Peer Advantage

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We’re at the end. Today is chapter 11, The Power Of Peer Advantage.

Over the last 10 episodes of the podcast we’ve been taking a look – chapter-by-chapter – at the book, THE POWER OF PEERS by Leon Shapiro and Leo Bottary. This final chapter ties it all together and discusses the power we can access when we join forces with others, namely with peers.

The chapter opens with the story of Don Guild, a pharmacist in Southern California who opened a small drugstore with his dad in 1961. Don opened a new store every year until he had 13 locations. In 1969 he joined a CEO peer advisory group where all the members were working to grow their own businesses.

Don had historically struggled because he was trained as a pharmacist, but he hated being a pharmacist. By 1982 CVS was descending on Southern California. That prompted Don to think it might be time to get out. A year later CVS contacted Don about buying his 13 stores. Then Thrifty Drug called him because they were looking to expand. Both companies wanted to open many stores in the region quickly. Don consulted his CEO group about how to go about selling his business.

In 1984 he prepared an operating statement and a balance sheet so he could present them to the group for review. Based on the number, Don planned to sell his company for about $10 million. One member of the CEO group was running a public company. He and other members of the group reminded Don that his suitors had interest in his company for strategic reasons. His company had a good bottom line, but these companies weren’t looking at his business because of that. It was market position they wanted. The group told Don he should double his asking price.

Don describes the face-to-face meeting with the CEO and COO of Thrifty Drug. They asked him what he wanted for the business. He gave the number his group had encouraged. The CEO reached across the table to shake his hand and tell him they had a deal. In a flash, Don realized his group had helped him get millions more than he’d have gotten without their feedback.

Don deeply trusted his group. That’s why he sought and accepted their advice. He had put his financial welfare into their hands and won. Don experienced the power of peer advantage.

That’s what accountability looked like for Don. Specifically, it looked like $10 million. Accountability isn’t a negative. Don is still a member of his group 47 years later. He’s well into his 80’s, but he primarily lives in Hawaii where he surfs and enjoys life. Each month he flies to Southern California to attend his group meeting and has no plans to quit anytime soon.

What Accounts For The Magic Of Peer Advantage?

Peer advantage isn’t an individual activity. It’s a group thing. It’s possible when you bring great people together who want to pursue excellence. The book has talked about such groups as the Blue Angels, the Navy Seals and the UCONN women’s basketball team. They understand what it means to optimize performance. They chase perfection knowing there’s really no such thing.

CEO peer advisory groups are clear examples of what’s possible when people are committed to accelerating their growth. It means stepping outside their company and industry to see beyond the limits of their own perspective. The Japanese proverb is a fitting reminder of the power and truth: “None of us are as smart as all of us.”

Why go it alone if you don’t have to?

Each of the 5 factors of peer advantage stands on its own. Each is important. There’s no magic in a single factor, or even in a combination of a few of them. They’re an ensemble, working together to create the magic. But the authors reveal there are 2 other ingredients to the magic they discovered while writing the book: the power of the triad, and the people.

Back in chapter 6 they wrote of the power of the triad when they described how the group leader isn’t at the center of the hub, but how the group itself is the power, where the individual member, the leader and the group form this triad.

Experience and spontaneity create extraordinary moments of kindness, wisdom, creative genius and understanding plus a whole lot more. Culture and other things can foster success, but at the end of the day, it’s the individual people and how they perform that makes the difference.

Through all their research the authors discovered that the 5 factors and the strength of the triad created the conditions for success…yet success came down to someone in the group making a play. Somebody asked the right question. Somebody offered a new perspective. Somebody listened with empathy. That’s what happens when you put great players in the right environment. Magic happens and makes peer advantage possible.

What Peer Advantage Feels Like

The chapter goes on to describe what a physical group meeting looks like. Members file into a room around 8am, grab some coffee and begin to exchange pleasantries to catch up with each other. Individual conversations fade as the group settles into place. The leader kicks off the meeting by having everybody take a turn to report on how they feel personally and professionally. Each member is invited to update the group on any developments since their last meeting. This check-in keeps everybody informed, but also serves to help identify issues or opportunities they may want to explore for deeper discussion.

