Executive coaching helps leaders level up critical skills so the organizations they are leading meet and exceed their goals. However, the success of executive coaching hinges on setting clear, effective goals. Coaching sessions can lack direction without well-defined objectives, leading to limited impact.
“When you work with an executive coach, the coach has one goal — making sure you succeed,” says Dave Collins, a Vistage speaker and CEO of Oak and Reeds. “That can be refreshing because it gives you the freedom to get feedback from someone who does not have a direct relationship to your performance and the space to look at things differently.”
One-on-one executive coaching sessions and peer group experiences support CEOs in leveling up their skills for greater organizational and professional outcomes. But success in both cases depends upon setting effective coaching goals.
“I never want to set goals for someone,” says Vistage Master Chair Chris Quinn. “I want goals to come from them. Like math homework, I want them to show me ‘their work.’ I question and prod them to get someone to think out loud, share their logic and help them see any holes in their logic.”
Executive coaching goals are tailored to an individual’s specific challenges, strengths and organizational priorities.
Setting effective executive coaching goals is critical for tracking and measuring progress toward intended outcomes. Collins adds that well-defined goals keep sessions on track and enable a client to share wins with leadership.
“Often, coaching clients want to talk about something that is not on the list of goals, and while it’s well-intentioned, coaching isn’t therapy,” he says. “We have to accomplish a couple of skill-building things and solve a couple of problems, and goals steer the conversation back to what they want to achieve.”
Specific goals drive measurable improvements because there is a clear path for measuring outcomes. An unclear goal is, “I want to become a better leader.”
A specific goal sounds more like, “I want to improve team communication by holding weekly feedback sessions.” The specificity allows for reflection and tracking.
There is a clear distinction between setting goals and creating plans. Goals are the “what,” and plans are the “how.” Goals define what you want to achieve, while plans set the actions and timelines to achieve stated objectives.
Setting effective executive coaching goals is essential to enhancing your leadership and driving measurable improvement in your company.
“The way I say, ‘It is the CEO who sets the ceiling for the company,’” says Quinn. “The company is not going to go further than the CEO can take them.”
CEOs can choose to work on several skills with an executive coach. These are just a few of the most common areas where executive coaches receive requests for help.
Developing strategic thinking and decision-making abilities is a common skill executives seek when working with a coach.
Fostering effective interpersonal and organizational communication is another reason executives hire a coach. Whether for building presentation skills or building relationships with employees, improving communication skills can dramatically influence a leader’s success.
Executives with high EQ can navigate complex interpersonal relationships, communicate clearly and inspire trust across the organization. Self-awareness helps leaders recognize their strengths and blind spots, while self-regulation allows them to manage stress and make thoughtful decisions under pressure.
High EQ combined with self-awareness supports a positive workplace culture where teams can accomplish and exceed expectations, making it a common goal in executive coaching.
Leaders frequently experience intense demands that can lead to burnout, reduced productivity and strained personal relationships. Executives must make critical decisions, manage teams and drive business growth, often at the expense of their well-being. Executive coaching helps leaders discover strategies to manage professional responsibilities alongside personal well-being.
Collins and Quinn agree that SMART goals offer a valuable framework for determining what you want to achieve through coaching. A structured framework that enables executives to focus their efforts, track progress, and measure success.
Clearly defining the desired outcomes provides a direction that keeps the coaching focused on engagement and being impactful.
An executive coach may ask questions like those listed below to help you get specific.
Establishing criteria to track progress and success is critical to understanding whether coaching is moving you forward. Determining how progress will be measured can be tricky because each person may have differing definitions of progress, such as improving confidence when handling workplace conflict.
“How do you measure that?” Collins says. “You can get 10 answers from 10 people. It doesn’t matter what the answer is. What matters is that we agree on how we’ll measure it in a coaching arrangement. It could be how you feel or the number of conflicts you enter or exit.”
Setting Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (BHAGs) is essential for pushing boundaries, but setting realistic and attainable goals that act as stepping stones to those BHAGs provides greater results. Quinn compares executive goal setting to deciding to join the gym. You hit it hard for the first five days, but you give up in the second week because you overexerted yourself and are deflated.
“It’s good to have aspirations, but we need to make sure you can crawl, walk, then run depending on how big the changes are that you’re seeking,” he says. “Behavioral change is pretty embedded, and some are reinforced because they were successful and take time to relearn.”
For the greatest impact, goals should align with organizational objectives and an individual’s personal development needs. Coaching goals connected to the company’s strategic vision and aligned with personal development contribute to business success and sustainable behavioral changes that enhance leadership capabilities.
Specifying deadlines to achieve the goals is essential to the process. Quinn notes that if you set a goal that’s a year out, it’s too far into the future to be meaningful today. Having year-end goals is vital to seeing the relationship between growth and outcomes. However, 90-day sprints and shorter coaching engagements create the leading indicators that allow you to measure if you’re on the right track.
“I start by having CEOs reverse engineer year-end goals,” Quinn says. “If X is the end of the year, I push on them to know what they are going to do in Q1 to know where they should be.”
Collins adds that one-to-one coaching engagements should be time-bound — his last four to six months.
“You don’t want coaching to turn into therapy,” says Collins. “I don’t want to have a coaching client, especially executive coaching, for five years. If we haven’t figured something out in a few months, it won’t happen. You’re not going to overhaul an entire personality in four months. That’s okay because that’s not how learning happens. It is intense. Then you need to let it dissipate, see what sticks and then come back maybe in a couple of years.”
The process an executive coach uses to develop a plan for engagement varies from coach to coach. How a coach creates a plan also depends on who is “hiring” the coach — an organization or an individual. Generally, most coaches follow a similar structure that includes assessment, goal setting, action steps, measurement, evaluation and feedback.
The first step in establishing an executive coaching engagement is evaluating an executive’s current competencies and identifying areas for improvement.
This step can include one or more of these components:
“Everybody who comes into Vistage under the Quinn Coaching Collective takes the Predictive Index,” Quinn says. “It’s a behavioral assessment to know their natural behaviors, and then how they’re stretching those behaviors plus or minus in the role they’re in to help build self-awareness.”
The goal-setting process is collaborative. A coach helps executives establish clear, actionable goals. When an organization hires an external coach, the coach also considers the organization’s goals.
“Sometimes I’m brought into an organization because the one hiring a coach and the one being coached aren’t communicating well,” says Collins. “I ask both individually, ‘What are your goals for coaching? I synthesize all the notes and share those with both parties. Once we get agreement and a clear set of goals, we have an agenda for our meetings.”
A comprehensive coaching plan includes specific activities and strategies to achieve the goals. The overarching goal is broken down into actionable steps with clear deadlines, and specific strategies for progress are identified.
Regularly reviewing progress helps ensure that work toward goals remains on track and, if not, allows for necessary adjustments. Reflecting on shifts in behaviors, skills and challenges to continue moving forward is part of advancing toward the desired goal.
Evaluation and feedback help ensure that the executive coaching process remains focused, adaptable and aligned with individual and organizational objectives. Reviewing goals and action steps to achieve them gauges how much progress is being made and where opportunities for growth remain. Both the coach and the client share feedback on what is working and where additional support or resources are needed to advance the stated outcomes.
Executives hire coaches to level up various skills, from leadership development to communication, emotional intelligence and decision-making. Here are two examples of common goals.
When Collins meets with a client who wants to improve strategic decision-making to increase productivity, he sees a direct link to boosting delegating skills.
