CEO / Advisor Meeting Feedback Form

The meetings are all about success for the CEO. The advisor is there to serve the needs of the CEO. To help your advisor meet your needs and to assure Continuous Improvement, a feedback loop is essential.

After each meeting, the CEO has the opportunity to communicate to assure that the needs of the CEO are being met, and how the advisor can improve.

Please do not hold back. Both of us want to see you succeed, and enjoy the process as much as possible.

Here is a sample feedback form:

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CEO name:

Date of meeting:

1. Overall score for the meeting: (1-10, 1=lowest; 10=highest) __

2. Considering the entire CEO / Advisor process, what comes to your mind as the most important suggestion for improvement, or problem, or complaint?

3. Other suggestions for improvement:

4. I feel that I am making progress with my goals.

(yes, no, don't know)

5. Other feedback:

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Agenda for CEO / Advisor meetings

Agenda for CEO / Advisor meetings

The agenda for the meeting is created by the CEO and emailed to the attendees at least 2 days before the meeting so that the attendees have time to review the agenda and prepare effectively for the meeting.

The agenda is an opportunity for the CEO to think clearly and organize their thoughts into priority sequence and budget their time accordingly. Visualize how you want the meeting to progress and how much time each topic should take. 

Time in the meeting is spent either Teaching (Status Review) or Learning (Discussion). The CEO wants to reduce the time he invests in Teaching his advisors and optimize the time and results he gets in the Learning (Discussion) section.

In highly effective meetings time spent in the Teaching section is zero. The information is consumed prior to the meeting, when the agenda is delivered. There is no need to have a 1-1 verbal discussion of what can be written down, and linked to. This allows attendees to review the material in a much more efficient time-shifted method. And this frees up almost all of the bandwidth in the meeting to focus on the serious issues, and advisors can ask questions.

The job of the CEO is to state the goals, establish a plan for achieving them, then manage the execution of the plan. Primarily his job is one of communication. Communicate the dream, the opportunity, the mission, the vision, the purpose, etc. The successful CEO will be a great communicator. The most effective communications are in writing, least effective are verbal. Written communications are far more valuable than verbal.

Therefore, the CEO wants to avoid a lot of verbal Teaching in the meetings. It is far more effective for the CEO to be Learning by asking questions. The bulk of any background information needed to answer the CEO's questions during the meeting should be in the form of links that can be accessed prior to the meeting.

Get the best out of your time in this meeting, and the greatest value from your advisors, by stating your discussion items in a question format. 

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A G E N D A

Your company name/logo 

(link to public website)

CEO name/link

(Meeting Date/time)

(Attendees names)

(Online attendance link)

1. Statement of Purpose of this meeting

         Write in this space.
         What does the CEO want to achieve in this meeting?
                     (learn, action items, plan, decisions, ideas, confidence, help, etc)

2. Status Review - 5 minutes

         A.  CEO's Positive review 

              Write a few paragraphs.
                      CEO summary of last period, positive actions taken, results achieved.
           
              Advisors give standing ovation.

          
         B. Status Checklist

    
              (Cash Runway), (Net Promoter Score), Links to other KPI pages
    
              CEO 
                              (Energy level),   (Stress Level)

                          Link to CEO's Overall Health Plan
                          Link to business calendar
                          Links for LinkedIn, FB, blogs, Twitter, etc 
                          Link to ToDo list
                          Link to strategic plan
                          Link to priorities 
                          Link to Who-What-When 

              Financial - Links to P/L, Balance Sheet, etc
              Sales and Marketing - Links

              People - (morale measurement), Links to Organization chart/data/Who What When
              Product roadmap - Links
              Customer support - Links
              
              Legal - Links, cap table, fundraising documents (executive summary, deck, etc)
              Company Library - Links
              Websites - Links
              Strategic Plans - Links (SWOT analysis, Acquisitions, stock plans)
              Business Philosophy - Links to Values, Mission, Vision, 

3. Discussion - 55 minutes

          A.  Important and Urgent Topics in Priority sequence

                  (Cash Flow, Legal, Stockholders, Personnel, Sales, Competition)
                  Links to separate documents where you have written
                  your important and urgent challenges, along with supporting information, research, etc.
                         State the situation as a question: "How do I decide...?", "What's best policy for...?"

                   
          B.  Other Important Topics 
                 More of the same, just not as urgent.
                 (as time permits)

Meeting Notes:

           Action items: 
                  Who does What by When,
                  policy statements,

           Next meeting 
                  date/time/place
                  Agenda items for next meeting
                  How can we improve these meetings?

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System for Effective CEO / Advisor meetings

You can help our meetings go more effectively and efficiently if you:

Before our meetings:

1. Prepare an agenda for our time together.
Know what you want to cover, and prioritize your needs.
The more time you prepare for our meeting, the more you will get out of it.

2. Email links to documents, (agenda, reports, financial statements, business plans, etc)
at least 2 days before our meeting.
This allows enough time to review, make notes, and prepare questions.

3. Visualize how you want our meeting to go.
Breathe, relax, and resolve to be open, honest, and complete.
Have positive expectations, drop defensiveness.

During our meetings:

1. Make notes during our meeting to be sure you get everything right.
Recording our session is perfectly acceptable, as long as it is
for your own personal use and will not be published, broadcast,
or shared in any other way.

2. Sometimes you may feel that I am talking longer than necessary,
and that you have fully got the point and want to move on to the
next topic. Just tell me. No problem.

After our meetings:

1 Take some quiet time to review your notes,
and then summarize the important action items we discussed,
and write your summary in an email to me so that we can be
sure there is a meeting of the minds.

2. Complete and email the meeting feedback form.
These are your meetings and this is the best way to be sure you get what you need.

Other:

1. Thank you for: No smoking, no alcohol, no drugs, no guests, no pets, no gifts.

Connecting the dots

some thoughts about

humble beginnings,

great success,

the public humiliation of failure,

starting over,

the meaning of life, and death,

and connecting the dots,

(all in less than 15 minutes,

from a man who has achieved greatly)