When our company grew from 70 employees to more than 250 in less than four years, we faced two challenges. First, we needed to develop future leaders who could think beyond the responsibilities of their current roles. Second, employees had less visibility into how leadership decisions were made.
I am a firm believer in investing in people and promoting from within. As the company grew, however, many high-potential employees lacked exposure to the strategic thinking and decision-making responsibilities required of future leaders. Traditional training helped employees understand different departments, but it didn’t expose them to the realities of executive decision-making.
As organizations grow, employees naturally have fewer opportunities to understand how decisions are made. Without that visibility, leadership choices can appear arbitrary, and future leaders miss valuable exposure to executive thinking. The CEO Council was designed to close that gap. It has become a valuable tool for developing future leaders while preserving alignment during periods of rapid growth.
The Council is made up of six high-potential employees from across the organization who hold titles below “director” and meet regularly with me to discuss real business decisions, financial trade-offs and personnel challenges. Members serve one to two-year terms and are nominated by their peers and bosses. By involving six people from different backgrounds, we help employees move from evaluating decisions based on individual impact to evaluating them through an organizational lens.
Transparency creates context, not just trust
Most employees only see the outcome of a decision. They rarely see the tradeoffs behind it. When employees see the constraints leaders must navigate, they begin to understand that decisions are rarely as simple as they appear from the outside. A reduction in benefits may feel arbitrary when announced, but understanding the financial realities behind the decision often reveals a more complex picture.
I regularly share benefit costs, insurance expenses and compensation considerations during council meetings. We discuss topics such as insurance line items and 401(k) matching percentages to help participants understand the financial rationale behind management decisions. In one recent discussion, we reviewed rising insurance premiums and the cost of subsidizing employee and child coverage (a standard benefits offering at the company). The exercise highlighted a reality many future leaders have never had to confront: resources are finite, and every benefit enhancement requires a financial trade-off elsewhere. By seeing how these decisions affect the broader P&L, council members gain a more realistic understanding of the constraints leadership must navigate.
Leadership is learned through exposure
I also use this time to simulate complex interpersonal and management situations. Junior-level roles aren’t often confronted with the delicate tradeoffs that are asked of leadership. How should you handle a performance review with subordinates who think they’re excelling when you rated them average? Or address a sensitive workplace conduct issue? These are scenarios many participants have never encountered but are likely to face as their responsibilities grow.
These sessions are designed to prepare participants for real-world leadership challenges and to build a skill set that is not yet required in their current roles. We discuss how each Council member would address these challenges. These discussions build critical thinking and the business acumen that sets leaders up for success. And as we look to promote from within, our organization stands to benefit greatly from this skill development.
It has become one of our most effective tools for identifying future leaders. Fifty percent of current members have been promoted since joining the Council, reinforcing its value as a development program that effectively identifies future leaders.
Understanding creates ownership
The most surprising outcome was the shift in how participants approached problems. Once employees understand the competing priorities leaders face, they stop viewing decisions through a single departmental lens and begin thinking about what’s best for the organization as a whole. That mindset often spreads beyond the Council itself.
Council members often help colleagues understand the tradeoffs behind difficult decisions because they’ve seen firsthand how those decisions are made. They serve as critical bridges between departments and the C-suite. This doesn’t mean that everyone agrees with leadership’s choices. Understanding creates connection, and connection fosters ownership in the company’s future.
One example of this is our work-from-home policy. We currently have a hybrid structure, with staff required to come into the office two days a week. Employees understand that this flexibility requires maintaining performance, which has encouraged greater accountability among peers. Because Council members understand the rationale for the policy, discussions about hybrid work tend to focus less on whether it is fair and more on what is required to make it successful.
The CEO Council has had a powerful, lasting impact on the entire leadership team. Members of my C-suite frequently bring difficult decisions to the Council to gather fresh perspectives and test their thinking.
Leadership development is often treated as a matter of training. In my experience, perspective matters just as much as skills. When future leaders are given visibility into the difficult tradeoffs executives face, they become better prepared to make those decisions themselves. The CEO Council has reinforced a simple lesson: when people understand the constraints behind difficult decisions, they become better equipped to lead through them.