Within the first 20 minutes it’s clear that this isn’t an ordinary get together. It’s a deeper engagement with higher involvement, candor and accountability. Some CEO groups invite speaker that the group finds interesting. Other groups meet for a specific period of time — a half day, a full day. After the check-in they may begin immediately to process issues facing specific members.

Things start to gel. You can feel it. Taste it. The context is different than usual conversation. When you’re in the middle of the conversation about a member’s issue and the complexity of the issue is becoming increasingly clear, you realize the power of the moment as members attempt to untangle things. It’s quiet when it needs to. Noisy when appropriate. Everybody is in the moment. Members are present, listening and looking. An epiphany is coming and you sense things are about to shift.

Maybe it doesn’t happen in a single instance, but rather in a compounding effect over the course of the conversation. After a period of time – 30 minutes, 45, 60 – the member with the issue has been given time to think. The leader asks, “What have you heard and what’s resonating with you?” And they’ll respond.

Lightbulb moments happen.

The authors cite a book entitled THE THIRD OPINION. The author of that book talks about trust falling into 3 buckets.

1. We trust people personally because we get to know who they are as a person. We trust friends and colleagues whom we get to know socially.
2. We trust people for their subject-matter expertise. We trust a pilot we’ve never met to fly us safely to our destination.
3. We trust people who have our backs, to not have a personal agenda and use something against us. This is structural trust.

It’s easy to see how a CEO peer advisory group incorporates the triad to provide trust on all 3 levels.

The Journey From Peer Influence To Peer Advantage

One purpose of the book, according to the authors, was to introduce the reader to an option for learning and growing personally and professionally. An option that you may not be accessing as a CEO or business owner. Maybe because you didn’t know about it. Maybe because you didn’t think you had enough time to participate. Or maybe because you’re not sure what group to join or how to start your own. Or it could be, you’ve learned about peer groups and concluded they’re not right for you.

Whatever the case, welcome to the majority. Fewer than 1 percent of CEOs participate in a CEO peer advisory group, but the most high performing CEOs who are members of a group say their experience has lifted their organizations and changed their lives. The authors say they wanted to provide a closer look in hopes that the 99 percent might give it a try.

For CEOs, tapping into peer influence can be great for two reasons: the number of people who have sat where you now sit are few and far between plus in spite of your organizational structure certain initiatives will fail. You can tap into peer influence or be a victim of it.

Peer influence impacts all of us. That’s why it can be valuable to understand how people typically engage their peers and for what purpose. We connect with peers in person or online. We connect to review, gather and exchange information and to extend our reach personally and professionally. We’re not necessarily selective when we connect, but we tend to trust the prevailing sentiment of the community.

We network online or in person (at conferences, local business or social events). We tend to be more selective and purposeful here. Connecting and networking are individual efforts and are the most common ways we reach out to peers.

We optimize when we work together in teams to bring a high level of excellence toward achieving a common goal. CEOs and business owners accelerate their business and leadership when they’re members of a peer advisory group working together on an ongoing basis.

The book ends with a brief summary of the 5 factors necessary to create the conditions for peer advantage:

Select the right peers – it involves more than surrounding yourself with the right people…you need to be surrounded by people well suited to share and understand your pursuits.

Create a safe environment – deep conversations about critical intellectual and emotional issues require an environment where it’s safe to share, be vulnerable (judgment free) and where confidentiality is sacred. What happens in the meeting stays in the meeting.

Utilize a smart guide – leaders who learn to serve the groups they lead by acting as an equal part of the group triad.

Foster valuable interaction – a group culture that values safety and confidentiality. Where conversations happen by design, not by accident.

Be accountable – a place where group members don’t tell each other what to do, but where they tell each other what they plan to do. A place where individual members own their own solutions.

Peer advantage is power. The power to change, to manifest your vision, to win and to differentiate you from your competitors. Perhaps the biggest win, the greatest gift of peer advantage, is freedom. Freedom to live and love your life as you choose.

