The Alternative Board - Worldwide

10/30/2026

10/29/2026

A strong manager doesn't become a strong leader simply by getting promoted. The transition from individual contributor to manager often comes with a completely different set of expectations: communicating clearly, holding people accountable, navigating conflict, making decisions and helping a team perform at its best. Those skills need to be developed intentionally.

For companies looking to strengthen their management team, that can mean combining targeted training with mentorship and giving managers practical tools they can actually use when the pressure of the day-to-day job takes over.

That's where HI-MAP (High Impact Manager Accelerator Program) comes in. TAB's management development program is designed to help managers build practical skills around areas such as communication, decision-making, accountability, influence and team effectiveness. But management development isn't just about giving someone a new set of tools and sending them back to work.

The real opportunity comes when managers have the chance to apply what they're learning, reflect on what's working, and continue developing their leadership approach over time. Because the goal isn't simply to create managers who know more. It's to develop managers who can communicate better, make stronger decisions, create accountability and bring out better performance from the people they lead.

Have questions about how TAB can help strengthen management skills within your company? Explore this membership FAQ using the link in the comments.

10/28/2026

Sometimes the problem isn't that you need more advice. Sometimes you just need a different perspective. Other times, one perspective isn't enough.

A one-on-one business coach can provide a valuable space to focus on your goals, leadership challenges and decisions. There's room to go deeper, ask difficult questions and work through issues that may require a more personal conversation.

But consider what happens when you bring a challenging business decision into a room with several experienced business leaders who have their own lessons learned. The conversation changes drastically. One person may see an operational issue, while another may recognize a leadership pattern. Someone else may question an assumption you hadn't realized you were making, and a fourth person may have already faced a remarkably similar situation and can explain what happened when they made a particular choice. That's the potential of peer advisory.

It isn't about collecting opinions until someone tells you what you want to hear. A strong peer group can create productive tension. The goal is to give a leader more perspectives to consider before making a decision.

So, when does a business leader need a coach and when would a room full of peers add something that a one-on-one conversation can't? The answer isn't always either/or. In fact, there are business challenges where the combination of individual coaching and peer perspective can be particularly useful.

Our latest blog explores the differences between business coaching and peer advisory, where each approach can be useful and why the right environment can make a difference in how leaders think through complex decisions. Read "When You Need a Coach and When You Need a Room Full of Peers" using the link in the comments.

10/27/2026

You can have years of business experience and still wonder what comes next. Maybe you've led teams, built client relationships, managed operations, advised companies or owned a business yourself, but turning that experience into your own business is a different challenge.

That's where the right franchise model can change the equation. The Alternative Board (TAB) gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to build a professional services business centered around helping private business owners work through the challenges that come with leading and growing a company. The work isn't simply about sitting down with a client and telling them what you think they should do.

TAB franchisees facilitate peer advisory boards, provide leadership coaching and use established business tools and methodologies to help their members make better business decisions. That gives franchisees multiple ways to create value for clients as their needs evolve.

If you've spent your career building expertise but want to put that experience to work in a business of your own, it's worth taking a closer look at what the TAB model actually involves.

Register for the live TAB Franchise Webinar to learn more about the franchise opportunity, the support behind the model and what it can look like to build a business around helping other business leaders succeed. Link in the comments.

10/26/2026

Your team's performance may be limited by more than their abilities. Some leaders leave people thinking more clearly, contributing more confidently and taking greater ownership of their work. Others unintentionally become the bottleneck.

That's the distinction Liz Wiseman explores in Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, and it's the focus of this TAB Talk with Jason Zickerman.

A Multiplier looks for the intelligence and capability already present in the team and creates an environment where those abilities can be used.

A Diminisher, often without intending to be one, can have the opposite effect by dominating conversations, shutting down ideas or creating an environment where people wait for the leader to have the answer.

The interesting part is leadership behaviors can change. When someone brings you an idea, do you instinctively evaluate it yourself, or do you ask questions that help them develop the idea further? Those small interactions can influence how much of your team's collective intelligence actually makes it into the business. And when leaders consistently become the person with all the answers, the organization can become increasingly dependent on the leader to make decisions.
That's a leadership problem worth examining.

Watch Jason Zickerman's TAB Talk, "Effective Leadership: Be a Multiplier, Not a Diminisher," for a closer look at the leadership behaviors that can help teams think bigger, contribute more and take greater ownership.

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10/22/2026

If you can't clearly measure what your supply chain is costing you, it's difficult to know where the biggest opportunities are. A collection of disconnected systems may appear to be doing the job, but none of those things automatically mean your supply chain is operating efficiently.

Suuchi Ramesh, founder and CEO of Suuchi Inc., brings more than a decade of experience in supply chain and analytics to a practical discussion about evaluating supply chain performance and measuring the return on investments made to improve it.

This free pre-recorded webinar explores questions that can be surprisingly difficult to answer like:
•What does an optimally functioning supply chain actually look like?
•Where are inefficiencies hiding?
•What are broken processes really costing the company?
•When does it make sense to move beyond Excel?
•Should new supply chain technology replace existing systems, or work alongside an ERP?

