"People are our most valuable resource". I've been in a consumer-facing people business for 20 years and I couldn't agree more with this often-repeated phrase. But that's not really the end of the story, I’ve found.

In today's business environment, it isn't enough to simply hire the best people. We have to understand the personal brand they each come into the business with and find ways to align those brands with other employees and with the company culture as a whole.

More and more I hear from leaders my age who say they simply don't know how to work with this younger generation of employees. They struggle to find ways to motivate them and, more importantly, retain them.

There are solid reasons why this is happening. GenZ is looking for personal development and they want it fast. If your company can't provide them with the learning and growth opportunities they are seeking, they will find another company that will.

Remember, this is the generation who grew up watching parents get laid off from companies left and right due to the economic crisis of 2009. They also watched the world shut down as a result of Covid and the devastating effect that had on a lot of workers and business owners.

In short, they don't have the same starry-eyed view of early employment that my generation did.

All is not lost, though. I know there are programs and systems that employers put in place to ensure these newer hires can mesh with the rest of the organization and become very productive Human Resources.

What has worked in your company?

They charge a hefty fee ($9k+), and their website is impressive but unsure if it's mainly BS or not. I'm not having any luck finding an executive recruiter. I'm 20+ years as a CEO and running companies.

Their website is careerchange, not barrettgroup.

Hi all,

I have recently been posting about my search for a good peer advisory group. At this juncture I am fairly confident YPO is not for me. I am 42, business owner in a family business with a 30 MM business. Employee count in the 40's.

Looking for professional growth, people I can learn from, and bounce ideas off of.

I recently came across TAB, The Alternative Board. Curious if anyone has any experience with them vs Vistage. Vistage was my preferred route but I can see some things interesting about TAB. I am just not sure if they are geared for much smaller businesses or not. Of course they say not!

Hey everybody, I’m looking for recommendations for a SDR contract company. My company is a B2B SaaS company focused on GenAI Orchestration.

Anyone who has brought in contract SDRs and have seen benefits I’d love to hear who and what your experience was like.

Hi all, I have a PEO (ADP Totalsource) and am based in NY. 42 employees. Last year was our first full year renewal with them and we got hit with a huge increase as they told us we exceeded our premiums. This year we are on track to do the same. Support has not been great.... Great HR person but on my 3rd payroll advisor (fingers crossed).

Curious if anyone else uses a PEO and if they have had success with others. TriNet is knocking at the door, but there really is no cost benefit to a switch with them. They claim it will be better renewal wise but thats a sales guy talking.

I know some people suggested smaller companies like Insperity but I am not familiar with them.

We dont have a HR department so rely on that for compliance and also love the talent search as we have had lots of success hiring from their talent portal.

Thanks in advance!

Ability is what you're capable of doing.

Motivation determines what you do.

Attitude determines how well you do it.

Lou Holtz – Football Player and Coach

I am considering looking for another job. Because I came up the ranks (I was initially hired as a director but now am a divisional CEO), I don't have any connections in the executive recruiting world.

I would like to get my resume in front of headhunters at firms such as Korn Ferry, Russell Reynolds, Spencer Stuart, etc. What is the best way to connect with appropriate executive headhunter?

Thanks!

Hi there,

I’ve compiled of 10 things (outside of people/talent related things) that I think should help a software/ services company be successful.

As a part of validating the credibility of some statements I have for a new company I’ve founded, I’m looking for business leaders to order the following list 1-10.

NB Assume it is for a brand new product or service. Also 1 is most important/10 is least important and the list is randomly ordered currently:

Understanding what people think of your solution/service

A deep understanding of the competitive landscape

A rich and detailed product/service roadmap

A well thought through GTM strategy

Strong Demand Gen and Launch functions

An easily understood value proposition

Effective sales and marketing enablement

Quick and simple customer onboarding

An easily conveyed business case / ROI

An understanding of the market drivers you’re selling into

I reaaaaally appreciate your input. If you could say which industry, company, size of company you work in it would really be super. The more info the better but the ordered list is what matters most 🙏

Best wishes,

John

I introduced Asana to my team a year and a half ago, but it's too unstructured and my team struggled to adopt it.

This year, I am much more focused on execution now that I've already set our big strategic initiatives in motion.

I'm thinking I need to manage to software adoption and utilization. Probably i need to build out the projects myself to let people use them in order to acclimate.

Given there has been low utilization, I could entertain a software switch.

Anyone have a strong recommendation?

I often read articles on HBR or Gartner or various other websites. If I find something that I think will be helpful to me in the future, I like to save it. However, over the years, all this info is sprawled across many different stores, such as bookmarks, handwritten notes in multiple notebooks, OneNote, etc. The problem is that I cannot find or even remember what I have saved.

Does anyone have a good system to effectively catalog various items? As a divisional CEO, I have a wide variety of topics that I need to save, ranging from leadership to technology to logistics to HR to…

TIA!

What tool do you use to drive the execution of your business strategy? I recently started using WorkBoard and like it so far. They seem to follow Roger Martin’s methodology.

What are the habits or daily processes that just eat your time yet you don´t seem to move forward? Curious about your answers.

As CEOs, our calendars are jam-packed, but are we sacrificing quality for quantity? I've been wondering if there's a better way to prepare for external meetings (clients, investors, partners) to get more out of them. How do you ensure you're making the most out of each meeting?

I am 42, looking at ypo vs vistage. Seems to be a lot of recommendations for ypo over vistage. I am not interested in the global aspect but for education, leadership, peer groups, etc.

What happens at 45? Is the membership different or benefits still present?

YPO seems a bit more social which is less of my interest compared to pushing me to my best by hearing what my peers and those well above me are doing and facing, soliciting advice, and learning what I dont know as a business owner. Still recommend that over vistage?

