The board meeting ends. A few board members and I head out for steaks, single malt, and cigars. The CEO isn’t invited. We laugh, we tell CEO jokes, we blow smoke rings, and pretend we know what we’re doing.
Two meetings later, the board fires the CEO — and I draw the short straw. Suddenly, it’s clear why I was invited to join the board in the first place. I’d just earned the privilege of being excluded from the post-meeting party.
It’s a cliché because it’s true: it’s lonely at the top.
Leading means carrying the weight of vision, courage, and conviction. Fear, doubt, uncertainty — those aren’t supposed to be in the CEO vocabulary, right? Washington, Lincoln, Gandhi, King, Gates, Jobs — they never flinched, right?
Except they did. They just didn’t have LinkedIn posts about it.
So where does a CEO go to unload the doubts, to vet the big ideas before taking them down from the mountain? Who’s safe to talk to? The CFO? The COO? The board?
Sure — if you’re looking to start a coup.
A CEO’s world is one giant tightrope walk without a net. Show too much vulnerability and you lose authority. Show too little and you lose touch. The trick is finding a place where you can be honest without committing career suicide.
That’s where peer advisory groups and coaching come in.
When I was sitting in the big chair, the board didn’t want to hear about my fears. They wanted crisp plans, confident execution, and results. The boardroom is not a safe space for “I’m not sure what to do.”
Boards focus on the scoreboard — revenue, profit, share value. By the time you’re reporting results, it’s too late for them to fix anything.
I remember once agonizing over whether to fire a close friend who worked for me. Admitting that to the board would have been like bleeding in shark-infested water — instant questions about my loyalty and decisiveness. Instead, I brought it to my peer group. Same decision, different outcome. The friend was gone, the friendship survived, and my reputation with the board stayed intact.
That’s the beauty of an accountability group — a place where CEOs can drop the mask. Where you get real feedback from people who get it because they’ve lived it. Where you can test plans, call out blind spots, and be held accountable without judgment.
That’s why I built CxO ThinkTank — a safe space for leaders to think out loud, to get smarter together, and to stop pretending they have all the answers.
It’s about the M.A.G.I.C.:
- Making Better Decisions
- Accountability
- Growth
- Isolation Relief
- Change
If you run a business in Washington, DC, Maryland, or the Northern Virginia Region, you don’t have to figure it all out alone. I help CEOs and founders build clarity, confidence, and action plans that actually get executed.
Want to experience what that feels like?
Schedule a complimentary 60-minute one-on-one coaching session here.
Because being the boss doesn’t mean you have to go it alone.