The goal isn't to add technology simply because technology is available. It's to understand the problems first, identify where improvements can create measurable value and make decisions based on what the business actually needs.

For leaders responsible for margins, operations, growth or business continuity, that distinction matters. Watch this 60-minute webinar, "How to Evaluate, Measure Success and Quantify ROI From Your Supply Chain System," to explore practical ways to assess your supply chain, identify opportunities and build a more resilient operation. Link in the comments.

10/21/2026

The price of business coaching is easy to calculate. Analyzing its value is much harder. That's because a coaching relationship isn't a piece of equipment with a fixed output or a software subscription with a list of features.

The real question is "What am I getting from the investment?"

That starts with understanding what you're actually paying for. Is it occasional advice? Strategic accountability? A structured process for working through business challenges?
Those are very different experiences, and comparing them based solely on price can be misleading.

Business coaching should create more than a calendar appointment. The right coaching relationship should give you a place to step outside the day-to-day operation of the company and examine what you're doing, why you're doing it and what needs to change.

That doesn't mean every coaching engagement will produce an easily measurable dollar return. Business decisions are interconnected, and the value of better thinking can show up in ways that aren't immediately captured on a spreadsheet. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't evaluate the investment.

In our latest blog, we look at what business coaching can cost, the factors that influence pricing and the questions leaders should ask when determining whether a coaching relationship is actually delivering value.

Read "What Business Coaching Costs, and How to Tell If You're Getting Your Money's Worth" using the link in the comments.

10/20/2026

What makes a business coaching relationship valuable enough to keep for years?

At TAB's Great Global Exchange, we asked longtime Members why they continue to invest in their TAB boards and business coaching. Their answers point to something bigger than solving a single business challenge.

As their companies evolved, so did the challenges they faced. TAB gave them a consistent place to step back, challenge their thinking, get perspective from fellow business owners and stay accountable to the decisions that mattered.

The impact extended beyond the business, too. Members shared how TAB influenced their leadership, personal growth and approach to navigating the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. The real value of an advisory relationship can become clearer over time.

Read the case study, "Why Longtime TAB Members Keep Coming Back," to learn more. Link in the comments.

10/19/2026

After five decades of founding, acquiring, building and selling companies, Michael Fletcher has experienced both sides of entrepreneurship that don't always make it into the success story.

He's had two exits worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He's also made capitalization mistakes, dealt with difficult partner decisions, lost control of something he built and had to figure out how to come back stronger. In Episode 010 of The Leadership Exchange, Michael sits down with Jason Zickerman for a remarkably candid conversation about what entrepreneurship actually looks like when you're living through it.

They talk about the decisions that can shape a company's trajectory long before the outcome becomes obvious. They talk about choosing the right people around you, something Michael identifies as one of the few things in entrepreneurship that is largely within your control. And they talk about something that can get overlooked when business success becomes the primary measure of the journey: family.

Building a successful company isn't only about revenue, exits or growth. It's also about the people you trust, the decisions you make under pressure and what you're willing to protect while you're building. Michael's perspective comes from decades of experience, including mistakes that taught him as much as the wins did.

If you're building a company, thinking about your next venture or simply interested in the realities behind entrepreneurial success, this conversation offers a perspective you won't get from a highlight reel.

Listen to Episode 010 of The Leadership Exchange, "Michael Fletcher on What They Don't Tell You About Entrepreneurship," and hear the lessons behind five decades of building businesses. Link in the comments.

10/16/2026

Have you ever left a day full of meetings wondering how you’re going to get your actual work done?

Business leaders are constantly encouraged to improve communication, bring people together, and foster collaboration, but what if some of the habits intended to make teams more effective are actually getting in the way?

In Episode 11 of The Leadership Exchange Podcast, Jason Zickerman sits down with Ron Friedman, award-winning social psychologist and bestselling author of The Best Place to Work and Super Teams, to challenge conventional thinking about teamwork and workplace performance.

Drawing from research involving more than 6,000 workers, Ron shares what distinguishes the highest-performing teams from everyone else. And some of the findings might change how you approach leadership.

Here are a few insights worth considering:
- Collaboration isn't constant togetherness.
- Individual productivity doesn't always translate to team productivity.
- Accountability is built between teammates, not just from the top down.
- Culture is shaped by what leaders reward not necessarily what they say they value.

Perhaps the most important takeaway? Ron believes helping people reclaim their time, energy, and attention is the first step toward building a stronger team. When people have the capacity to focus, they have more room to support their colleagues, develop new skills, and improve together. For business owners leading teams where every person's contribution matters, these are opportunities to rethink how work gets done.

Tune in to Episode 11 of The Leadership Exchange Podcast for a candid conversation about the science of high-performing teams, practical ways to improve workplace productivity, and what leaders can do to bring out the best in their people. Watch the episode at the link in the comments.