before you need it.
Don’t Go It Alone explores how the people around us shape our decisions, careers, and lives. Through conversations, essays, and practical exercises, you’ll learn to spot gaps in your circle, seek the perspective a decision needs, and build relationships before the stakes rise.
LEADERS FROM
Bob calls this the Perspective Gap: the distance between what a decision requires you to understand and the perspectives you can actually access. The people who know you best won’t always have the perspective your next decision needs.
Someone may understand your business and still hesitate to disagree. A close friend may know you well and have little experience with the choice you’re facing. Trust matters. So do relevant experience, independence, and the willingness to challenge an assumption.
Start with a decision you’re facing.
Who understands it firsthand? Who’ll question your reasoning? Whose perspective is missing?
Build your circle around the help you need. One person may contribute in several ways, and the mix can change as your life and work change. Ask for specific input, weigh what you hear, and make your own decision.
For more than 25 years, Bob Johnston has been bringing accomplished leaders together for the conversations that matter most.
As an entrepreneur, advisor, speaker, and founder of Exec.org, he’s spent decades helping executives navigate growth, uncertainty, and high-stakes decisions by creating environments where trust comes first and honest dialogue follows.
Through speaking, advising, and the executive communities he’s built, Bob has helped thousands of leaders gain fresh perspective, build meaningful relationships, and make stronger decisions.
Build the Circle
Before You Need It
A practical talk for leaders who carry responsibility and want a clearer view of whose advice they need. Audiences examine a real decision, map the people they currently consult, and identify a missing perspective.
They leave with a map of their trusted circle, questions that invite honest disagreement, and one specific conversation to initiate.
A Community Built Around Better Leadership
For more than two decades, Bob has brought senior executives together through Exec.org, a private leadership community built on one simple belief: leaders make better decisions when they don’t have to make them alone.
Through private dinners and roundtables held under Chatham House rules, members gain candid perspective and trusted relationships with peers.
What Leaders
Are Saying
“Bob has a real knack for getting the right people into a room and creating the kind of trust where people will actually say what they think. He knows the best decisions usually come when you hear more than one point of view.”
Beth Rose
Former Chief Compliance, Ethics
& Integrity Officer, Ford Motor Company
Behind a consequential decision is often a conversation we never hear about. On Don’t Go It Alone, guests explore who they trusted, what advice they questioned, and how those relationships shaped what happened next.
Listen for the people and choices behind the story, and consider what they reveal about your own circle.
COMING SOON
Read Don’t Go It Alone on Substack
Twice a month, Bob writes about the people behind consequential decisions: who leaders trust, what they hear, and how to build a circle before you need it.
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You Don’t Have to Lead Alone
The biggest leadership challenges rarely come with obvious answers. They often begin with one honest conversation.