They Said/We Said: Who's In Your Leadership "Kitchen Cabinet"?

A new Stanford Graduate School of Business study caught our attention. The title is, "2025 CEO Coaching and Kitchen Cabinet Survey." Since we at Pythia regularly write about the value of coaching, it seemed to be something we would bring to your attention.

The take-away is the report's summary first sentence: 

Half of CEOs use a professional coach, and 82 percent rely on a carefully selected “kitchen cabinet” of friends, acquaintances, and former colleagues to advise on sensitive workplace issues.

The report continues:

“Discretion is key,” adds Stephen A. Miles, CEO of The Miles Group, and co-author of the study. "The issues CEOs and directors grapple with are highly sensitive. Business leaders are careful to cultivate professional and informal advisors known for honesty, judgment, and, above all, confidentiality with whom they can discuss a wide range of topics from assembling the right team, to dealing with difficult constituents, addressing social controversies in the workplace, and maintaining work-life balance. Coaching and feedback from a kitchen cabinet provide a rare space for open reflection.”

As a technologist and a technical leader you might have reservations about having a coach. As we have noted, and as this Stanford report states, coaching is not therapy. Look at the range of issues that CEOs in this report deal with: build a team, difficult conversations/people, social controversies in the workplace, personal work/life integration. These may not be leader decisions that you have familiarity with at your new level. But as a leader, these are on your docket regardless.

You must make decisions.

You're going to run it by the peeps, have a conversation over coffee, mention it at the gym or barbershop, catch up with people at a conference where this is a topic of discussion. Maybe you have a mentor, or a former professor or roommate; maybe you have friends from the neighborhood.

These are the people in your "kitchen cabinet." And maybe you're in theirs. 

Unlike other lines of business, cybersecurity can be collegial because you're coordinating on common threats. Bad actors look for common vulnerabilities and those tend to be shared within an industry (e.g., retail; government). Thus your "technical" kitchen cabinet and your "leadership" kitchen cabinet might vary.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is this: while your professional coach has a code of ethics and is neutral as well as unaware of people you're discussing, that is not necessarily the same for your kitchen cabinet. Discretion is key. 

Ask us how we can help you set up your kitchen (cabinet).