How a Senior Executive Network Forum Helps You Meet Professional Challenges Head-On
Note: This article was written for a client in the Senior Executive Network space.
Senior executives typically struggle with rapid growth, controlling their financials, culling and building their teams, while remaining fully engaged, managing diversity and every other complex business challenge imaginable. They also have personal issues affecting their lives that make it difficult to stay focused in a world that imposes stress daily. The ability to take these concerns to a trusted executive network forum allows senior executives them to share ideas and challenges in an effort to receive sage advice to make better decisions and become more productive leaders.
Effective training of pre-suite executives is essential for any organization looking to groom the next generation of leaders. An executive network forum brings together like-minded senior managers to work on tough challenges and achieve high aspirations. They can help improve communication skills, build better alignment within an organization, and help develop and execute action plans and new strategies. Here are five ways a
Senior Executive Network Forum Can Help You Meet Professional Challenges Head-on.
- An Executive Network Forum Creates a Safe Haven
Confidentiality is paramount to the success of an executive network forum because it allows each member to be completely open about issues and topics. It provides a safe environment where senior executives can work together through matters they’re normally unable to discuss with others within their business.
Many groups provide a formal written policy that is signed by members, while others verbally acknowledge confidentiality at the start of each meeting, to ensure the trust to share information freely, without fear of compromising proprietary business data or ideas. This display of trust creates an environment in which senior leaders can be honest and vulnerable and be open to learning and growing. Confidentiality creates an environment where each member feels comfortable sharing openly, which leads to better ideation and more trusted support.
- Executive Network Forums Provide Real Feedback from a diverse group of people with similar experiences
Most executive network forums are comprised of members who come from non-competing industries and completely unique backgrounds, which generates various perspectives. Senior executives are under a constant state of pressure, so an executive network forum can act as an informal advisory board, offering creative problem solving, issue resolution and innovation from different, real-life experiences.
Sharing ideas, personal triumphs and failures across industries, conflicting stages of growth, and various business challenges enhances the learning experience. Executive network forum members provide unfiltered, real-life feedback, allowing fellow executives to face challenges with knowledge from past experiences across many disciplines.
And while the truth can hurt sometimes, it is quite valuable for senior executives to have their ideas challenged from time to time. An executive network forum supports senior-level executives with empathetic feedback and advice from associates that face the same obstacles. Transparent and trusting peer-to-peer interaction most often leads to extremely valuable encouragement to help fellow members remain competitive in an ever-changing business landscape.
- Executive Network Forums Offer Guidance
Pre-suite executives must become skilled at creating alignment between the actions of their subordinates and the vision of the company. An executive network forum allows senior leaders to create their own personal guidance systems, backed by a committee of seasoned professionals, that helps navigate through comparable obstacles towards high aspirations. Because pre-suite leaders are instrumental in implementing the corporate vision, it’s vital that they gain the skills to develop strategies that are aligned, and to empower their teams to adopt and implement the vision at all levels of the company.
An executive network forum harbors an environment rich with diverse dialogue about implementing and executing strategic plans and corporate agendas. Executive forums are designed to incorporate a cross-functional group dynamic – ranging from operations and IT, to marketing, finance and business development – offering different perspectives that will help with collaboration and communication throughout all parts of an organization.
While members of an executive network challenge one another, they also help guide strategies and implement programs. Receiving advice and recommendations from fellow senior leaders across the myriad industries they represent, enriches conversations about proven practices for effective leadership.
- Executive Network Forums Motivate through Accountability
Successful executive network forums are masters of accountability. Forum members help one another articulate a plan of action and see to it that each member executes their plan accordingly. Members hold each other liable for things like business opportunities and financial improvements, to changes in health and fitness, and even personal relationship advice. And everyone, from time to time, can benefit from having a peer network hold their feet to the fire.
Executive network forum members often feel compelled to be honest and culpable at each meeting because the feel like a valuable part of the team. Members experience the pride of accomplishment and praise from valued peers and other members success, cultivating positive reinforcement, while creating a team environment.
An executive network forum demands its’ members report to fellow group associates on a routine basis, fostering an effective environment for growth in accountability. Held accountable by peers, the majority of executives find that they allocate time better, stop doing other people’s work, and improve their work/life balance.
- Executive Network Forums Help you learn from different successes and failures
While the CEOs in peer groups may serve entirely different types of customers in widely varying industries, they share common challenges regarding employees, growth, profitability, executive development, technology, and uncertainty, to name just a few. In fact, member diversity enhances each group’s learning by the breadth and depth of each member’s background and experience. The longer the dialogue continues, the more members realize how much they have in common and how much they can learn from their fellow forum members.
An executive network forum exposes members to different solutions to similar challenges from fellow senior executives at high performing in various industries. Technology executives can receive advice from finance or manufacturing, and vice-versa. An executive network forum is like a personal board of advisors, offering knowledge gained through practiced solutions to like experiences and similar obstacles. Most often within each executive network forum, there’s a member who has been through a similar process or been faced with a comparable challenge who offers guidance that can significantly improve business.
Conclusion
An executive network forum gives senior leaders a monthly brain trust and personal board of advisors that provides advice on how to do your job, better, faster, stronger. Working with a group of senior executives from diverse industries who can empathize with the complexities of like obstacles and provide different perspectives to shared challenges and opportunities, allows pre-suite executives with opportunities to increase their overall value by learning to work across departments more collaboratively. This culture of interdependence and accountability inspires professional and often personal growth and enhances leadership effectiveness.
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