“I always put delegation and decision-making together because when you delegate a bunch of things that you’ve had on your plate for a long time, you have more mental energy to make a good decision on critical things,” Collins says. “I also ask clients who want to improve decision-making who is accountable for the end result. Nine out of 10 times, it’s not clear. Decision-making gets clouded by four or five people who think they’re ultimately accountable.”
Collins uses the RACI diagram to help clients determine who is “where the buck stops.” The matrix defines who is responsible for what by categorizing roles into four components: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.
Many times, executives seek out coaching to foster team collaboration and achieve project milestones ahead of deadlines. Quinn says when a leader joins his Vistage group with this goal, he encourages them to take their foot off the gas and step on the brake.
“Developing teams is broad, and rather than think of it like checking the box, we make them be more conscious about deploying people in a way that’s kind of going to leverage their natural strengths,” Quinn says. “You have to be intentional with development, and it must link back to the business and their role.”
Setting effective executive coaching goals drives meaningful progress and measurable success. By aligning individual objectives with business priorities, coaching becomes a strategic tool for personal and organizational growth.
Vistage supports leaders in defining and achieving their coaching objectives and looking to discover new heights by guiding CEOs. If you’re an accomplished leader ready to start the next chapter of your life, consider executive coaching. It could be the capstone of an exceptional career.
The 8 Principles of Executive Coaching
Foundations of Executive Coaching
Much like the election inspired a burst of optimism last fall, last month’s tariff announcements and subsequent delays had a similar effect. Following April’s tariff-palooza, small business confidence has rebounded slightly in May. While the WSJ/Vistage Small Business CEO Confidence Index rose 5 points to 75.0 this month, it still sits among the lowest levels recorded in the past 2 years.
The whiplash effect of tariffs and the downstream effects of uncertainty have led to slowing demand, decreasing investments and stalled hiring plans for small businesses. After 4 months of declining confidence among small businesses, sentiment has rebounded slightly. While 4 of the 6 components that comprise the WSJ/Vistage Small Business Index have risen since last month, the others held compared to last month.
The proportion of small businesses that plan to increase their workforce in the next 12 months improved to 43% from 36% last month, and the proportion that plan to decrease their workforce improved just slightly, falling to 16%. Looking back over the first part of the year, 23% of small businesses report their workforce has decreased since the beginning of the year. While plans to decrease personnel may correlate with slowing demand and economic uncertainty, other factors also contribute.
The growing adoption of AI among small businesses could positively impact productivity. Our June survey will explore this issue in depth by examining the reasons behind workforce reductions, presenting two scenarios: one focused on challenges and the other on innovation. As a respondent noted, “We are limiting new hiring for full-time roles and are instead looking into AI and automation to streamline our workflows.”
While still below last year, the most significant driver of the month-over-month improvement is small businesses’ sentiment about the economy’s future, which has eased from last month. Indeed, 30 percent expect the economy to improve over the next 12 months, compared to 25 percent last month. Most notable is that 44% of small businesses expect the economy to worsen, a 13-point improvement from 57% last month.
Despite easing pessimism, the impact of tariffs continues. Two-thirds of small businesses report negative impacts from tariffs; 30% report direct impacts, and 36% report indirect impacts. Direct impacts include supply chain and rising input costs, while indirect impacts are reflected in slowing demand based on customer uncertainty or other barriers to growth.
Tariffs are a major impediment to our global expansion. We’d planned on increasing sales into Europe. Now we have cost disadvantages, coupled with increasingly negative sentiment toward US. As a result, we expect to see flat to declining sales in Europe.
Joey Nelson, President of JoeScan, Inc., Vancouver, Washington
From increased costs to slowing demand and disruption in growth strategies, margins present another challenge for small businesses.
Rising costs combined with slowing demand impact profitability; 38% of small businesses report their profit margins have decreased since the beginning of the year. Looking ahead, 31% expect profitability to worsen.
One way small businesses are attempting to maintain margins in the face of rising costs is by raising their own prices:
Prices continue to increase — our trash services just went up, our internet jumped about 30%, gas jumped up again (although it’s dropped). Prices continue to increase on just about everything … We have to respond in kind, but be careful to remain competitive.
Chris Bruner, President of CSB Autocraft/Midas, Bloomington, Indiana
We sell at MSRP. I need certain margins to operate. If costs go up, price has to rise as margins are necessary to operate. At the same time, all employment costs have increased (minimum wage), and shipping costs have increased. There is no avoiding raising prices.
Jennifer Coy, CEO of Beauty Care Choices, Shasta Lake, California
As Taylor St. Germain of ITR Economics shared with leaders in Houston earlier this month, businesses cannot maintain margins entirely through price increases. Improving productivity must be part of the equation that will help small businesses.
Indeed, the pressures of managing costs, a changing workforce and driving adoption of new technologies just add to the list of things that keep CEOs up at night. One respondent notes, “Between turnover and staffing and the persistent gap between expectations, capacity is draining. We’re constantly triaging priorities.” Leaders are facing a greater burden of stress. In honor of Mental Health Awareness month in May, our survey captured sentiment about burnout from CEOs of small businesses.
Over the past year, 94% of leaders report feeling symptoms of burnout. But more telling is that nearly one-third (32%) of small business leaders feel exhausted or burned out regularly; 25% report feeling these symptoms frequently, and 7% report feeling burned out daily.
CEOs find various ways to mitigate this stress, from adding leadership support to traditional methods of exercise, mindfulness and getting to nature. One respondent focuses on attention management using insights from Vistage speaker Maura Thomas, sharing that “I’ve learned to protect my energy and delegate better.”
The May WSJ/Vistage Small Business CEO Confidence Index was calculated from an online survey sent to CEOs and other key leaders who are active U.S. Vistage members. The survey, conducted between May 5 and 12, 2025, collected data from 495 respondents with annual revenues ranging from $1 million to $20 million.
To explore the full May 2025 WSJ/Vistage Small Business data set, visit our data center or download the infographic.
As the 19th President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes received a gift from Queen Victoria that is today one of the most famous pieces of furniture in the White House. The Resolute desk, built from oak pieces of the British ship H.M.S. Resolute, was given to Hayes in 1880 and has since served as the workspace for all but 3 U.S. presidents.
When Ronald Reagan was in office, he famously adorned the desk with a plaque that read, “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.”
In a 1986 interview with Fortune, President Reagan explained the significance of that message and how it reinforced his leadership style.
“I believe that you surround yourself with the best people you can find, and you delegate authority,” he said during the interview. “You don’t interfere as long as the responsibility and the overall policy that you decided upon is carried out. You don’t stick your nose in there and tell them how to dot the i’s.”
President Reagan’s perspective is valuable advice for small and midsize business CEOs. Delegating is a critical skill for leaders. When CEOs can take tasks they previously performed and assign them to a different member of the organization, they have more time to focus on the company’s big-picture challenges and opportunities.
“It frees them up to work on more important strategic priorities that will have a much greater impact on revenue and net profit growth,” says Bob Dabic, a Vistage Master and Best Practice Chair based in Newport Beach.
When done correctly, delegating has an impact beyond the CEO’s office, says Eileen Coombes, community and education lead for Delegate Solutions in Philadelphia.
“When small businesses and leaders can delegate effectively, they’re going to see things get done faster and more efficiently,” Coombes says. “It’s going to be a cost savings to the company, and it’s going to retain really great talent because rising leaders are excited and hungry to take those opportunities and learn and grow.”