I hope you enjoyed this short series – an audio summary, chapter-by-chapter – of THE POWER OF PEERS. In our next episode we’ll bring on Leo Bottary, co-author of this book to discuss more about him and the power of peer advantage.

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We’re coming toward the end of the book, THE POWER OF PEERS by Leon Shapiro and Leo Bottary. Today we’ll summarize chapter 9, “The Advantage Of Individual Growth.” There are just 3 chapters remaining, including chapter 9.

The chapter begins with the sad, but hopeful story of Jay Steinfeld, the founder and owner of Blinds.com. In 1985 Jay was forced out of his VP of Finance role when his employer was acquired by a multinational company. His wife, Naomi, had started a mom-n-pop drapery and blind business. Together they worked from a storefront and visited customers in their own homes.

Jay launched a website in 1993 that was just an online billboard for the store, but in 1996 he launched an e-commerce site, NoBrainerBlinds.com. A year later Naomi was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She was in and out of remission for a few years. In 2001 the brick and mortar store and the e-commerce site had a handful of employees and both enterprises were equally profitable. Jay was working 6 days a week, then handling paperwork on Sundays. But in 2002 he lost his partner and wife (and mother of their three children).

After 26 years of marriage and a number of years in business together…Jay was alone.

He started reading self-help and philosophy books. He was looking for answers. He learned that his life had been a mixed bag of both pain and happiness.

In 2004 he launched Blinds.com. About a year or so later he realized if he was ever going to grow the company he’d benefit from the advice and help of other business owners or CEOs. So in 2005 he joined a paid peer advisory group.

Jay’s peer advisory group helped him realize he couldn’t do it all. Being CEO did not mean being the Chief EVERYTHING Officer. He knew the blinds business, but he had a lot to learn about being a CEO. Over time his group helped him learn and grow. He worked hard, made the improvements necessary to grow and scale the business at Blinds.com.

What began with a $1500 investment grew over 20 years to become the world’s number one online window covering store with over $150 million in annual revenues. Blinds.com won high praise as a top place in Houston (and in Texas) to work. Jay remarried in 2013, then in 2014 Blinds.com was acquired by Home Depot.

By taking a leap of faith to engage with other business owners and CEOs Jay was able to change his frame of mind and grow. He learned to delegate and focus instead on strategy. He learned with the help of his peer group how to become a CEO. He learned what it meant to be a good (even great) CEO. Ten years later Jay still remains a dedicated member of his CEO peer advisory group.

A good peer advisory group will challenge your worldview, give you pause for reflection and help you develop as a leader while growing as a person.

CEO Groups As A Mechanism For Individual Growth

The authors report that individual growth was a hot button for every peer advisory group leader and member they interviewed. Without individual growth they realized that change and positive outcomes that result from it don’t happen. For growth to happen, individuals have to change who they are and who they are being. It’s about personal transformation.

Generally we hold beliefs about ourselves and about how to survive and thrive in life. Most of these are formed early in our life. Over time, leaders who participate in peer advisory groups begin to identify  and recognize those beliefs through their interactions with other members. And members realize that foundational beliefs that once served them may not longer serve them. It’s the beliefs themselves that are self-limiting.

Robert Fritz, known for his study of the way structural relationships impact behavior, believes most of us hold two contrary beliefs that limit our ability to create what we really want — powerlessness and unworthiness. He says he’s only met a handful of people who don’t have one or the other of those beliefs. It’s these beliefs that hold us back no matter what role we serve in an organization. That includes the CEO or owner.

Once peer group members become aware of these and other self-limiting beliefs, they can choose to hold onto them, or to believe something different.

Many CEOs find it valuable to identify beliefs that once served them, but don’t anymore. A peer advisory group can help them face their fears which include the fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of being wrong, fear of not being in control. Awareness and choices empower us to choose different actions to get different results. Great group members and leaders can observe and offer feedback. It’s sharing perceptions. It’s not about who is right, and who is wrong. It’s identifying how members are showing up in a given situation.

