The cost of familiar advice
Senior leaders typically have people they turn to when facing big decisions. A trusted circle – peers, colleagues, mentors, advisors who’ve been through similar challenges.
And when you’re confident, experienced, and have built strong relationships, it’s easy to believe that reaching out to these familiar voices is the smart move.
They listen. They offer thoughtful input based on their experience. You leave the conversation feeling validated, reassured.
But there’s a good chance that many of those you turn to approach your problem from roughly the same vantage point. They’ve reached a similar level to you, from the same industry background, and have experienced a similar professional upbringing.
And it makes sense why. You naturally seek out people who know your industry, who are experts in the same field, who understand where you’re coming from. This is useful. You need people who can speak your language and understand the nuances of your world.
But if you’re limited to only these voices, that’s where the problem lies.
Because the advice isn’t wrong; it is simply incomplete. The perspectives you don’t get – the challenges you don’t hear, the questions that aren’t asked – those absences cost you more than you know.
In fact senior leaders pay what might be referred to as an “isolation tax.” It’s not that you’re isolated in the obvious sense – your calendar is full, you’re constantly in conversation with smart, experienced people.
But the isolation is more subtle. It’s the narrowing of perspective that happens when everyone in your orbit succeeded the way you did and sees the world through the same lens.
This doesn’t feel like isolation. It feels like clarity, like alignment. Until you realise what you thought was clarity was actually just consensus among people with the same assumptions and same blind spots.
One leader I work with discovered this when a major strategic initiative failed. Not because the strategy was flawed, but because it was built on assumptions everyone in his inner circle shared.
“I thought we’d done our due diligence,” he told me. “Everyone thought it made sense.”
But that was the problem. All his advisors had succeeded in the same type of market, with the same type of customer, using the same playbook. None of them questioned the core assumptions because those assumptions had always been true in their experience.
At senior levels, this tendency becomes dangerous. When everyone around you succeeded using the same strategies, you miss better ones, and a real chance to differentiate. When everyone shares your assumptions, no one challenges them.
Some leaders I work with have become deliberate about seeking out dissonance rather than confirmation.
One CCO described it as “productive friction.” She deliberately cultivated relationships with leaders from completely different industries, cultural backgrounds, and generations. Not because they could directly advise on her specific challenges, but because they asked questions she wouldn’t have thought to ask herself.
And so the test isn’t whether you have advisors.
The real test is whether you have the advisors you need for the decisions you’re actually facing.
Because the advice that you’re not getting, the questions you’re not being asked, the challenges you’re not hearing – this is what could be limiting you the most.
Reflect: Understanding who you currently turn to for advice can reveal patterns you might not have noticed.
When you’re facing a tough decision, who are the 2-3 people you instinctively call?
What do these people have in common – background, experience, or perspective?
What kinds of challenges or doubts do you avoid sharing with them?
Consider: The advisors you don’t have might be shaping your decisions as much as the ones you do.
Where might you be reinforcing your own assumptions because everyone you’ve consulted sees things the same way?
If someone from a completely different industry looked at your biggest challenge right now, what would they see that you don’t?
What makes the idea of bringing in a genuinely different perspective feel uncomfortable?
Act: Building a more diverse advisory circle doesn’t happen by accident – it requires deliberate choices.
What’s one perspective that would genuinely challenge how you’re thinking about your business right now?
Who do you know – or know of – who could offer that perspective?
What would it take for you to actually reach out to them this month?
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