Coombes routinely works with “solopreneurs” and small business owners to help them understand why delegation is important and how to do it effectively. She sees that most small businesses are short on staff and resources, often leading to CEOs taking on additional responsibilities that prevent them from focusing on larger business needs.
Her job is to help those CEOs recognize how receiving support from internal or external outlets can be transformational for themselves and their business.
“Leaders are able to let go of the work that holds them back and slows them down and doesn’t allow them to focus on the vision and where they see the company going,” she says. “Being able to delegate effectively allows these leaders to put themselves back in that visionary seat and embrace what the future looks like for their company versus getting stuck in the weeds and mundane tasks.”
Delegating is not about assigning tasks, though. Assigning tasks is akin to President Reagan’s reference to telling people how to dot their “i’s.” Delegation is about bestowing ongoing responsibility to someone else.
“Delegating is turning over the authority for someone to take on routine work on an ongoing basis,” Dabic says. “Assigning tasks is asking people to typically do one-off items.”
Delegative leadership, also known as laissez-faire leadership, is a powerful management approach that trusts employees with autonomy and decision-making. When implemented effectively, this leadership style fosters innovation, strengthens teams, and enhances overall productivity.
Delegative leadership allows employees to experiment with new ideas without waiting for constant managerial approval. By stepping back and trusting employees, leaders enable faster decision-making and foster an innovative culture.
How to maximize this benefit:
When employees are given real responsibility, they develop leadership skills, problem-solving abilities, and confidence in their decisions. Delegative leadership encourages employees to own their work and seek solutions independently.
How to Maximize This Benefit:
Micromanagement slows progress, while delegative leadership empowers employees to manage their tasks efficiently. This not only boosts productivity but also allows executives to focus on strategic priorities.
How to Maximize This Benefit:
Delegation offers several benefits beyond allowing CEOs to concentrate on their company’s vision. One of the most significant — and often overlooked — advantages is that it can enhance team morale and productivity. By delegating responsibilities, CEOs can alleviate their workload while enabling team members to utilize their strengths and develop new skills.
“It empowers others to take on more responsibility,” Dabic says, “which demonstrates trust and provides the opportunity for professional development and possibly more compensation.”
Coombes thinks many CEOs overlook professional development, particularly when it comes to delegating. However, doing so can empower emerging leaders to grow and develop in different functional areas of the business.
That empowerment, in turn, makes the emerging leaders feel more valued and can lead to a longer tenure with the company.
“Delegation becomes a retention strategy when leaders look at it as a way to develop their talent,” she says. “I think people stay longer and feel more valued and more committed to the end results for the company as that progresses.”
Coombes spent years working with a professional speaker who began as a solopreneur. The client wanted to expand her business but recognized there was only so much she could do independently.
To help meet her goals, she began to delegate. She brought in a few fractional support resources that handled most of her client experience process, plus her social media marketing. That offloading of work allowed her to refine her vision for her company, which she then shared with her fractional support. Within one year of delegating those tasks, the solopreneur brought in more than $1 million in revenue.
In addition to saving time for business development, delegating also offers long-term benefits, according to Dabic.
“If the business owner can make themselves dispensable via continuously delegating, they can create a ‘self-managed’ company where almost all day-to-day decisions are made by others,” Dabic says. “Then, should the company be sold, it will typically garner a greater EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) multiple since there’s much less risk for the buyer because the business is not reliant on one key person.”
Effective delegating is important, but how do you apply this to your organization? Here are 4 key steps.
When it comes to identifying what to delegate, Dabic visualizes a “decision tree” whose roots represent the decisions a CEO makes.
The more distant the decisions are from the roots, the more the CEO can concentrate on the company’s vision.
Both Dabic and Coombes agree that identifying who to delegate responsibility to comes down to multiple factors. Is the person trustworthy and able to take on the task? Are they interested in providing that support? They could be the most competent employee in the organization, but if they aren’t looking for growth opportunities or to offer that relief, the delegation process won’t work.
Coombes says any role or responsibility being delegated needs to be goal-oriented. If the job is not helping achieve some organizational goal, it likely won’t get done. Instead, it will quickly drop down the employee’s priority list in favor of something more important. That is why it is imperative to attach goals to the delegated tasks and clearly articulate that goal so everyone understands its importance and impact.
It may sound obvious, but if a responsibility is delegated to an employee, make sure that the employee has access to all the necessary software and technology. Few things are more frustrating than feeling autonomous when dealing with an important business task, and you have to turn around and ask for technical assistance just to get started. It is also essential to have weekly status updates for the CEO and the delegated employee. The updates can be as short as 15 minutes to ensure things are on track, find out what’s working, and understand what challenges need addressing.
While delegative leadership offers major benefits, it isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. If applied without structure, it can lead to miscommunication, reduced accountability, and inconsistent performance.
A common issue with delegative leadership is that some employees may lack clarity on their roles or become disengaged due to minimal oversight.
Solution:
Not every employee thrives in an autonomous work environment. Some need structure, coaching, and regular feedback to succeed.
Solution:
With less direct oversight, important details can get lost, leading to confusion, duplicate work, or missed deadlines.
Solution:
One of the common challenges CEOs face when delegating is dealing with the fear of losing control. While it’s a natural feeling, it can sabotage the effectiveness of delegation.
It’s also a feeling that Coombes understands personally.
“I personally am the kind of leader who wants to micromanage the heck out of everything,” she says. “With my team, they’ve learned that once a week, they need to send a status update of the projects they’re working on, and I’m very clear with them what I want to know about those particular projects so that I’m getting the information back that I need to be able to let go and trust them. Over time, those status updates allow me to build that trust with team members so I can let go quicker.”
Managing the balance between oversight and autonomy takes time. Shifting away from too much oversight becomes easier when CEOs establish clear goals and objectives early.
Coombes and Dabic agree that clear and effective communication is critical for successful delegation. This communication involves identifying goals and key metrics, scheduling weekly status updates, and both parties being open to discussing ways to improve processes.
“For a lot of leaders, trying to stop in the middle of their day to talk about what’s working and what’s not can feel taxing with everything else on their plate,” Coombes says. “But just a couple minutes here and there to make sure everyone’s aligned can go a long way in ensuring that those delegations are successful and that everyone is learning and growing as a result of them.”
The communication has to be reciprocal as well. If the CEO is the only one identifying what’s working and what’s not, then the process is broken. The person delegated the responsibility needs to have the space and ability to share their perspectives, including what they might need from the CEO to improve the process.
That communication should also include addressing when delegation works — and when it doesn’t — and the lessons learned from each experience.
Here are a few more tips for CEOs looking to improve their delegating skills.
There are countless self-assessment techniques for CEOs to identify their strengths and weaknesses as leaders. For Coombes, she often recommends CEOs carve out a few minutes each day for simple reflection, including considering how their delegation is working. Whether someone is a first-time delegator or has delegated for decades, it’s important to consider what feels good about the delegation and what could be improved.
Like so much about leadership, mentorship can be a crucial way to learn how to delegate responsibilities better and grow from the process. When looking for mentors in this capacity, it’s important to identify other leaders who excel at delegating and identify what allows them to maximize their time to focus on larger organizational goals.
Coombes believes implementing feedback loops is a critical component of effective communication and a vital part of the delegation process.
“Delegation is not a singular experience,” she says. “Every time a team is casting along a delegation from one person to another, there has to be a constant feedback loop happening.” The feedback loop should address what is working, what is not, and what can be learned from the experience.
