I work with leaders from mid-sized organizations of 50 to 1,000 employees — the kind I led myself. As a leader in such an organization, you are being asked to think three years ahead while putting out today's fires, keep an entrepreneurial culture while building structures that allow for growth, and balance resource constraints with high demands.

And yet, the higher you rise, the harder it is to find someone you can think out loud with. You may be a CEO who is genuinely lonely at the top, with no peers to help work through tough decisions; a senior leader alone in your area of expertise, or someone newly promoted, hesitating to show any uncertainty in decision-making.

You're not looking for someone to tell you what to do — you want a genuine thought partner who has been there.