You can’t separate work from personal. Our lives are intertwined. We’re human. There’s no such thing as a purely business issue. With every business issue is some fear, anxiety and risk. And emotion.

All business issues have some personal aspect to them. And all personal issues have the potential to affect you professionally. That’s why personal issues frequently come up in peer advisory groups. CEOs will discuss their challenges with drug addicted children, marriage risks, family members who are dying, grief over the loss of a loved one or a health issue. Just because a person is a leader or owner doesn’t mean they’re immune to the human condition. We all share in life’s problems.

Our natural inclination is to look good in front of our peers. It’s not that we need to look good. It’s that we want to.

We want to share our good sales or profit numbers. We want to share our good news. But when life isn’t so good, we often want to hide. Or downplay it.

The willingness to be vulnerable and bring an issue before the group, good or bad – personal or professional, is where the real value is found. Members can get a 10x to 100x ROI from their group experience. It’s not about tips, techniques or things many might think are most valuable. You can get those, but those may only garner a 3x to 10x ROI. When you operate at the human level and you bring your whole self, you’ll get a much higher ROI from your peer advisory group experience. That’s the way to growth.

The chapter then goes into some details for which they were granted permission to share. Owners and CEOs who credit their peer advisory group with helping them achieve significant growth and success. They tell the story of Jane who took her Texas-based trucking business from $5 million to $25 million because of her commitment to learn and grow. Her group helped her acquire the confidence she lacked when she first arrived. It resulted in helping her hire better and in her willingness to be held accountable. She credits her success to the growth she achieved thanks to her group.

Another story involves a group member who confessed he didn’t have long to live. It was a big moment for everybody in the group as you’d imagine. It was emotional, but it forced every member to consider their own lives. They helped their dying friend through the most difficult time of his life. Members report how it impacted their lives – a lot of personal growth for each of them. Everybody had to get real, look in the mirror and consider their own affairs. Not merely financial and legal affairs, but their personal and relationship affairs.

That same group endured the death of a member’s child. One member’s son died from a drug overdose. Many members had experienced drug addiction in their families. They got through it together.

Then there are the individual stories of CEOs or owners who had to learn to grow into the job with the help of their peer advisory group. CEOs and business owners aren’t necessarily born. We have to learn the skills and mindset necessary for success. Peers can serve to accelerate that learning.

Sometimes we need to learn trust. A story is told of a CEO who, during the economic downturn in 2009, learned (thanks to his group) that his 35-year-old company was 6 weeks away from a cash flow crisis, putting the entire company at risk. About 80 employees relied on the company for their means of support. The CEO had most of his net worth tied up in the company. It was all about to slide off the cliff.

The group pulled together a tiger team (a smaller group of members from within the larger group) together. They literally went into his company at his invitation to help him cut costs…more than he ever though possible. Today, the company is thriving and cash flow positive (massively so). The owner is living a dream life, but he had to transform. He had to trust people. He had to connect. He had to be respectful. When he had first joined the group, he’d had multiple heart attacks. The business had only been marginally profitable. He was an autocratic micromanager.

There are more compelling stories of CEOs and business owners who – thanks largely to their peer advisory groups – learned the things that had previously held them back. From letting go to delegating. From lack of confidence to fear of being wrong. From working all the time to leveraging the work they most enjoy (and were good at). From not believing something was possible to seeing it realized.

Largely the chapter is about members of paid peer advisory groups coming together so each member can learn to overcome the beliefs and ideas that may be holding them back. Much of it is about possibility thinking. We can all use help in seeing the possibility where at first we may have thought it was impossible.

It’s about constant, ongoing learning. It’s about our willingness to constantly question and stretch our thinking, which drives our choices and actions. It’s the truth of the adage that what got us here, won’t get us there.

Growing challenges the bounds of our current thinking. There’s no such thing as personal or business. It’s personal AND business. If you’re open to learning from your colleagues, the first thing you discover is that growing your organization starts with growing YOU. Organizational growth won’t happen without our personal growth. Peer advantage isn’t fully realized without it.