Mastering delegating is a key component of being a skilled leader, particularly as a small business CEO. The idea of giving up control can be daunting, but the result of letting go can be transformational.
As President Reagan reminded himself daily, with a strong team working toward the same goal, there is no limit to what anyone can accomplish.
Elevating your leadership: Why every CEO needs a Chief of Staff
How CEOs can find their leadership style
For CEOs, the work to build and sustain a strong company culture is never done. Even the best cultures can be challenged in an uncertain business landscape. But there’s no question that culture is the difference maker in all winning teams.
Great CEOs regularly assess their company culture to identify what’s working and what isn’t, and make adjustments. Below are the five steps top leaders take when “spring cleaning” their company culture:
The first step is understanding when company culture needs a reset. We’ve all recognized the signs of a company culture in distress. Goals aren’t met. There is a lack of trust between teams. People point fingers and blame others for performance challenges. There’s low accountability and poor communication. Decision-making takes too long and is tied up in bureaucracy. People are frozen by a fear of making mistakes or are afraid to ask for help when they need it. Silos develop. The most harmful sign is when turnover rates are high, and leaders notice their best performers are leaving.
At the leadership level, CEOs may take shortcuts to hit KPIs or focus on putting out fires instead of strategy. Great leaders recognize these indicators as signs that their culture may need a fresh sweep and can then take steps to rejuvenate their company’s culture.
Once leaders identify their company’s problem areas, the best leaders act by setting the tone for change. Legendary Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz once said he never knew who his best players were until his team lost. I’ve experienced that in the business world as well.
True competitors step forward in challenging times. Amid the toughest challenges, winners find a way. Fostering that winning culture means that the team knows they are in the battle together, they will pick each other up when they fail, and face the next challenge as a stronger team. Teams thrive when they overcome challenges together.
Great leaders ensure everyone on the team knows what success looks like. Transparency about expectations — and how each employee affects the outcomes — keeps the team engaged and motivated. Open communication about results and progress helps the team stay tightly connected. When the executive team clearly articulates how their initiatives drive the company’s results, it sets a tone that encourages consistency between individual actions and overall company goals.
A strong leadership team is at the core of any cultural reset. It’s more than just leading. Successful executives stay actively engaged with teams to solve problems collaboratively and ensure everyone understands the vision and strategy. As the tip of the spear, the executive team also shows that they are always working to improve as leaders. They celebrate their employees’ victories and emphasize the importance of maintaining the company’s cultural values.
Over time, a leader may revisit the organization’s mission, vision and values to ensure the company still addresses customer needs. However, changes to these core elements are strategic, not reactionary. They pave the way for a company culture focused on constant improvement.
In top company cultures, employees are empowered to take informed risks and learn from failure. Team members are excited about opportunities and possibilities, and new ideas frequently emerge. Employees approach challenges with a spirit of curiosity. Thriving teams meet deadlines and honor commitments. Employees communicate proactively, frequently and respectfully. In the very best companies, there is a sense of purpose, camaraderie and joy in the office.
It sounds simple, but the office environment contributes to a team’s success. Ensuring the office is tidy, well lit and has space for focused work and collaboration helps the team stay upbeat and productive. Providing the technology, tools and training the team needs to succeed is also essential to team morale.
Great leaders are consistent, focusing on performance and establishing a robust feedback loop with customers and team members. Transparency, frequent leader check-ins and clear communication when changes occur are all essential to building and sustaining a strong, adaptable company culture.
When leaders remain open to feedback and actively seek out new perspectives from CEO peers, they can continuously refine their leadership approach and evolve as circumstances change. Staying connected to CEOs navigating the same challenges helps them learn from others and see around corners.
In winning teams, oftentimes leaders look up and realize the sum is even greater than its parts. Great leaders work consistently and intentionally to create that kind of team. Business leaders are key to initiating this change, steering their companies toward a future of adaptability, engagement, and continual growth. These five strategies can lead to a revitalized company culture that boosts employee morale and drives sustained business success.
This story first appeared in Entrepreneur.
8 leadership styles and how to discover your own
Enhancing leadership effectiveness: The role of accountability teams
For the first ten years of his career, Simon Hartley worked purely with athletes and sports teams as a psychology consultant and performance coach. Over the course of that ten year period, his work sparked a curiosity in him.
“I wanted to know how the best in the world performed – world-class human beings and teams from any domain, any walk of life”, he explains.
As a result, the last 20 years have seen Simon actively working with and studying the best in the world from all manner of fields, with the goal of understanding what differentiates them and the principles behind their success: principles that he can then help others to adopt.
In his recent Vistage webinar, Simon shared some of his discoveries. “Over the years I’ve found a number of common denominators in world-class teams, from Michelin-starred chef teams to surgical teams, yacht crews and polar expedition teams”, he says. “My simple theory is that if you find common denominators in all of those, they’ll probably be things that any team can adopt”.
The 3 characteristics of world-class teams
“Teams like SAS units and polar expedition crews have to become brilliant at navigating uncertainty”, says Simon. “They simply don’t know what’s going to be around the next corner. And teams like this have three key characteristics in abundance”.
Those three characteristics are alignment, empowerment and engagement.
“Many people will say, ‘oh that’s nothing new, those characteristics aren’t rocket science’”, admits Simon. “However, it is rare that a team has all three together”.
He talks of an exercise where he asks an entire team to stand up and face the direction they individually believe is north. “People face all different ways”, he says. “If everyone walks for 10 minutes in their direction, there’s no alignment. Workplace teams will generally know their target and know their mission statement. What they don’t often know is how to make decisions that align with that”.
In terms of empowerment, Simon explains that much of the time, team members don’t feel confident enough to take the reins. “It may be that they have a leader who doesn’t want to let go of them – or that they as individuals don’t want to take them”, he says. “Managers are sometimes petrified of giving their team the freedom to operate, meaning all decisions rise to the top of the organisation”.
With engagement, he explains, leaders need to be very clear about what they want to see and hear so that it is tangible. However, they also need a process in place to make that happen.
In Simon’s Vistage webinar, he defined these three characteristics of world-class teams, and explained how businesses can cultivate them for themselves.
“Culture is collective character”
“The All Blacks have a saying that culture is collective character”, says Simon. “If we want to get our team’s culture right, we need to get its character right first – we need to make sure we get the right people in the first place”.
He uses football as an example. “A football club will teach its players to develop tactical and spatial awareness, to run faster, to jump higher, to be stronger”, he explains. “However, that club also needs to help them get their mental game right and develop them as people to be really great human beings, really great professionals. If they can do that, the chance is that they’ll produce far better players”.
Character, he says, is about living our values. In order to find people with the right values, organisations should narrow desired values down to a handful that are really important. “The problem is that you won’t necessarily gauge an individual’s character through their CV – or even an interview”, he continues. “You need to figure out another way”. Find out how through Simon’s book: Hire Great People.
Simon’s webinar is a must-watch for anyone who has an influence over the performance of a team. To watch the webinar in full, click here.
Scaling a business doesn’t mean grinding longer hours, putting out fires all day, or spinning your wheels chasing growth. Top-performing CEOs don’t grow through chaos — they scale through clarity, systems and accountability.
They rely on one framework: People + Process = Profits.
Whether you’re leading a $2 million company or a $500 million organization, this framework gives you the structure to grow consistently, build a business that runs without you and finally reclaim your time. Let’s break it down.
