The Value of Having Five Other Women in the Room

You’re considering a new role. On paper, it’s a good opportunity. The salary is better, the responsibilities are greater, and it looks like the logical next step. But something about it doesn’t feel quite right.

You could speak to your colleagues, but they have their own views about whether you should leave. You could ask your friends, but they may not fully understand the professional implications. You might have a mentor, although their advice will inevitably be shaped by their own experiences.

What you really want is to talk it through with someone who understands the decision but has no personal interest in what you choose.

It’s a fairly ordinary situation, and one that raises an interesting question.

How can someone have years of professional experience, an extensive network and still struggle to find the right people to speak to?

What is a peer advisory group?

A peer advisory group is a small group of people who meet regularly to discuss professional challenges, share experience and help one another work through decisions.

Members typically come from different organisations, industries and professional backgrounds.

Someone might bring a difficult workplace situation, a business decision, a potential career change or a question about what comes next.

The other members listen, ask questions, offer advice and share what they have learned from their own experiences.

Unlike a board of directors, a peer advisory group has no authority over its members’ decisions. And unlike a networking event, the purpose isn’t simply to meet people or exchange contacts.

The focus is on having useful conversations about real situations.

Everyone has something to contribute. Everyone has something to learn.

Why does it work?

One of the difficulties with professional decisions is that the people closest to us aren’t always best placed to offer independent advice.

Colleagues may be affected by the outcome. Managers may have organisational priorities to consider. Friends and family may want what they believe is best for us, even when they don’t fully understand the situation.

None of this makes their advice unhelpful. It simply means their perspectives come with context.

A peer advisory group introduces people who aren’t directly involved.

Consider a woman deciding whether to leave an established career for something entirely different.

One member might have made a similar transition and can explain what surprised her. Another might question whether leaving is the only option. Someone else might have experience negotiating a different role within an existing organisation.

None of them necessarily knows what she should do.

But together, they can help her consider possibilities she might otherwise have overlooked.

The value isn’t that five other people will have the answer. It’s that they may ask questions she hasn’t thought to ask herself.

Experience you can actually use

There is a difference between receiving general advice and hearing from someone who has navigated a similar situation.

A professional contact might tell you to negotiate harder, take more risks or trust your instincts.

Someone who has faced a comparable decision can tell you what they actually did.

What worked. What didn’t. What they underestimated. What they would do differently.

That experience may not translate directly to your circumstances, but it gives you something practical to consider.

And the exchange works both ways.

A woman who has spent years managing teams may have valuable experience to share with someone navigating her first major leadership challenge. That same woman may know very little about changing industries, returning to work after a career break or building a business.

Professional experience is rarely evenly distributed.

Being established in one area doesn’t mean having encountered every situation.

A good peer advisory group makes that difference useful.

The importance of independent perspectives

It can be surprisingly difficult to find people who will challenge your thinking without trying to influence your decision.

Some people will agree because they want to be supportive. Others may have strong opinions about what you should do. And sometimes, the people who understand your situation best are also the people most affected by it.

A peer advisory group offers a different relationship.

Members have no formal authority over one another. They can disagree, ask uncomfortable questions and offer alternative interpretations without needing to arrive at a shared decision.

For example, someone might arrive asking whether she should accept a promotion.

After discussing the opportunity, she may realise that her real concern isn’t the role itself. It’s whether the additional responsibility would leave room for the professional life she wants.

The original question was about accepting a promotion.

The more useful question may be about what she is willing to exchange for it.

That distinction matters.

Sometimes the most valuable contribution another person can make is helping us recognise what we’re actually deciding.

Why meeting regularly matters

A single conversation can provide useful advice. Meeting with the same people over time offers something more.

Members begin to understand one another’s professional circumstances, priorities and challenges.

Someone who discussed a potential career change in one meeting can return the following month to explain what happened. Another member might revisit a difficult conversation at work or share how a business decision developed.

The group doesn’t have to start from the beginning every time.

There is also value in seeing how other people make decisions over time.

We often hear professional success stories once the outcome is known. We hear about the promotion someone accepted, the company they started or the career they changed.

We hear less about the uncertainty beforehand, the options they rejected or the decisions that didn’t work out.

Regular peer conversations make room for those parts of professional life too.

Over time, members can develop a better understanding of one another, making it easier to offer relevant advice and ask more informed questions.

Of course, that depends on the group being thoughtfully composed, members participating openly and clear expectations around confidentiality.

Simply bringing six people together doesn’t guarantee a useful conversation.

The quality of the room matters.

What does a meeting actually look like?

Peer advisory groups vary in size and structure, but the basic approach is straightforward.

A member brings a professional challenge or question.

She explains the situation, what she has considered and where she would value another perspective.

The other members ask questions, share relevant experiences and offer their views.

A facilitator may help structure the discussion, manage the time and ensure everyone has an opportunity to contribute.

The conversation doesn’t have to end with a decision.

Sometimes a member leaves with a clearer understanding of her options. Sometimes she identifies a risk she hadn’t considered. Sometimes she simply feels more confident about the direction she was already considering.

And sometimes she leaves with a better question than the one she arrived with.

The decision remains hers.

Where Concentric fits

Concentric takes this approach and applies it to professionally established women navigating career, leadership, business and other significant professional decisions.

Each Council brings together six women from different professional backgrounds.

They meet online for 90 minutes each month, with a neutral facilitator responsible for the structure and participation.

Members are placed together based on their professional experience, the challenges they’re navigating and the perspectives they can bring to the group.

The intention is to create enough shared understanding for members to relate to one another, while retaining enough difference for the conversation to be useful.

The same six women return each month, allowing relationships and conversations to develop over time.

Concentric is currently introducing founding Councils in the United States and Adria.

Having experience doesn’t mean having every answer

There is a tendency to associate professional experience with certainty.

After years of working, making decisions and developing expertise, we might expect ourselves to know how to handle whatever comes next.

But experience doesn’t remove uncertainty. It simply changes the kinds of questions we encounter.

A woman can be highly capable in her profession and still be unsure whether to change direction. She can have an extensive network and still lack someone independent to consult. She can be the person others regularly turn to for advice and still need advice herself.

None of these things is contradictory.

Perhaps the more useful way to think about professional experience is not as reaching a point where we no longer need other people’s perspectives, but as becoming better able to recognise when those perspectives would help.

After all, having the authority to make your own decisions doesn’t mean you have to examine every option alone.

And sometimes, five other women in the room can make a considerable difference to the conversation.