In this interview segment, Speaker A asks about the inspiration for the book "The Power of Peers." Speaker B explains that the idea emerged from observing Vistage and other peer advisory groups, where CEOs and business leaders surround themselves with peers much like athletes join training groups. While many leaders participate in such forums, the proportion of CEOs who truly leverage peer advantage is low. The gap, Speaker B argues, stems from a lack of compelling language and narrative around peer advisory groups. The book aims to clarify the distinction between everyday peer influence and a strategic, structured "peer advantage," and to create a narrative that motivates leaders to be more selective and intentional about their peer networks.
Chapters
I'm interested in the inspiration behind the book. I mean, I think you've done a fabulous job in laying out the spectrum of how you move from peer influence, which we all experience every day at some networking event or whatever, to this much deeper level of peer advantage that we're talking about. What was the inspiration behind the book?
I think it's interesting to look at Vistage groups and actually many companies that run forums and also people even start their own groups. And they do so because they know who they surround themselves with matters. When— if someone were interested in— many people do it, as you know, you want to run a marathon, you want to surround yourself with people who do that, who can cheer you on, who can give you training tips, who can hold you accountable. Did you make your run today? CEOs and business leaders can do that for one another as well. And yet, you know, there are so many people who participate in these groups, but in the scheme of things, when you look at it against the total number of CEOs and business owners out there, not nearly enough of them are taking advantage of it. And I think in large part it has to do with the fact that there really is no language around peer advisory groups in a way that I think has been compelling. So in part, how do we create a narrative that inspires people to understand the difference between the peer influence they experience every day and the peer advantage that can be realized when they are more selective, strategic, and structured about how they approach their work. So that was the big impetus for doing this.