Businesses don’t scale; people do. Most CEOs are stuck in reactive mode because they’re still solving problems their team should own.
Ask yourself:
Top CEOs know that accountability starts with hiring A-players and letting go of C-players. If your team members coast, blame, make excuses or resist change, your business is anchored to the past.
Here’s what to do:
Ask yourself, “Is this team smarter than me?” If the answer is no, you’ve got hiring to do.
If the business can’t run without you, you don’t own a business. You have a job.
This is where most CEOs hit a wall. You’re the decision-maker, the follow-up person, the firefighter, and the bottleneck. But to scale, you need a precision process that runs independently.
Here’s how smart CEOs fix this:
You don’t need more meetings. You need better meetings that measure what matters and drive results. Without process, you’re reacting. With process, you lead.
This is the reward for doing the first two right.
Profit becomes predictable when your people are aligned and your process is structured. You don’t hope for growth, you engineer it.
With this framework, high-performing CEOs:
You get your time, your energy and your focus back. Instead of reacting to issues, you start spotting growth opportunities. Instead of working in the business, you’re finally working on it.
What’s the key? Know your numbers. Track performance. Lead with data, not a gut feel. You can’t scale what you don’t measure.
This is what pulls it all together. People, processes, profits — these are your levers. But accountability is the secret to making them work together.
Accountability is not about blame or micro-management. It’s about clarity, ownership, and results.
Your team should know:
That’s how you create a culture of ownership where people raise the bar instead of waiting to be told what to do.
Self-Audit: Where are you right now?
Take a quick pulse check. Rate yourself 1-10 in each of these areas:
People:
Process:
Profits:
If you’re under a 7 in any category, that’s your growth bottleneck and your next focus.
Hundreds of growth-focused CEOs have used this framework to:
Most importantly, they get their lives back. They stop being the bottleneck, they stop playing catch-up, and they start making CEO-level moves.
This framework — People + Process = Profits — is how elite CEOs scale their businesses and take back their time. It’s not magic, it’s not complicated, it’s just structure—and it works!
Want to learn more? Then check out Bob’s discussion, The Five Attributes of Highly Profitable Companies. The discussion includes a Q&A session with Vistage Master Chair Kevin McKeown.
Understanding ‘Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance’ with Angela Duckworth
“The best way to predict the future is to design it.” — Buckminster Fuller
In today’s volatile world, uncertainty isn’t the exception — it’s the rule. CEOs who cling to prediction models are gambling on variables they can’t control. In moments like 2008, the strongest leaders didn’t try to forecast their way through chaos — they designed their way through it.
In this webinar, Derrick Mains, CEO and Founder of The Process Fixer, will explore how adopting a defensive business strategy can create a foundation of certainty amid uncertainty. Attendees will learn how to:
This presentation will uncover actionable strategies and tactics to help you create an environment where your company not only survives, but thrives — no matter the conditions. It’s time to move beyond wishful forecasting to intentional architecture — because certainty isn’t found in waiting; it’s built by leaders who design resilience into the very core of their businesses.
Date: Friday, June 20, 2025
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT
*Please use the blue box on the right to register.
Derrick Mains is a 2022 Emmy Award-winning content creator and a seasoned operations consultant with over 20 years of experience driving operational excellence across more than 300 companies. His expertise lies in optimizing operations, improving throughput, and expanding margins, making him a sought-after advisor to businesses aiming to elevate their performance.
An accomplished author, Derrick has written five books, including the highly acclaimed 2025 release, “the system _,” which has been praised for its groundbreaking insights into operational design and business transformation.
Beyond his written work, Derrick hosts The Process Fixer, a widely respected podcast and YouTube channel focused on operational leadership, continuous improvement and systemic thinking.
As CEO of The Process Fixer, Derrick leads a firm specializing in process development, mining and optimization. His approach uniquely integrates change management and cultural development into process improvement strategies, offering a holistic path to organizational excellence.
In early 2024, The Process Fixer expanded its capabilities by acquiring Process Triage, incorporating its beloved workshop methodology into its suite of services. This acquisition further solidified the firm’s reputation as a leader in empowering companies to systematically unlock greater efficiency and better results.
Violet Grgich, President and CEO of Grgich Hills Estate Winery, joins the podcast to discuss lessons she learned from her father, the literal “King of Chardonnay,” and how she’s applied those to her leadership journey. Violet also takes Vistage CEO Sam Reese through the strategies she’s built to prepare and succeed through natural disasters and an ever-changing customer landscape.
Violet Grgich: Well, I always keep coming back to every day, do your best. Learn something new. Make a friend.
Sam Reese: Make a friend. I love it. Violet Grgich: Make a friend. And make a friend is not just network with your peers. Treat your employees with respect. Make them your friends. Make their life easier. Sam Reese: Welcome, everyone, to another episode of A Life of Climb podcast. I’m your host, Sam Reese. With me today is Violet Grgich, president and CEO of Grgich Hills Estate Winery. Violet, thanks for joining us.
Violet Grgich: Thank you so much. It is great honor to be here with you.
Sam Reese: This is one episode where I definitely wish I was there in person because I love where you guys are. I’ve spent a lot of time out there myself. I’ve been to your winery. Could you just paint us a picture, if we walk through the grounds right now of Grgich wineries, give us a picture of what that would feel like and what that would look like.
Violet Grgich: Wow. Well, it’s really a beautiful place. When my father built the building, he wanted it to remind him of his native land, Croatia. So, it’s white stucco with the red tile roof, and it’s surrounded by our vineyard. When you walk up to the front entrance, you’re greeted by one of our fabulous hosts, hostesses. We have a very diverse group of people here, and they’re all incredibly down to earth. We will seat you either outside, surrounded by our wonderful gardens. It’s not a fancy designer garden, but it’s really very, very natural. We are certified regenerative, organic, and we like to keep things simple. So, the more natural we can make things, the happier we are. And we create an environment that really makes people very happy.
Sam Reese: That seems like a fun job to have. And you’ve been involved in the business how long now?
Violet Grgich: Oh, my gosh. I want to say since 1977, really officially the summer of ’78 when I started work on the bottling line. Long time.
Sam Reese: Long time, yeah. This is a family business in its true sense. And your dad is literally… you don’t just say Hall of Fame dad. He really is a Hall of Famer in the wine industry. And his nickname. I just loved it when I was reading about this, the King of Chardonnay, is so cool. So, tell us a little bit about your dad and his philosophy about you having to work every aspect of the job.
Violet Grgich: Oh, my gosh, so many amazing stories. So, very basically, he was born in a very small poor village in Croatia, which was part of Yugoslavia, a communist country at the time. He was the first member of his family to go beyond the eighth grade, but he actually started out stomping grapes and making wine. And so, that was wine was in his blood. He studied at college viticulture and analogy. And when he was there, one of his professors went away on sabbatical of all places to UC Berkeley, close by to Napa. And when that professor came back, my dad wanted to know what it was like in this country that the communists said horrible things about. And so, his professor told him that America was a land in which you could achieve your dreams. And on top of that, Napa Valley was paradise. So, that inspired my father to flee communism and to come to Napa Valley in 1958.
He actually became famous when he made one of the two most famous wines in the world. It was a Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, 1973 vintage, and it was entered into a competition without his knowledge in France with the very best French white burgundies and red Bordeaux. And it came out the number one wine in the entire tasting. It’s called the Judgment of Paris. And it was held in 1976. And that literally is the incident that not only put Napa Valley on the map, but also really introduced wine to a lot of Americans who were not familiar with it.
