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Chapter 7, “Early Leaders.” Again, if you’re a CEO or business owner don’t skip over this thinking, “This doesn’t apply to me. I’m not an early leader.” You’ve got early leaders on your team. Challenge yourself to become a better leader. Serve early leaders well.

Early leaders tend to be immersed in mastering the basics of their job responsibilities, understanding the dynamics of their organizations and demonstrating the capability to lead groups to deliver results. 

As they develop their outside insight resources, they have two primary things to consider: a) they have to learn to develop a few key advisory relationships (to begin to get regular doses of a third opinion) and b) they have to lay the groundwork for their long-term leadership circles.

For advisory relationships, the objectives are to find expertise, develop your capacity to apply critical thinking, break through real and perceived mental barriers and to accelerate your own development from the experiences of others. Developing these relationships should be done in the context of daily work in order to elevate your performance. It’s about making full use of the third opinion.

Improving Exponential Thinking

Companies reward those who deliver results. The ability to sort through information, form assumptions, test them, and then communicate an opinion and offer direction are critical leadership skills that are the foundation of expert thinking. Exponential thinking goes one level beyond. You look for hidden assumptions, attempt to disprove (instead of prove) hypotheses, actively seek out data points that don’t fit, and analyze trade-off and risk. The author provides an extensive series of questions designed to help early leaders improve their exponential thinking. The skills are difficult to develop alone. You need thinking partners.

Learning To Listen

It’s never too early to develop the habit of listening in order to learn from others. Again, the author provides a series of questions every early leader can ask themselves to improve this skill. It’s about learning to integrate multiple perspectives to improve your thinking. Feedback is critical in helping you close the gap between reality and your perceptions.

Ms. Joni mentions the various circles where thinking partners might be found for an early leader: corporate contacts, academics, trade associations (or trade shows), partners/alliances, job search contacts, alumni networks, and nonprofit activities/nonwork organizations.

Joni suggests seeking out thinking partners with a few people on specific issues. Keep it tight, narrow and focused. Be careful about advice, “Here’s what you should do,” and instead seek deeper conversations that broaden your perspective. She appropriately mentions that you should look to give as a thinking partner to somebody else. (Note: She doesn’t spend near enough time on this in my opinion. The book is mostly a what’s in it for me approach, but that’s understandable since she’s urging leaders to incorporate these things into their life – and it’s a hard sell to urge most people to improve with a different approach.) There’s a lot of learning to be accomplished when we’re helping others though and it’s good to be reminded of that fact. 

The chapter ends with a deep dive using her Star Of Complexity Map approach to developing the skill to apply insight that drives results. Illustrated with stories, Joni has many questions and diagrams to help the reader better understand her suggested approach. The word “complexity” is appropriate because I find this material worthwhile, but overly complex for my tastes. However, some leaders may find such an approach very helpful so give it a go.

Chapter 8 is entitled, “Key Leaders.” This chapter does for these leaders what chapter 7 did for early leaders. And chapter 9 is “Senior Leaders,” likewise giving advice on how senior leaders can seek and find their third opinion. There are distinct differences.

I’d summarize the major differences in two areas (there are others): safety/security and expert thinking. That is, we need a safe group of peers who have no vested interest in who we are (our role or job title has no impact on them), but who can be trusted. Peers with whom we can let our hair down and be vulnerable, and who will be that way with us. Reciprocal behavior in such a group is key. 

Key leaders would not be well served being surrounded by senior leaders. That’s not to say senior leaders can’t serve key leaders. They surely do (and should). But we need to be surrounded by a diverse group of people who can relate to and understand us – and others we can relate to, and understand. Admittedly, being intentional about this can grow increasingly more difficult the higher we climb the leadership ladder. Hence, the adage, “It’s lonely at the top.” But if we develop the skills to seek and find the third opinion early in our careers, we can be quite proficient later on as our career advances. 

Chapter 10 is the last chapter. It’s entitled, “Conclusion: Greater Than Gold.”

The chapter begins with a quote recorded by Herodotus, 5th Century B.C. –

Only if there is an alternative can you have a choice; make a decision for better or worse, and that will only be possible if an opposite opinion is expressed. It is like gold; you can’t tell whether gold is pure unless you strike it against another piece of gold.

Ultimately, this is all about human relationships. It’s about how you develop and exercise your fullest capacities when you are pushed and guided by others. David Ogilvy said, “If each leader surrounds themselves with people bigger than they are, we will have a company of giants; if each leader surrounds themselves with people smaller than they are, we will have a company of midgets.”

People who have a stake in your leadership (stop and consider the scope and scale of all these people) and who care about your leadership don’t want you to go it alone! You impact many people. People have a big stake in the success of their leaders. 

This is also true of family and friends of leaders. These people see and experience how isolating leadership can be…and the toll it can take in the personal lives of leaders. Every leader’s inner circle includes these people, but there is a limit to their expertise and perspective. 