THE PEER ADVANTAGE by Bula Network is designed to help just 14 SMB owners change their lives…and their businesses. These charter members will be able to experience the things depicted in this chapter. Personal, individual growth – which will fuel their business growth. By now you should more easily see the financial return on such an investment. I’ve spent years coaching leaders one-on-one helping them discover the 10x or higher ROI when there are just two of us sitting down together. Let’s put 7 owners together with me serving as the smart guide and it’s not surprise that owners may be able to experience an ROI they never thought possible. As the stories in chapter 9 show us…much of the personal, individual growth is priceless. It’s beyond measurement using decimals or dollar signs. Whether it’s helping a CEO tackle a cash flow problem, or helping a member through the grief-stricken days of the death of a child…the peer advantage is a powerful resource that only the best and brightest seem to fully understand and embrace. I hope you’re among them. Click here if you’d like to apply or learn more.

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Chapter 8 is “Be Accountable.”

The chapter begins with a story of Pete, a cofounder and CEO of InstaViser and also a member of the 2000 and 2004 Olympic U.S. Men’s eight rowing team. He knows about winning and accountability. In his sport the team members are literally in the same boat.

Pete told the authors about the 2000 Olympics. The team was undefeated during the Olympic cycle leading up to the games. They were heavy favorites to win the gold, but they finished 5th. No medal at all. Some members of the team would be too old to compete in 2004. It was a dreadful experience for them.

Looking ahead to the 2004 Olympics in Athens, some of the athletes decided not to compete. Some were married and had kids. Others wanted to avoid going through another four years with the possibility of repeating an awful experience. Pete said a few of them decided to stick with it though. They knew they needed to band together in order to be leaders for the upcoming team members. Three members of the 2000 team competed in the eights in 2004. During the months leading up to the games there was a lot of peer accountability among the three veterans. The younger members grew to rely on the leadership provided by the three, who would rotate leadership based solely on the organic need. They didn’t structure anything. They just did what needed to be done.

The veterans were on a mission to make sure they didn’t repeat the mistakes of Sydney. The goal was to win gold. In 2004 the U.S. men’s eight won gold decisively largely because they had embraced a culture of accountability.

What does accountability really mean?

It means different things to different people. There’s an emotional component of how people feel when being held accountable.

In early Greek civilization citizens would cast a vote by stepping on a stone; that’s how they’d account for themselves and demonstrate where they stood. Accountability doesn’t tend to be a favorite word because somewhere along the way it got a bad rap. People can think of it as punishment or mean spirited.

The authors discovered some things when they looked at the education system in Finland. Ranking among the very top in the world in reading, science and math, Finland’s education system emphasizes investment in professional development of teachers. The country spends very little money or time on measuring learning outcomes through standardized testing. They’ve created a culture where teachers accept responsibility for teaching their students. And they’re given the freedom to do it based on the needs of the individual school and students.

There is no word for accountability in the Finnish language. Instead, accountability has been described as “something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted.” So it appears to have such a negative connotation that the language lacks any word to really describe it.

One CEO in a peer advisory group said this about accountability to his fellow members:

Do you realize that this is one of the few places where we can go to get support that comes across as unconditional love, unvarnished, with no other strings attached? There are few places where we can go in life where somebody doesn’t have an agenda, doesn’t want something from us. This is one of the few places where we can show up and hold one another accountable to keep that level of behavior in front of us at all times.

What CEO needs more accountability?

The authors say they have talked with enough CEOs through the years who declare they already have enough people to whom they feel accountable professionally. But, as the authors point out, there is an accountability dilemma. Former Vistage CEO Rafael Pastor created a CEO accountability model where the CEO is at the center. On top is the board. To one side are peers. To the other side are customers. Below are employees.

Rafael says CEOs are already being held accountable up, down and sideways. He calls that upward accountability, to the board or shareholders, as ENFORCED accountability. Goals and objectives are set for the CEO by those folks.

Employees hold the CEO accountable and he calls that EXPECTANT accountability based on what each group (employees, contractors, etc.) expect.

