I was chatting to someone yesterday who started and runs their own business and during the course of our conversation they mentioned how lonely their job was at times. I have been fortunate enough to hold some senior roles and I could really relate to what they were saying. You may well have a large team of people around you but you don’t always have the luxury of being able to talk to someone about things like decisions which you have to make. Having someone that you can rely on to act as a sounding board can be really important for a leader.

In my last role, I was fortunate enough to have a chairman who I met frequently and who was always on the the phone. Having that person to mull things over with was really important to me and certainly made a difference to my effectiveness in my role.