Sam Reese: Wow.
Violet Grgich: Founded the winery in 1977, found a wonderful partner by the name of Austin Hills from the Hills Brothers Coffee family. And so, our very first Chardonnay in 1977 actually earned another number one spot out of 221 of the best Chardonnays in the world. And that’s when people started calling him the King of Chardonnay.
Sam Reese: Incredible. So, the first time he came to the country was what year then?
Violet Grgich: 1958.
Sam Reese: 1958. That is an amazing story. And literally, I didn’t know the roots of the whole wine country connected to him. Incredible story. Now, what about him as an expert in the process and an expert wine maker? What were the things he taught you just when it came to the business side that still stick with you today?
Violet Grgich: Well, there’s so many different things. I think number one is something that he was told by his father when he left home at the age of eight to go to school. And his father told him to, “Every day, do your best, learn something new and make a friend.” And I’ve heard that my whole life. That is not only our personal philosophy, but our business philosophy.
So, my dad would always tell me to make sure I kept it simple. Why make something complicated when you can keep it simple? And what’s very important is that I started on the bottling line. I mailed out newsletters, cleaned tanks and barrels. And you have to be willing to learn and do everything because otherwise you won’t know the business. And that’s important because no matter what task you are given to do, and no matter how simple or how lowly, if you can figure out a way of doing it better or understanding the value and the meaning it has, that can turn you into somebody who might be a janitor into literally the CEO of a company. And you will have the ability to adapt, which is something that’s absolutely necessary in life and in business.
Sam Reese: Did you know you wanted to be in the wine business? And tell us a little bit about that journey.
Violet Grgich: Well, it’s actually quite a journey. When I was very young, I think I was three or four years old when my dad started bringing me to the wineries that he worked at. He worked at Robert Mondavi and in fact, I think everybody knows that arch with the tower on it.
Sam Reese: Of course.
Violet Grgich: My dad’s office was in the very top of the tower. So, I felt like Rapunzel sort of going up those wooden steps. And at Chateau Montelena, there’s a beautiful lake with islands, and bridges and a castle, of course. And so, even though I spent pretty much every weekend running around the wineries, once my dad started insisting that I become a winemaker, it was definitely not my idea of what I wanted to do with my life. I had a lot of different interests, a lot of passions, a lot of things I was good at, and he was so renowned, and I just couldn’t imagine ever reaching that level. And so, the more he insisted I become a winemaker, the more I was stubborn and went in the opposite direction.
And so, finally after going to graduate school and then coming back, I started realizing that… well, I actually heard from a customer one time at a wine tasting, “Oh, do you know, I saw your dad last weekend and he could not stop talking about how proud he is of you. He’s like, ‘My daughter’s getting her master’s in music.’” And I’m like, “He never said anything nice to me about that.” He was always [asking], “When are you coming home?” So, it turns out that like any Croatian father, he was trying to make sure I didn’t get a big head.
When I was young, I thought business was horrible and boring. It was just about making money. And then I realized how exciting it was because there’s so many different things you could be doing, and you could actually be creating and making wonderful things. For us, wine is an art. Yes, it’s science, but it’s more of an art. And my dad would always say that he made wine with his heart and his wines were like his children. And to be able to make something that brings people together and makes them happy is just such a joy.
Over the years, I found I could actually do more than I thought I could and really fell in love, not just with the business of wine, but that ability to work with people and make things better. And our goal has always been sort of larger than just making wine, but it’s that making people happy. And we find that that aspect of bringing people together is so important.
Sam Reese: Yeah, I love that way you connected that to your mission, to bring people together. That seems like something that would be very inspiring to be working there. I imagine, do you have employees that have been there for a long time.
Violet Grgich: I do.
Sam Reese: Just by listening to you, it sounds like you build that kind of culture.
Violet Grgich: Well, it’s interesting. I never really used to think about that. But I was thinking with my dad, he always wanted to make sure that he hired the best people, people that can do everything. So, I’m always talking about hiring people, not positions, because everybody here wears many different hats. And if you are able to wear many hats, it’s much more fun than if you’re always relying on just doing your own job and looking at your particular bit of the puzzle. But being part of a team and creating a culture of teamwork where people can help each other and pitch in has always been very important for us.
Sam Reese: That was something that your dad believed in. When did you get that lesson? Did you get that before you started running the place? Or did you see that as a young person?
Violet Grgich: One of the things that I recall when I was working in the cellar was that my dad hired Enologists. He hired people who had degrees in winemaking. A lot of wineries would pride themselves on, “I’m the winemaker and it’s all about me.” Whereas my father actually had a team of winemakers. And he wanted people to know, not just having one winemaker and then the cellar crew that didn’t really know what they were doing. He found that no matter what your position was, if you knew why you were doing what you were doing, that made you much better at that task, even if it was topping barrels, which is to make sure they’re full. If you understand that you’re topping barrels so that there’s no air between the bung and the wine itself, and you know that will prevent microbial development, then you’ll keep that wine protected. And that why will help you do better no matter what that small task is.
Sam Reese: One of the things that I’m so interested to ask you this question is that right now you think about all the things leaders are grappling with and just the power of external forces that make things unpredictable. And I think in all businesses you could be doing everything right and then things can go wrong that you have to manage. But in your business, this is something you’re always dealing with. I mean, you just have the external challenges. Whether it’s weather for harvest. You have the fires in Sonoma fairly recently.
Violet Grgich: And Napa.
Sam Reese: And Napa, that’s right. Are there strategies you’ve developed over the years about how you sort of, or are able to, persevere through these challenges that are outside of your control?
Violet Grgich: What’s most important is to review your core values. You can adapt anything else, but once you start adapting your values, you’re pretty much lost. You’ve lost your groundwork. External factors such as the ones you mentioned, those are oftentimes a lot easier to deal with than more uncertain ones such as changing demographics. So, you mentioned fires. We had a lot of issues, twice, fires in 2017 and 2020. A lot of wineries didn’t make wine or had to toss some of their wine because of smoke taint. We made our wines in 2017 and 2020, and with no smoke taint because our vineyards are a certified regenerative organic. We started farming organically in 2000, biodynamically in 2003 and started regenerative organic in 2018 or 2019, which we believe is the highest form of farming. But it actually creates immunity and protection for the vines. Our vines withstood the smoke. They have this waxy cuticle on the outside of the grape smoke could not penetrate. So, we believe how we farm is a huge, huge part of being able to protect ourselves against those kind of forces.
Sam Reese: I love the lesson about all the preparation ahead of time. That just by listening to you is just a really good framework that when something like that comes, you got to get ahead of it. You guys had planned all these things. Obviously the wine industry is a huge industry throughout the world in the United States, and a lot has to do with the success of people like your father and your winery. But the flip side is how competitive it is. And I just wondered, how do you stand out in a market that is extremely crowded?
Violet Grgich: Great question for all of us. I think these days you have to do so much more. I remember back in the old days, the greatest expenses in winemaking were your grapes and making wine. Sales and marketing, that was nothing. These days it’s completely flipped. There is so much new technology with how to reach people. You have to constantly be there. But I keep going back to my dad’s values of everyday, make a friend. I used to be horribly, horribly introverted and could not imagine having a conversation with a person in a social setting. And my father was very smart, and he sent me out to do these things whether I liked it or not. And I thought, “Okay, well, this is going to be terrifying, but all I have to do is pour my wine into a glass, wait for them to take a sip and then take their order.” And he was right. So, figuring out how to have people taste your wines, when people taste them, they’re blown away.
