time-span - to make this challenge easier and improve your life.

Get the physical fundamentals down. If you don´t have time to sleep a healthy amount of hours, eat properly and get exercise then you need to reprioritize. If you don´t do this it will be harder to become and stay positive. If you do reprioritize, your general sense of well-being will increase, you will feel stronger and have more energy. Use Where is your really time going? and Prioritize with the Pareto Principle to make better use of your time. Decrease stress using those two articles and the rest in the series How to double your productivity. Also, check out this simple way to feel really relaxed.

Act as if. Smile to feel happier. Move slower to relax. Use positive language. Act as if you are a positive person and you will start to feel and become more positive. It might feel weird at first, but it really works.

Start your day in a better way. Check out these five tips for a better beginning to your day.

Limit your time with really negative people – Some people feed on negative energy and whatever you try it never pleases them or changes their sour minds and moods. If nothing you do works then finally you might have to cut them out of your life or at least limit your time with them.

Model positive people. Find positive people in your surroundings or anywhere in time and space (through documentaries, biographies etc.) and learn from them. Find out how they handle everyday life, problems, setbacks and compare it to your own thoughts and how you would handle similar situations.

Focus on the now and future, not the past. A lot of people spend a lot of time thinking about on the mistakes they made in past. A better way is to think about the mistake you made and what you can learn from it. Then stop wasting your time and shift your focus to the present and the future where you can actually make a change.

Redefine “failure” and “proof”. You don´t have to learn much about successful people to realize that one of their key-strengths is that their way of looking at failure is widely different from more common one in society. As Michael Jordan said:

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Also, in a similar vain, thinking one example represents the whole world might not be the most helpful belief to hold. Yes, someone may have cheated on you, treated you badly at work before you were fired and your first business venture may have gone down in flames. But applying one or two bad examples to the whole world and the rest of your life will cause suffering for you long after those hurtful events happened. And could set you up for even more pain and disappointment through self-fulfilling prophecies and the Law of Attraction.

I don´t think these all these words are the truth about how the world around you and me works. Just as a pessimistic (or realistic) view of the world is not the truth either. I don´t believe there is one truth, but rather that the world changes due to the beliefs you have about it and the actions you take based on your beliefs. I do believe that this is a more useful model of how to view and interact with the world than a pessimistic one and that it´s a more enjoyable way of thinking. It is a way of thinking that increases happiness and joy in life. Something I think just about everyone wants.

“Though I might travel afar, I will meet only what I carry with me,
for every man is a mirror.
We see only ourselves reflected in those around us.
Their attitudes and actions are only a reflection of our own.
The whole world and its condition has its counterparts within us all.
Turn the gaze inward. Correct yourself and your world will change.”
- Kirsten Zambucka

Be your best and worry less

Be the Best of Whatever You Are

If you can't be a pine on the top of the hill,
Be a scrub in the valley, but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill,
Be a bush if you can't be a tree,
If you can't be a bush be a bit of grass,
And some highway happier make;
If you can't be a muskiek, then just be a bass,
But the liveliest bass in the lake!
We can't all be captains, we've got to be crew,
There's something for all of us here,
There's big work to do and there's lesser to do,
And the task we must do is the near.
If you can't be a highway then just be a trail,
If you can't be the sun, be a star;
It isn't by the size that you win or fail,
Be the best of whatever you are!

-Douglas Mallech

Wells Small Business Round Up: Gauging Customery Satisfaction

Gauging Customer Satisfaction

Are your customers happy with your products and services? If you don’t know, just ask them. Developing a customer satisfaction survey doesn’t have to be complex. In fact, the easier you make it on both yourself and your customers, the more likely you are to receive the honest answers that can help you dramatically improve your products, your service and, ultimately, your business.

According to business information resource CCH Business Owners Toolkit, there are really only two key areas to think about when creating a simple survey:

1. Ensuring that it covers all the key business activities—This generally includes products, services and support, delivery, ordering and billing and interactions with you and your employees.
2. Making it easy to complete—Keep it free of rankings of quality (e.g., a scale of one to five) and lengthy questions, and stick to key business activities with space to respond. You should also be able to keep it to one page, which increases the likelihood that customers will take the time to respond and makes faxing easier.