All CEOs have customers to whom they’re accountable. Rafael calls them ELUSIVE accountability because customers are fickle so you’d better be sharp and give them what they want.

These 3 types of accountability are imposed on the CEO. That’s why some CEOs may resist adding still more accountability to their lives. But that brings us to what Rafael calls the 4th type of accountability, EMPATHETIC. That’s the accountability provided by peers. It’s the type that is missing because it’s completely voluntary. The other types of accountability are imposed.

Because peer accountability is voluntary it stands apart from the others. It helps CEOs deliver more effectively on the other three types. That’s why top performing CEOs don’t mind volunteering to add another dimension of accountability to the mix.

A professional peer advisory group acts like a lab for personal and professional growth. Rafael noted, “Look, this is a place where you ought to try out as much stuff as you can and it is totally okay to fail; better to fail in here before you show up to the board.”

Shapiro and Bottary, coauthors of the book, cite an example of a CEO who was encouraged to give a board presentation to her peer group first. She rejected the idea at first, but finally agreed. It was an ambition presentation she was going to deliver to her board requiring a $55 million investment to build a container center at the port.

She delivered the presentation to her peer group. They tore it to pieces. It was aggressive and impersonal. With her permission they offered suggestions on improving it. She was taken aback, but grateful.

At the next meeting she reported that her board told her it was the best presentation they’d seen. When they asked her how she did it, she credited her peer advisory group. She trusted their judgment, made the necessary changes and delivered a successful presentation. Just one example of the power of peers.

When accountability gets personal

Walter and Debbie are architects. And married to each other. They started their business shortly after marrying. It began in a closet in the bedroom of their first home. Today, it’s a $30 million company. Walter has been a member of a professional peer advisory group for 8 years. During that time his group has seen him raise 3 daughters and grow his business.

The conversations have touched every area of his life. During one meeting he revealed that he’d done little to set up trusts for his three daughters, or to get his financial affairs in order. What if something happened to him? Or his wife, Debbie? What if something happened to them both?

Debbie always wanted to handle it, but Walter would drag his feet. But when Walter brought this up to his group, he agreed to follow their advice and get right on it. As the group continued to meet, Walter pushed it off claiming one excuse or another. The group was relentless though. They continued to raise the issue with him at every single meeting for nearly a year. Toward the end of the year they’d sent Walter emails saying they were going to bring tar and feathers to the next meeting if he refused to take the action he promised. They didn’t let him off the hook. Finally, he got his affairs in order, shared it with the group and they broke out in jubilant celebration.

A culture of accountability

Many CEOs and business owners can relate to Walter and the temptation to delay or put off certain things. We’ve all done it. Many times we put it off and put it off, then finally we do it only to wonder, “Why didn’t I do that a long time ago?”

This chapter cites the research of three experts who say there are 15 key reasons people put things off:

1. Ignorance: “I didn’t know I was supposed to do that.”
2. Skill deficiency: “I don’t know how to do it.”
3. Apathy (1): “I really don’t want to do this.”
4. Apathy (2): “It really doesn’t make any difference if I put this off.”
5. Apathy (3): “No one really cares whether I do this or not.”
6. Apathy (4): “I need to be in the mood. I’m not.”
7. Fixed habits (1): “But I’ve always done it this way and it’s hard to change.”
8. Fixed habits (2): “I know I can pull this out at the last minute.”
9. Fixed habits (3): “I work better under pressure.”
10. Inertia: “I just can’t seem to get started.”
11. Frail memory: “I just forgot.”
12. Physical problems: “I couldn’t do it; I was sick.”
13. Appropriate delays (1): “I’m just waiting for the best time to do it.”
14. Appropriate delays (2): “I need time to think this through.”
15. Appropriate delays (3): ” This other opportunity will never come again, so I can’t pass it up.”

In many cases, CEOs will delegate tasks they find uncomfortable, unpleasant or boring. In other situations though, when CEOs have to complete certain chores themselves, they can find the same reasons to procrastinate that everybody else does. Professional peer advisory groups can play a big role in helping CEOs take ownership and responsibility for getting the task completed.

