Lonely at the top? Growing demand for an executive sounding board
Lonely at the top? Growing demand for an executive sounding board
Leading a business today has hardly become easier. The pace of change is high in a world where technological shifts, geopolitical disruption and new regulations are contributing to increased complexity. But perhaps the answer is not always more information or more advice. In our conversations with CEOs and leaders at CxO level, we are seeing growing interest in something else: the opportunity to regularly exchange perspectives with an experienced person who can act as a kind of mentor and qualified sounding board outside one’s own organisation. Not to discuss specific decisions or be given the answer, but to broaden one’s field of vision and develop one’s own way of thinking and leading. Not because senior leaders lack competence or need someone else to make decisions for them. Rather, it is about the value of gaining access to another experienced person’s perspective; someone who can challenge established ways of thinking, ask different questions and contribute with experiences from other contexts.
Broadening the perspective
At the highest level, leadership is seldom about a lack of information. The challenge is rather to understand what is essential and to be able to view a situation from several angles. An experienced and qualified executive sounding board can contribute precisely there. Not by delivering answers to a specific business issue, but by creating a conversation that helps the leader lift their gaze and reflect on their own way of thinking and acting.
Through Alumni Global’s broad network, we can identify and match senior leaders with experienced individuals who can contribute precisely this kind of perspective. This type of executive sounding board was recently facilitated by our colleague Lars Navéus with Anna Ohlsson-Leijon acting as a qualified sounding board for a senior leader at one of Sweden’s largest listed industrial companies.
Anna Ohlsson-Leijon, who has extensive experience from senior leadership roles and is today a professional board member, describes it as follows:
Anna Ohlsson-Leijon, Non-Executive Board Director
“For me, mentoring is not so much about providing answers or solutions. It is about asking questions, sharing experiences and jointly opening up more perspectives. This dialogue creates time for reflection and the opportunity to find other ways forward.”
This is an important distinction. The executive sounding board does not need to know the details of a specific acquisition, organisational change or other business decision. The conversation is instead more about how, as a leader, one relates to different situations, which perspectives one tends to start from, and which other viewpoints may be worth exploring. In this way, a kind of helicopter perspective is created, giving the leader the opportunity to broaden their field of vision through experiences they do not personally have.
As the world changes, more perspectives become valuable
Rapidly changing markets mean that senior leaders need to manage several dimensions at the same time. Leaders in operational roles and people who, for example, serve on boards encounter this development from different angles. That is precisely why the exchange between two experienced individuals with different perspectives can be valuable, without the conversation needing to focus on a specific company or decision.
As a senior leader with an executive sounding board by their side, one is given the opportunity to process one’s own experiences, test one’s own perspective and develop one’s own way of looking at leadership. A sounding board acts as an important sparring partner and should not be seen solely as a source of information.
“It is possible to achieve highly rewarding mentoring without touching on a single sensitive factual issue. It is not the issue itself that matters, but different ways of looking at things and the exchange of experience. Mentoring creates the conditions for discovering new sides and new possibilities within oneself.”
Value-creating and mutual exchange
“Getting to know another person and being part of their journey is a wonderful gift. As a sounding board, you are also kept up to date with new perspectives that you yourself may not live as closely to. In good mentoring, both people grow and develop mutually.”
The relationship between what we might call mentor and mentee creates value for both parties. Anna describes it as a mutual exchange.
Beyond the personal dimension and the satisfaction of being able to turn one’s experience into value for someone else, there is also an exchange of knowledge. For someone who has left an operational leadership role, the conversations can provide insight into the issues and perspectives that shape today’s operational leadership. New generations of leaders, new business models and a rapidly changing external environment also create new perspectives for the more experienced party.
Good mentoring also develops over time and requires openness, honesty and mutual trust. As a sounding board, one needs to be generous with one’s experiences, including lessons from situations where everything did not go according to plan, while also recognising that the role is more about asking questions than providing answers.
The right person is key
At a time when leadership is becoming increasingly complex, the need for dialogue and exchange of experiences is growing. Not more reports and not more dashboards, but rather an exchange between people who have been there themselves, who can contribute insights from different contexts and who want to help others succeed. This is why we are seeing growing demand for an executive sounding board at CxO level. Not as a solution to a lack of competence, but as a way to support better decision-making in an increasingly complex world.
What is decisive for a successful exchange is not only finding an experienced person, but finding the right experienced person. Background, personality, experience and perspectives need to complement the leader who is seeking a sounding board. When the match works, the relationship can create a long-term exchange that is difficult to achieve in more formal advisory relationships.
Needs also differ, and we help you tailor an arrangement that works for both parties.
Through Alumni Global’s broad network of senior leaders, former CEOs, board members and other experienced decision-makers, we can help companies and leaders identify and facilitate this type of mentoring.
If you are considering the value of an external executive sounding board in a CEO or CxO role, you are very welcome to contact us. We are happy to share our experience of what creates successful relationships at the highest leadership level.
Contact us
Lars Navéus
Partner, Alumni Global
Email
Lars Navéus, Partner and Consultant at Alumni Global, has worked with executive search, board recruitment and strategic leadership advisory for almost three decades. He advises owners, boards and CEOs in listed, private equity-owned and family-owned companies, both in the Nordics and internationally. Read more
“In my dialogues, it is rarely more information that I hear leaders asking for. Instead, there is a need to exchange perspectives with someone who may have been there themselves, or who has more experience behind them, and who can help them see issues from new and different angles.”