Ms. Joni confesses that she began her research to improve the decision making capability of business leaders today. She found that it’s not limited to business though. It impacts every phase of a leader’s life. Exponential thinking isn’t restricted to business challenges. 

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into THE THIRD OPINION by Dr. Joni. I realize that leaders who find no value in diverse thinking or exponential thinking will likely never take a peak inside. But those folks clearly are not my audience. Grow Great dot com isn’t aimed for the comfortable leader uninterested in growth, improvement or transformation. And only the courageous leaders will be willing to go to the uncomfortable places required for growth. I hope you’re a leader seeking the appropriate and safe challenges that will propel your career, your business and your life forward. 

I’m fond of how Dr. Henry Cloud couches vulnerability. Finding safety and security in an inner circle is a major component of all this. Dr. Cloud uses the word “careless.” Not in the sense of behaving carelessly, but in the sense of not having to filter or self-edit. When you’re in a circle where you can speak freely because you know nothing you say will be used against you, then you’ve found a safe space. A safe relationship. A relationship where others have your back and you’ve got their back. A place where you’re both trying to grow, improve and transform. A place where you’re both working hard to grow great. That’s the point.

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Chapter 5 is entitled, Habit Of Focus. Buy and read the book. You’ll get value from reading the stories that illustrate Ms. Joni’s points. And you’ll be able to more deeply dive into the nuances of how the third opinion can improve your leadership (and decision-making). 

Let’s talk about the highlights of this chapter.

The hardest part of leadership is keeping a sustained focus on what’s essential, not just what’s urgent. What will give us the biggest advantage? Where are our competitive threats? Leaders face many questions.

Stephen Covey pointed out (in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) that if too much of your work is urgent, you’re not appropriately focused on what’s important. You’re just fighting fires. That resonates with most leaders. 

Mastering the habit of focus is the ability to move forward with important but non-urgent issues in a chaotic, high-pressure environment. Sustained focus on the non-urgent but important issues defines your unique contributions to your company and your ability to deliver value no one else can. Your ability to create value is what ultimately drives your career.

You’ve got to devote your unscheduled time to the most important issues – the ones that hold the most potential for high returns over time. This includes systematic reflection on your resources. Effective leaders need time for reflection and inquiry. 

You’re responsible for your focus. Others may define a part – perhaps a significant part – of your schedule, but not all of it. Be thoughtful about your focus. 

Framing Issues Clearly And Strategically Is The Work Of Leadership

First, you have to frame your agenda. This means setting context, time frame, scope, and viewpoint. Don’t do it alone. Work with your best thinkers and get input from your inner circle. Framing is inherently exponential. How you frame will guide what you see. Here are some key things to consider:

• How narrow or broadly am I thinking about my challenges?
• Would it be helpful to frame the key issues at several different levels?
• What is my time frame for this issues and why?
• Where does this issue fall in terms of importance and priority?
• What mental models and assumptions do I have that could affect how I frame this issue?
• What tools might I use to frame this issue and what are the limits of these tools?
• What’s known and not known about this issue?

You also need a clear sense of what your overall leadership challenge looks like. With a sense of the whole you can develop a reasoned response. 

Focus Your Leadership Inquiry With The Star Of Complexity Map

Ms. Joni has developed a trademarked technique she calls the star map of complexity. It helps you map and prioritize the issues so you can focus your time, resources and thinking partners properly. This chapter includes a diagram of this tool and advice on how you can use it. The author walks the reader through an actual leadership situation with Andy, who is facing some leadership challenges. She uses the Star of Complexity Map to help him figure out and implement improved focus. The diagrams, illustrations, and details require the reader to pay close attention. This material just doesn’t translate to a summary like I’m providing. You have to see it and digest it. As you might imagine, it’s fairly complex. Thankfully, the author does provide a summary of the process though, which will give you a taste of what this tool is designed to accomplish.

Step 1 – Start your baseline Star Of Complexity Map by writing down your most important issues.

Step 2 – Test your initial baseline map for completeness by considering metrics, assets, human dynamics, external conditions, and organizational structure. Add or change as needed.

Step 3 – Complete the indices: Time Frame, Span, Interdependence, Stability, Criticality, Rate of Change.

Step 4 – Draw the three lenses: Lens 1: Leader – Expert/Exponential/Time/Emotional Energy, Lens 2: Internal Team – Expert/Exponential/Structural Trust, and Lens 3: External Network – Expert/Exponential/Structural Trust. For each lens, what can you see about the strengths and weaknesses of yourself, your team and your network?

Step 5 – With the star, the indices, and the lenses in hand, ask yourself the three Star Mapping Of Complexity questions: (a) What is most complex and challenging about your work? (b) What is most complex and challenging about your fit within that role? and (c) What is most complex and challenging about the way your role is influenced and shaped by others?

Step 6 – Draw conclusions about your focus on exponential inquiry and your time and resources to do so. Assess your current inquiry circles and how you have them deployed. Where do you most need second and third opinions?

