Building the base
The first step to building an open, honest group is bringing in open, honest members. The first trait Mazzella looks for when he interviews potential members for his Vistage group is the desire to learn. To uncover that, ask what books they read, what seminars they attend or how they’ve developed, both in business and personally.
Second, test whether they’ll be open to input they’ll get from the group.
“I’ll actually talk to them about their business,” he says. “If they identify an area where they are having an issue, I may give them some feedback and see how they react to it — are they defensive or willing to talk about it?”
And if they claim to be challenge-free, take note.
“If they tell me everything’s going great, that’s a big red flag,” Mazzella says. “That’s not true of any business. Even if you’re being successful, you have problems. They’re not open to feedback if that’s how they view the business.”
When discussing their business, you can also judge their goals for the future. This covers Mazzella’s third criteria, which is the CEO’s drive to improve his or her company.
The makeup of the existing members also determines who can join. To protect the cornerstone of confidentiality, competitors and vendors of other members shouldn’t be considered.
You may want to consider the size of their companies, too. In Vistage, CEOs are often roughly grouped according to their companies’ revenue. In Mazzella’s group, revenue ranges from $6 million to $85 million. Spectrum fits in with more than $25 million in annual revenue and about 85 employees. Leaders of companies with similar organizational structures and number of employees seem to encounter many of the same issues.
Beyond that, a CEO’s line of business shouldn’t be a factor when building a group of mentors.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re a paint maker, a plumber or a manufacturer of shelving,” Schultz says. “Dealing in business, the CEO issues are pretty much the same.”
To become a Vistage leader, Mazzella went through training that focused on facilitating group interaction and running one-on-one sessions. The organization looks for leaders with a wealth of business experience, and in his case, the organization got someone who has led a family business and started his own, staying involved in several boards along the way.
Once the group meets, it needs to work together to lay ground rules that will satisfy everyone’s needs and shape how the group will run. Use the first couple of meetings to draw this outline while you get to know each other.
“We create, as a group, a general framework under which we’re going to operate and interact,” Mazzella says. “Right at the top is obviously confidentiality, but respect, candidness, an openness to share.”