Sam Reese: Has this business become much more complicated on that sales and marketing side? You talked about new technology, new ways of touching people. Besides just getting people to your winery to taste, what are the ways that you connect with customers and drive demand in your business now?
Violet Grgich: Technology changes and being able to use technology for the benefit of consumers and for reaching out to them is great. I mean, we can text our consumers. We have our website that can reach out to them. Social media, too. Those are all ways. But when it comes down to it, I think it’s the in-person. It’s the events, when we actually especially pair wine with food, we do dinners or wine tastings. We bring people to our winery, and tell them our story and have them try our wines. That’s still the most basic part and that’s still the most important part, is to connect on a personal level. Whatever technology you have is just there to enable that connection to happen.
Sam Reese: How would you describe your leadership style? If I worked for you, what would I say about your leadership style?
Violet Grgich: I think I really believe in teamwork and bringing people together, and having people come with solutions rather than problems. And again, it comes down to friendship and having respect for everyone that you work with. My executive assistant is always, “Your door is open way too much. You need to close it to get things done.” But I do feel it’s important to be able to connect with everybody who is here no matter what position they’re in, because they’re all part of the winery and part of what makes this place tick. And my father, of all the things… I mean, there’s such a long list of things that he has accomplished and has done. But the number one thing that he said he was most proud of was providing employment for almost 50 people.
Sam Reese: Yeah, I love to hear that. It inspires me when I think about the work we do, as we say, we help high-integrity leaders make great decisions that benefit their companies, their families, and their communities. Because, as you know, that’s how this country and, actually, around the world runs those small and mid-sized businesses. Is there one big area on your mind when you think about leadership and where you’re really trying to improve or be more effective that you’ve targeted in your own leadership journey?
Violet Grgich: I think it’s really being able to be truly focused, continuing to hire, and motivate and coach the best people possible. But I think it comes to time management. And it seems like such a basic, but I always feel I have way too much to do and not enough time to do it. And my father, years ago, told me that actually two different things. He said, every day you should only do three things. Focus on three things. Still learning how to do that. And not letting all of the stuff that’s irrelevant. I’m trying to let go of things that… yes, I used to do just about everything here, but I have to have somebody else do it so I can really focus on growing as a leader and ensuring that… I’m so used to my father having led the business for such a long time that, in some ways, I’m still in that mindset. That’s the direction I need to be focusing on, letting those other things go to others.
Sam Reese: I could see that what was probably interesting for you is that since you touched every part of the business, you actually know how to do almost different job in the winery. So, it seems like that would be really hard to not get distracted by that because if someone has an idea about the simplest or the most complex issue in the business, you probably have an opinion on that because you’ve done it.
Violet Grgich: Absolutely. Absolutely. And that can get in the way. So, yeah, delegate, delegate, delegate. I’m finally learning that, how important that is.
Sam Reese: I know you’ve been in your Vistage group for a while, you’ve been a member for several years. What’s been a part of that experience that you’ve enjoyed as you’ve got a chance to spend time and collaborate with other CEOs and different industries?
Violet Grgich: I have to say the biggest value for me is the group, the group of people, fellow CEOs, that you have confidentiality, you have people at your own level that you could and can confide in, and people that aren’t afraid to tell you what needs to be told. And when you find the right group of people, it’s a great joy. It gives you, in [a] sense, a cushion, a feeling that you’re not alone, that you know who you can call and talk to, who will support you and who will keep it to themselves as needed.
Sam Reese: When you think about the young leaders out there now and the experience and wisdom that you have, is there any advice you would give some of our listeners that are newer CEOs and just on the start of their leadership journey, any words of wisdom from the experiences you’ve had?
Violet Grgich: Well, I always keep coming back to every day do your best. Learn something new. Make a friend.
Sam Reese: Make a friend. I love it.
Violet Grgich: Make a friend. And make a friend is not just network with your peers, but treat your employees with respect. Make them your friends, make their life easier. Thinking about my dad, and even in his 90s, he was still learning new things. Learning as much as you can from higher people that are smarter than you are, learn from them. That’s the best thing you possibly could do. And don’t take yourself too seriously. You’re a person, you’re a human being. You have flaws. You can’t always be perfect. Don’t repeat the same mistakes. Learn from those.
Sam Reese: Terrific advice. Thank you for sharing that with me. It’s just so fun to listen to all the consistency you have and the way you think about the business. Good luck and best of luck in the future to Grgich Hills Estate Winery. Thanks for joining us.
Violet Grgich: And come visit Grgich Hills.
Sam Reese: Yeah. Thanks for joining us for this edition of A Life of Climb podcast. Friendly reminder to please subscribe or follow podcasts to get all the latest episodes. And please visit Vistage.com/podcast for more resources to support you on your leadership journey.
After studying marketing at university, Luke Quilter took time off to travel before landing a role at Holiday Extras. “I quite fortunately fell into a role where I was dealing with around £5m of advertising budget in the very early days of the paid advertising space”, he recalls. “The problem was, we were working with agencies who were never very good at combining the mix of customer service and technical capabilities you need to deliver good digital marketing.”
Luke set up Sleeping Giant Media to do just that: running paid search campaigns in the evenings and at weekends until he and his business partner took the leap to do it full time in the summer of 2009.
Since then, Sleeping Giant Media has grown to become a company that hires around 70 people and turns over about £4m a year. “While it started as paid search, we quickly added other strings to our bow”, he says. Luke’s business offers paid search, SEO, data analytics and content – which includes thought leadership.
Thought leadership was the subject of Luke’s Vistage webinar in April. Missed out? Read on…
The information gap
In a typical B2B purchasing decision, 83% of a buyer’s research has already happened before they walk through the door. “If you’re not educating people, if you’re not showing them your expertise via thought leadership before they come to your site, you’ll be losing out to your competitors who are”, stresses Luke. “Buyers today want to be educated. They want to know what they’re doing so they’re not so vulnerable when they walk through that door. This is where thought leadership is important: it’s a chance for you to talk about the expertise that your business delivers”.
Some are starting to embrace this opportunity, but are using shortcuts to do so. “AI is a large part of our world right now, particularly within marketing and content marketing”, explains Luke. “We’re seeing some businesses using AI to create content – but the downside is that the search algorithms don’t really benefit from fully AI-generated content because it’s not a unique story.”
This, he says, creates a situation where the internet is full of homogeneous information. “Thought leadership is different”, he continues. “It’s about bringing in that unique story, that unique value, that expertise, authority and trust that set you apart – and that AI can’t fulfil.”
Maximum content, minimum time
If you’re thinking, “I’d love to create more thought leadership pieces, but I don’t have the time”, you’re not alone. “Time is one of the biggest constraints when it comes to thought leadership”, confirms Luke, “but in my webinar, I introduce the concept of content pyramids.”
“CEOs and business leaders are busy people”, he continues. “Our focus is on prioritising thought leadership, but doing so whereby setting aside a single hour can create multiple pieces of content.”
Luke explains how they can spend 15 minutes filming an interview with an expert in their studio. “We’ll then transcribe that content to create a blog post”, he says. “We can turn it into some GIFs. We can turn it into some photos. From that one piece of video, we can create over 100 pieces of content. And when we approach it that way, it removes the daunting feeling that many leaders get when faced with the prospect of creating content.”