You can download a free customer satisfaction survey from CCH (requires free site registration). The document breaks the questions down into those areas described above. In each case, there are only two responses, “Outstanding” and “Needs Improvement,” along with space for a longer response (according to CCH, limiting the choices sends a clear message that you expect the products and service you supply to be the best available).

F. John Reh, Management Guide at online business resource About.com, notes that the best time to survey customers is when the experience is fresh in their minds. “If you wait to conduct a survey, the customer’s response may be less accurate. He may have forgotten some of the details,” he says. “She may answer about a later event. He may color his answers because of confusion with other visits. She may confuse you with some other company.” In addition, the number of times you survey customers should be in line with how often you interact with them and how seasonal your products or services are.

Reh adds that, if you do decide to expand your survey, you may want to include some that specifically address customer loyalty, such as:

• How likely are you to buy from us again?
• How likely are you to recommend our product/service to others?
• How likely are you to recommend our company to others?
• You also need to ensure that, regardless of the way in which you offer the survey (e.g., online or snail mail), it’s easy to complete and get back to you. Include clear instructions on how to complete and return the surveys. In the case of mail, include your fax number and a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

Once you’re received the completed surveys, use them. Track any trends you see and actively work to fix the problems or issues that customers surface. And make sure you offer feedback—let customers know their suggestions and complaints are being or have been addressed. It all starts with simply asking the questions, because if you don’t ask, you’ll never know.

CEO Peer Groups: Wells Small Business Round Up

Putting a CEO Peer Group to Work for You

CEO or peer advisory groups are becoming an increasingly common tool to help non-competitive small business owners voice and address their toughest challenges, while creating excellent networking opportunities. Groups like the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Inner Circle, Women Presidents’ Organization and a host of others have sprung up nationwide, all geared specifically to the needs of the small business owner.

“Participating in CEO peer groups is the best thing I’ve done in my business career,” says Andrew Lutts, CEO at website hosting and e-mail marketing services firm Net Atlantic, Inc. “I’ve made lasting friendships and built strong peer relationships, and gained new insight and perspectives on how others face similar challenges and opportunities. I’ve also gladly given business to other professionals in the various CEO groups I’ve participated in, as I became familiar with their services and developed a sense for how they provide value to their customers. In addition, the groups have helped me find great area business professionals to serve on Net Atlantic’s Advisory Board.”

These groups, typically composed of non-competitive small business owners and managers, are designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas and knowledge of peers that have faced similar challenges to growth and other aspects of their operations. “They provide a sounding board, as well as a place to pick up new ideas for running a business,” says Nancy Shenker, Principal at small business consultant theONswitch. Because you’re so close to your own business, a peer group can offer impartial, objective source support and advice. Peer groups also offer learning opportunities for their members, helping participants stay abreast of trends. And because of their non-competitive nature and strict confidentiality, members have a safe haven where almost no business issue is out of bounds.

“I view group meetings as a monthly, virtual ‘Board of Directors’ meeting with others who are experiencing or have achieved and overcome various common business challenges,” Lutts adds. “This kind of monthly objective review can be extremely helpful to a business owner who has nowhere to turn and is unsure about who to ask about certain issues, because of the nature and sensitivity of some issues.”

While each group functions differently, most are led by highly skilled facilitators. Regular small group meetings (typically monthly) are often supplemented with guest speakers, one-on-one sessions and, at times, social events. Prices vary by the company facilitating the meetings (e.g., prices may be set by local facilitators, while others have flat annual fees).

Perhaps what makes these groups effective is the diverse array of business professionals they encompass. “One group I was in had a fantastic mix of professionals: an accountant, human resources person, public relations professional, telecommunications expert, marketing person, finance and investments, technology consulting, veterinarian and more,” Lutts says. “The diversity strengthened the group. It was surprising to learn that, despite the various industries, we all experienced similar challenges in our businesses. It was a real help to know that what ever kind of question or topic came up, it could be accurately addressed by the ‘expert’ among us in that field.”

Ultimately, any peer group’s success is determined by its members and its facilitators. “If you’re considering joining a group, be sure you can make a commitment to actively participate and contribute,” Shenker observes. ”You’ll gain the greatest benefit by being open to the experiences, insights and perspectives of others. These relationships can be key to helping a business—and its owner—evolve and grow.”

To find a CEO peer group in your area, start with a web search or speak with your local Chamber of Commerce. You can also find state-by-state listings for groups specific to small business using the Edward Lowe Foundation’s Find a Peer Group search tool.