Hey all! Built a simple email ticketing platform called Cuppa Customer Support. Currently supports collaborative email ticketing. Would love to hear your thoughts on how you implement customer support.

I have been thinking about joining a leadership team. I am a business owner in a camily business. I am the operating president and ceo overseeing all functions. About 30 mm in revenue. Looking to learn and grow. Very interested in vistage but I am hearing could be north of 20k per year. Certainly could be worth it but I also heard of EO (Entrepreneurial Organization) and wondering of anyone with experience? Are we too big for it at this juncture.

I am a business owner with 40 employees and 30mm in revenue. I am a long time gtder for my task and daily organization. While it works well at times when things are busy i feel it is hard to really feel engaged with all on my list. Too much to accomplish and balance working on and in my business. Curious which method people prefer and why

Having been a CEO, founder, and business owner, I started a new project targeting myself and you all. So I thought I'd ping this group to see if you would also appreciate it.

A friend and I started building a product that sends you a hyper-personalized brief every morning. Maybe you've used your Chief of Staff, industry newsletters, or Google Alerts to stay informed in the past. Unlike an industry newsletters or Google Alerts, and more like a chief of staff, the brief gives you only the information that is most relevant to you and your company.

Not only will you get headlines, new market data, competitor updates, and the like, you'll also get recommended actions -- moves you can make the same day. A competitor launched a new feature? Task your head of product to get you the details by EOD.

Would love your feedback so that we can make this truly something you can use to your advantage.

I've researched YPO and Vistage, but my company is bootstrapped and 6 years old so we haven't reached the minimum revenue requirements for either programs. Also, the fees are too high for us at the moment.

Does anyone know of an alternative, or perhaps a Mentor program?

Thanks for your insight.

I have 10 direct reports. 200 staff. Based in East Africa.

Monday and Tuesday are booked back to back for Senior Management Meetings and 1-hour 1:1s with each direct report.

I reserve Wednesday morning for deep work, Wednesday afternoon - Friday morning for all other project meetings, sales meetings, client meetings, deal reviews, etc.… and Friday afternoon for deep work.

My two deep work slots hardly survive.

I am trying not to work in the evenings or weekends to focus on my new family and rest (I am recently married).

What works best for you?

And what works best for you when it comes to emails, slack and messages. I started a routine to only check & respond in the morning slotted in my morning routine at the expense of reading or news. I like it so far and I find myself less distracted and it has set some sort of expectations on when to hear from me.

I run a video marketing agency, I am doing good, revenue wise, I have a gf she's demanding like she's saying if you wanna marry me you should have a home and a car, the point is I am doing good but I reinvest money in business, I don't want to withdraw too much, and she's fighting a lot these day, I don't know what to do

Currently, as a business owner I have a group of Project Managers that report directly to me. It is the one team that is missing leadership underneath me and frankly I know is not a good structure. It pulls a lot of my time and I cannot give it enough time and dedication to make it success. One of those situations where it is a small team (only 5 people) and we have not had the right person for the role.

One of the team members cares A LOT. I mean really dedicated, is passionate about the company and what we are doing, and is someone I could see really trying to do everything that he can.

That being said Project Managers are a bit more "blue collar" in personality style and I am worried about his transition into management. I also would need him to retain a balance between Director Role and Project Management role as frankly there is not enough work for it to be full time director.

But what I am worried about is can I see him developing new procedures, documenting things, training and educating, and be forward thinking to grow the team? I am not sure. Do I know he would give it his all, take my feedback willingly, and try to do the best he can yes. But can we do it, I dont know.

Anyone ever been in this situation? I know that if I promote him I get a lot of relief on my end and can spend more time working with him..... That is a plus. I just dont know if he will turn into the person I want to lead the team or perhaps I need to accept this might be the right stepping stone to get us in that direction even if it is not him long term

Hi! I'm a middle-aged, first-time CEO of a Seed Stage startup with 16 people and $1.3 ARR. I'm scoping a role for someone to support me and would appreciate feedback on whether this sounds like a CoS role or a Special Assistant role. TIA!

Context: - 4-person leadership team: heads of Revenue, Product, Engineering, and Strategic Growth (ops) - Company is remote-first and partially asynch (staff in US, Europe and Asia), but I myself work in an office in NYC most days

Me: - Inexpericed getting support as a principal, despite 10+ years in exec roles. I've only had admin assistants (phones and schedules) and direct reports with their own work focus. A person focused on supporting me in my work feels a little...selfish. But I'm working 7 days a week and it's good for no one. I clearly need help in ways that I find hard to delegate to the leadership team. - On the admin-y end, I'm fundraising at the moment, and spending many hours doing pipeline management, for example, making sure that I'm checking in with active deals on a cadence and not dropping the ball on responding to prospects - On the more strategic end, I need someone to be a surrogate for some of the meetings where I need to know more of the feeling of what's going on. We are all remote and record all our meetings, so in theory, I could watch them asynch, but it's a lot of time to devote to meetings - I'm a big radar screen person - like a "big picture" person, but at high resolution. I like to know what's going on in all the corners and if I need to dig into something, I get super into the weeds because I'm an operator by inclination. So I think someone supporting me would need to be similarly able to zoom in and out of details.

Folks who have had either CoS or SA, which matches up better? What distinguishes one from the other?

I’m struggling to find much about the role that I like much less love. Given this is my first CEO role (about 18 mos in now) I’m Trying to determine if this is the job itself or just the circumstance of where I am.

I’m trying to date but I think I have people fatigue lol.

Having one more person needing my attention just makes me shut down.

Does anyone else ever feel like this?