Being a chief executive can be a very lonely role at times. It is therefore critically important to ensure you develop a strong and robust network of peers to confide in, share ideas with and even console each other at times. However, in some respects, that sense of detachment is necessary. What do I mean by that? I'll give you an example from my own career.

Newly appointed as a chief executive and a few months into the job, relocation successfully completed from up north to a leafy village inside the district in Chiltern, I took in the sunshine one sunny Saturday morning and walked to the village shop to buy the papers. There was a small huddle of customers around the counter, a mixture of old stagers with farming roots and the comers-in, usually working in London. The local paper became an object of discussion.