Peer Advisory Groups
TEC (The Advisory Committee) is a global peer-advisory phenomenon. It brings high-performance leaders together in groups of like-minded people. These are successful, life-long learners who want to learn from their peers, want to be challenged, and value a safe forum to share ideas and grow as a leader.
TEC groups are not for the faint of heart, or for people who want to dabble in leadership development. TEC is a roll-up-your-sleeves approach to leadership development. Members hold each other accountable for their actions, words and commitments. TEC is not prescriptive – there’s no TEC way to run an organization. It’s like having your own success team that’s always got your back. Members learn from world-class speakers and each other through a deep questioning methodology which unearths the wisdom in the room.
The TEC Proposition includes:
Diverse Membership
What distinguishes a member of a TEC group is a desire to be the best leader they can be. They have a burning need to learn and to be better. They want to be surrounded by other high-performance leaders from non-competing industries who will give them honest, unbiased, insightful advice. People come to learn from each other and they have a high level of expectation that their colleagues will “show up” too.
Monthly Full-Day Meetings
Monthly meetings are hosted by members. Most meetings include a workshop by top-rated speakers from across North America speaking on topics as diverse as emotional intelligence, organizational structure and change, mindful leadership, change management. Workshops are followed by highly interactive discussions, leadership exercises and transformative conversations.
One-to-Ones
CEO members and I have a private one-on-one session for one to two hours every month where we identify issues and opportunities, drive deeper into an understanding of underlying causes and talk responsibilities, actions and accountability.
Professional Chair
All TEC groups are professionally led by a formally trained TEC chair, such as me. My job is to attract the right people to the group, work with TEC to identify the top-rated speakers for specific topics, set the agenda, run the meetings and ensure everyone is getting value and, just as importantly, giving value.
Online Resources
Members have online access to hundreds of best practices, leadership tools and discussion groups.
International Network
To help build their businesses, members have free access to the international network of more than 20,000 members.
Special Reports
TEC Canada provides the Andersen Monthly Economic Report exclusively to its members. Dr. Peter Andersen (former assistant chief of the Bank of Canada's research department) provides tremendous economic insight to help members make better business decisions.
There are more than 1,000 TEC members in Canada who lead some of Canada’s most successful organizations. They are part of a global group, started over 50 years ago (now called Vistage in the US and some other countries), which has in excess of 20,000 members.
I run three different TEC groups in Ottawa:
- CEO group for leaders of large organizations;
- Small Business group for leaders and owners of small organizations;
- KEY group for executives who are future CEOs and leaders. CEOs in TEC often like to have their second-in-command in TEC for the learning experience and because they can share a common language and approach to organizational growth and change.
My usual approach is to meet you and explore if there is a fit. I want to make sure that potential members are a good fit with the group and that we can add value to your personal growth before either of us makes a commitment. I’ll introduce you to some members and if you like what you hear the next step is to come to a meeting. TEC is a significant time investment and people who have inflexible travel arrangements or who choose not to control their own agenda will likely not get value.
In Ottawa, there are two other excellent TEC chairs
Carlos Fox
Carlos enjoyed a long executive career at Sun Microsystems in Palo Alto, California before settling in Ottawa in 1996 as a senior executive for three local global technology companies. He has coached more than 100 members and looks for members who are open-minded life learners, seeking balance and are generous in their desire to help others succeed.
Michelle Van Tol
Michelle spent much of her career as the trusted financial advisor to CEOs; providing entrepreneurs with strategic financial advice, negotiating complex transactions and managing relations with directors and shareholders. As a former member of a TEC Trusted Advisor group for 9 years, Michelle has a deep familiarity with TEC’s process and its typical members. These experiences have motivated and inspired her to become a TEC Chair.