Remember, Ms. Joni once served on the faculty of the applied mathematics department at M.I.T. It’s easy to see how she approaches these issues and fleshing out important details. While you may, or may not, be wired to approach issues in a similar way, don’t let the main point slide past you — how you spend your time on important, long-term strategic issues will define your leadership. That requires Habit Of Focus. 

Let’s move on to chapter 6 – The Life Cycle Of Your Inner Circle

How do these inner circle relationships progress through the stages of leadership: beginning with a first assignment as the head of a unit, to the stage of Key Leader, and finally achieving Senior Leadership at the top of an organization. You may or may not see direct application to your situation, but I’d urge you to still consider the path because it can help you better lead your people. Every CEO and business owners have direct reports who may experience these stages. Don’t dismiss it simply because you’re already at the top. The lessons are still valuable. 

Throughout the book the author continues to tell a variety of stories to illustrate the points. Again, we’ve not attempted to recite each of these. Instead, you’d be wise to read the book for yourself to take full advantage of the material. My hope is to spark your interest, give you an overview and provoke you to take some meaningful action to improve your leadership.

This chapter is story intensive as the stories illustrate the full life cycle of outside insight and the power it has to strengthen leadership at several levels. They also raise issues about how and when to best create, guide, and nurture your advisory networks and teams. 

By now you should clearly recognize the power of these relationships on your own leadership. Care and feeding these relationships isn’t accidental. You want to take full advantage of them. You’ll have to behave with intention. 

Most leaders don’t think about their advisory network in a systematic way. It happens by accident or out of basic networking but doesn’t go beyond having a friend to call if you want to chat. Or knowing people you can trade favors with. 

Developing leaders probably inherited their action team. They may have a limited scope to change it or shape it. But your advisory network is one you’re fully empowered to create, staff and use. Populate it with people you really click with, people of the highest caliber, people with whom you’re committed to working with. 

Understand what you’ve already got in place. And how it currently serves or fails you. As the author has said repeatedly, it’s never too early or too late to start. She offers some questions to ask yourself:

• What kind of contacts and networks have I built, and how and when do I use them?
• Are there teachers, mentors, friends, and activities that have been important in my development at some stage in my life?
• How do I include my spouse or significant other, family members, and personal friends in my current inner circle?
• When have I had a conversation or ongoing dialogue where I significantly changed my understanding or learned something I didn’t expect? What were the conditions and nature of the relationship that led to insight?
• Are there critical areas of inquiry for me now where I find I have no thinking partner, or where the thinking partners I have are lacking in expertise, perspective, or appropriate structural trust?

Permit a bit of personal commentary. CEOs and business owners, more so than leaders at lower levels, often find it difficult to assemble an advisory board with enough diversity to provide exponential thinking – the ability to see the various sides of an issue. It’s understandable. For starters, there’s the issue of time. CEOs and business owners all lament, “I don’t have enough time.” Of course, rationally (and practically) they know they’ve got as much time as anybody else. That’s why that chapter on focus is so important. We make time for what we want.

Too many top-level leaders (number 1’s) don’t see the true value of the third opinion that’s available through an advisory group. For the person who has the final authority in a business or organization, forming an effective advisory group simply isn’t practical. It’s certainly not easy. That contributes to some leaders denying the power of it. But that’s a cop-out. Cowardly. 

We all gravitate toward people most like us. Rarely do we intentionally try to interact or connect with people very different from us. Examine your connections. Your closest companions and advisors are likely quite congruent with how you see the world. Yes, you can behave more intentionally and surround yourself with more diversity, but it’s not easy. Or comfortable. And the odds of you taking the time to do that are slim and none. CEOs and business owners have bigger fish to fry, but no fish provides greater benefit to the #1 in helping them grow, improve and transform. 

CEOs and business owners who aren’t properly challenged never grow. Eventually, their effectiveness will fail. Grow or die is a truth. Who you surround yourself with matters. It’s a major value proposition of paid advisory groups where some third party assembles a group of peers who can come together, learn more about each other, learn about each other’s business and without any other agenda push each other to be better – more effective. It’s a purposeful and intentional assembling of CEOs and business owners who can look around the room and realize, “Everybody here gets me.” That’s a critical component of these groups. It’s why you find it so difficult to talk about your issues with anybody who isn’t a CEO or owner. They can’t possibly understand – not fully – what you’re going through. It’s the power of The Peer Advantage. It’s also why I’m on a mission to build just two such virtual groups of business owners. Visit ThePeerAdvantage.com for details. 

In the next chapter, chapter 7, the author will talk about early leaders. Again, don’t pass over that if you’re the CEO or business owner. You’ve got early leaders in your organization. You’ll serve them well by learning how they can leverage the third opinion. 

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To subscribe, please use the links below:

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If you have a chance, please leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking Review on iTunes. It’ll help the show rank better in iTunes.

Thank you!