The groups allow open and frank conversations with peers in a confidential environment – conversations that normally can’t be held inside a business or with partners at home.

Members have said how they can help enormously with the loneliness that leadership can bring, and comradery is a term that is often used. They encourage members to develop friendships with other members, who act as critical friends both when things are going well, and when times are hard. It is also an opportunity to give back to the business community by helping others with issues that you might have dealt with.

Peer groups aim to:

• Assist in building trusting relationships with peers.
• Act as a sounding board
• Clarify direction & focus
• Provide personal coaching & support
• Challenge comfort zones
• Encourage action
• Give hands-on support
• Celebrate and share successes
• Improve experience

Typical activities can include:

• An opportunity to highlight what is working well and what is not working well (both in your business and personal life).
• An opportunity to visit other members and experience first-hand what is working well and what is not to help them to develop their own businesses.
• An opportunity to feed-back to hosts to identify what is working successfully and what could be improved.
• A workshop on a particular area run by one of the members highlighting an area of best practice and what they learnt from implementation.
• A workshop run by the facilitator (covering anything from best practice for exiting/selling a business, leadership skills, performance management techniques etc.).
• Problem solving where members highlight an issue, an area they wish to discuss, or a goal they are trying to achieve, and the other members help them with that.