How Vistage Works
Better leaders. Better decisions. Better results.
It all starts with a group.
Since 1957, Vistage has been bringing together CEOs, executives, and business owners into private advisory groups. Each group is purpose-built to help members help each other improve the performance of their businesses.
In our group, about a dozen executives (like you) meet once a month to solve problems, and evaluate opportunities.
An expert guides the meetings.
Put 12 or so high-performing business executives in a room and the potential is enormous. My role is to ensure that every bit of that experience and wisdom is applied in a Vistage meeting.
As a Chair, I’m part facilitator, part coach, and totally committed to the success of group members. I help stimulate thinking, frame issues, guide discussions, limit tangents, and ensure accountability in the group.
The group digs deep.
Thinly reasoned conclusions have no place in a Vistage group.
The hallmark of our group is something we call Issue Processing. It’s a structured, thorough, and efficient approach to help members think through the dynamics of a challenge. It forces you to push beyond your assumptions and get to the real issues. That’s critical to understanding and evaluating your options before making a decision and taking action.
The topics can be intense.
In a Vistage group, no topic is off-limits If you are willing to talk candidly about the tough decisions you face, fellow members will rally around you, listen, ask tough questions and bring to bear every resource they have to help you solve problems and seize opportunity.
Whether the question is operational, financial, legal, structural, or even personal, your Vistage group is a confidential forum of experienced executives who rely on each other for wisdom, advice, and counsel.
Ideas and answers start to flow.
With the wealth and diversity of experience in the group, chances are someone has grappled with the situations you are facing right now. And because members thrive on exchange, discussions get very interesting, very quickly.
As you work together, you and your group start to develop a range of options and solutions that can only come from a team of business professionals working toward one another’s success.
Then it happens.
The work pays off. Through facilitated discussions with knowledgeable executives, you’ve turned What to do? into What to do. You’ve gained perspective and good advice and developed a definitive action plan—all in one day to keep momentum, you and I will meet monthly, between sessions for a private one-to-one session designed to help you identify your most important needs and opportunities.
Equally valuable, your group will follow your progress. In your next meeting, count on members asking if you advanced your plan.
Business is filled with ups and downs.
Up is better.
A new perspective can change everything.
During the most difficult times, Vistage CEO members grew their annual revenue on average by 4.6% in 2020, while nonmembers with comparable small and midsize businesses saw revenue decrease by 4.7%*
*Analysis performed on Dun & Bradstreet data for U.S. companies with up to $1B in annual revenue. The comparison was made on annual revenue growth (2020 vs 2019) between Vistage member companies (sample size: 1,897) who joined the Chief Executive or Small Business programs prior to 2020 and a random sample of non-Vistage small and midsize businesses (sample size: 702).
Vistage members approach leadership excellence as a continuous journey. In fact, a CEO’s average membership in Vistage is 7+ years.
They bring rigor to their decision-making, knowing they don’t have all the answers. They take advantage of outside perspectives from trusted peers, guidance from respected mentors, and insights from renowned thought leaders. And the results speak for themselves.
60 years of experience
Vistage is the world’s largest peer advisory and executive coaching organization for small and midsize businesses. For more than 60 years, we’ve been helping business leaders solve their greatest challenges.
Today, more than 26,000 members in 25 countries rely on Vistage.