Avoiding imposter syndrome
Time is not the only challenge that business leaders face when developing thought leadership content. “Coming up with ideas in the first place is often a struggle”, says Luke, “but ideation is one area where AI can actually be a good solution.”
Imposter syndrome is another challenge. “People feel like they’re not really good enough: they wonder why others would listen to them”, he explains. “Often, people are reluctant to share much – if any – of their personality on a business platform. However, they’re more than happy to talk about themselves at a networking event – it softens the conversation and helps people get to know each other on a more personal level.”
Thought leadership is now part of that networking process – a new forum for networking and increasing your business’ reach. One way that Luke recommends business owners fight imposter syndrome is to work on their company culture, encouraging the entire business to embrace thought leadership as an integral part of the marketing mix.
“Leaders should lead from the front and demonstrate just how important thought leadership is”, stresses Luke. “Talk about ways you can incentivise thought leadership. Make it part of your company narrative and culture, and offer rewards and gamification. All of this will help to instill and embed a culture of thought leadership throughout the business: a collective impact will result in a much bigger shift in content output and reach.”
“Demystify a daunting topic”
Luke’s Vistage webinar was divided into three parts: what thought leadership is and why it is important; how to do it and gain organisational buy-in; and how to ensure maximum output for minimum input.
“This session was about gaining a better understanding of thought leadership”, he says. “It was about understanding the opportunity within the marketplace and the influence thought leadership can have on your business, combining your audience and your services to build an opportunity to create more compelling and interesting content that will resonate with your users.”
Sound good? Watch Luke’s webinar here.
Artificial intelligence has rushed to the forefront of business with the emergence of generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT. CEOs and executives are scrambling to take advantage of this new technology and its potential for disruption. In fact, 45% of CEOs are increasing their technology budgets to accommodate AI capabilities, according to our Q4 Vistage CEO Confidence Index survey. But for all the opportunities that abound, there’s also confusion as to how it works, how it can be used, and whether there are risks involving cybersecurity.
To better navigate the complexities surrounding artificial intelligence — from its everyday uses to the rise of machine learning and the future of automation — Vistage has created this resource center to bring you the latest information, thought leadership and best practices surrounding AI.
And be sure to check out our latest report, Generative AI: Automating the Knowledge Worker, which provides approaches for applying and investing in generative AI at all three levels: individual, work group and workforce.
To help with your decision-making, we’ve curated the following:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Network
Join our AI Network, the go-to place for peers to discuss the thoughtful adoption of AI in business through new policies, technologies, standards and perspectives (login required).
From frustration to flourishing: Mastering Gen AI adoption | On Demand
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky delves into the world of generative AI and how to seamlessly integrate it into your company culture and drive innovation.
AI Prompt Engineering 101 | On-demand
Lee Blackstone, a Vistage member, speaker and CEO of Blackstone+Cullen, Inc., takes you through an introductory course that teaches beginners the basics of prompt engineering.
How AI Supercharges Your ERP Data | On-demand
Vistage member and WM Synergy CEO Paul Tedford shared real-life examples of how SMB manufacturers are enhancing their business by leveraging their internal system data with AI.
Take the First Step Towards Unleashing the Power of AI & ERP in Manufacturing | On-demand
Vistage member and WM Synergy CEO Paul Tedford delivers a 30-minute teaser of how manufacturers can harness AI to unlock automation and efficiency opportunities.
Artificial intelligence roundtable: Best practices from small businesses | On-demand
3 Vistage members share their experiences with artificial intelligence. They discuss its practical uses, the positive outcomes they’ve seen and the valuable lessons they’ve learned along the way.
AI 101: The basics for business leaders | On-demand
Check out this AI 101 series for business leaders — a comprehensive 3-part series that will help demystify the ever-evolving world of AI and equip you with the knowledge to harness its potential.
Expert roundtable: Navigating Artificial Intelligence for CEOs | On-demand
A trio of Vistage experts provides a comprehensive breakdown of AI and its applications for small and midsize businesses. Gain the knowledge to make informed decisions and get buy-in from your team.
Navigating the Future of Business with AI and ChatGPT | On-demand
An expert panel of Vistage speakers breaks down the impact of these emerging technologies on business and how to leverage them for better results.
Looking for an expert to work with your company or speak to your group? Click below to learn more about these speakers in the Vistage community (login required).
How business owners will adapt to AI [Vistage]
How AI is changing work forever and why employees are leading the way [Vistage]
7 steps to adopting a comprehensive Gen AI strategy [Vistage]
Technology trends for 2025: AI and beyond [Vistage]
5 steps to incorporate AI into your organization [Vistage]
4 leadership strategies for AI-Enabled decision making [Forbes]
How executives can improve team efficiency and collaboration with AI [Forbes]
How to build an AI-ready team [Inc.]
2025: the year companies prepare to disrupt how work gets done [World Economic Forum]
CEOs seek to recalculate AI journey amid backlash, study finds [Inside AI News]
Can AI-driven innovation outperform [Vistage]
How businesses can fully harness the power of generative AI [Vistage]
How managers can leverage the productivity promise of generative AI [Vistage]
What Can AI Do For My Company [Vistage Perspectives magazine]
Artificial Intelligence Commission: Preparing for the Future [U.S. Chamber of Commerce]
6 frequently asked questions about artificial intelligence that CEOs need to answer [Vistage]
What is AI? Learn About Artificial Intelligence [Oracle]
A CEO’s 5-Step Process for Navigating Disruptions like ChatGPT [Fast Company]
Artificial intelligence for small and midsize businesses [Vistage]
The rise of artificial intelligence, explained [Vox]
6 ways AI changed business in 2024, according to executives [HBR]
Leveraging Gen AI to transform your learning and development programs [Vistage]
Five trends in AI and data science for 2025 [MIT Sloan Management Review]
Top 7 forecasted AI trends to watch in 2025 [Forbes]
Overnight success? AI has been a century in the making [Kellogg Insight]
Trump’s generative AI deregulation: Will your business sink or soar? [Vistage]
Leading the generative AI transition beyond cognitive biases [Vistage]
7 steps to build the AI policy your employees need [Entrepreneur]
What Donald Trump’s win means for AI [Time Magazine]
Data deregulation to AI protection: Security priorities in 2025 [Security]
How to craft a company policy for acceptable use of AI [Forbes]
Does my company really need a generative AI policy? [Law]
The challenges and risks of Gen AI adoption [Vistage]
4 types of Gen AI risk and how to mitigate them [HBR]
Legal and ethical challenges facing generative AI in the workplace [Forbes]
Addressing the Security Risks of AI [Lawfare Institute]
Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Cybersecurity [IBM]
An unconstrained future: How generative AI could reshape B2B sales [McKinsey & Company]
Artificial intelligence for small business: 5 lessons from an early adopter [Vistage]
How will AI impact the customer experience? [Deloitte]
Generative AI Will Enhance — Not Erase — Customer Service Jobs [HBR]
Leveraging Gen AI to transform your learning and development programs [Vistage]
Will generative AI liberate workers from the office? [Vistage]
Generative AI, the American worker, and the future of work [Brookings]
Your next hire might be an AI agent: Are you ready to manage digital talent? [Medium]
How to upskill your workforce with artificial intelligence [Forbes]
How leaders can support workers who are worried about AI [Fast Company]
The CEO Pulse Resource Centers
Q4 2024 Vistage CEO Confidence Index