The Power of Peers

I'm thinking about the lessons Barry Libert shares as I reread Chapter 10 of Leaders: Their Stories, Their Words. It makes me wonder,"How can I utilize the power of my networks to give me the information, insights and perspectives I need to support my clients?"

Barry says "We'd really like to talk to our peers [leaders of other companies] to learn what the best are doing and how we can do something similar.

The question that has stuck with me is, "How can I learn from my peers to improve my performance and make better decisions?" Even today, I have friends who work at large management consulting firms and they still say the same thing: that their clients want to talk to their peers. Large companies and their leaders are not unique:

• Kids want to talk to their peers before they talk to their parents.
• Customers want to talk to their peers before they talk to the company.
• Sick people want to talk to their peers before they talk to doctors.
• Employees want to talk to their peers before they talk to their bosses.
• People want to download music from their peers before they buy a song."

Who do you talk to before making a decision?