Go back to Walter’s story. There were 2 aspects of his story that are important. One, the group truly cared about Walter and his family. He told the group it was important to him. That’s why it was important to the group that he follow through. Two, while it’s unusual that something that important would take a year to accomplish, it shows that the culture of accountability requires more than a single follow-up. When the task was completed, the entire group rejoiced, proving to Walter that they were all on his side.

Making accountability a positive

Leaders can find it difficult to hold people accountable. Some of us sound like accusers because we’ve not been taught how to make accountability a positive. Instead, it often starts off with an accusation, “Why haven’t you done this?”

We’ve all learned that what gets measured gets done. What gets rewarded gets done better. But the intent of the tracking or measurement can make all the difference. For too many employees it feels like a stick and no carrot.

The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual And Organizational Accountability by Roger Connors, Tom Smith and Craig Hickman define accountability as “a personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results: to see it, own it, solve it, and do it.” The authors who an above the line and a below line metaphor.

Below the line thinking and behavior is victim thinking. Above the line is accountability.

Steps to accountability or above the line behavior include these four actions:

1. See it. Recognize and acknowledge the full reality of the situation.
2. Own it. Accept full responsibility for your contribution to the current experience.
3. Solve it. Change the current reality by identifying and implementing solutions to your problem while being conscious of “below the line” behaviors if challenges present themselves.
4. Do it. Fully commit to follow through with the solutions identified, especially when there is great risk in doing so.

Now, contrast that with victim thinking, or below the line behaviors:

1. The ignore and deny stage: where you pretend there is no problem.
2. The it’s not my job stage: when you’re aware there’s a problem, but you avoid involvement.
3. The finger pointing stage: when you deny responsibility for bad results and shift the blame.
4. The confusion/tell me what to do stage: when you avoid responsibility by claiming confusion.
5. The cover your tail stage: when you create stories about why you’re not responsible and show not be blamed.
6. The wait and see stage: when you know there’s a problem that requires action and you choose to not act in hope things will magically improve.

Greg Bustin, author of the book Accountability: The Key To Driving A High-Performance Culture, identified 7 pillars upon which you can build a culture of accountability:

1. Character
2. Unity
3. Learning
4. Tracking
5. Urgency
6. Reputation
7. Evolving

Accountability starts with the character of the person. Then it’s about making sure the bonds created among group members are strong, but don’t interfere with a member’s responsibility. Social interactions are wonderful, but at the end of the day you’re there as a peer to give feedback.

Being open to learn is another component. Members have to be coachable, willing and eager to learn and improve.

Urgency is more about focus than speed. It’s about priorities, putting first things first.

Reputation is what you earn when you display strong character over time.

Greg offers a quote he once read about Babe Ruth. “Yesterday’s runs don’t win today’s games.” That’s what evolving is all about. It’s about getting better.

Legacy

Over time member in a professional peer advisory group will come and go for a variety of reasons. But it’s important for the group to grow. The culture and experience of the group accumulates leaving a legacy. Many professional peer groups have a 3 month lead time for departures for that very reason. Members need time to say good-bye and thank you. We need time to seize the opportunities of leaving a legacy in our quest to get better.

Summary

Peer influence is individual. Peer advantage is a group endeavor powered by greater selectivity, targeted strategies for achieving goals and structured engagement that inspires lasting results.

That’s precisely the objective of THE PEER ADVANTAGE by Bula Network. I’m currently accepting applications for membership in two groups of 7 SMB owners from around the United States. Each group will meet online via a video conferencing platform, making it easy and convenient for members to attend. We’ll meet for 2 hours twice a month. One group will meet in the morning and the other will meet in the afternoon. Members will join one group or the other. You can visit ThePeerAdvantage.com for more details and to complete the application. I hope you’ll do it today.

The next time we’ll dive into Part 3 of the book – Leading With Peer Advantage – when we tackle chapter 9, “The Advantage Of Individual Growth.”

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