The Personal Board: Who Sits at Your Table?

The BOLD (Who Is on Your Team?)

A few years ago, I volunteered with an organization that helped entrepreneurs start businesses in the east end of Richmond.  One of the organizers, Gunnar Bartels, would ask the participants, “Who is on your team?” 

Often, they would look surprised at that question.  They would remind him that they were just getting started, that they were building their businesses from scratch and that they filled all the roles.

He would smile at that. “No successful business owner can do this on their own.  Your team may be your employees, your business partner, the consultants, and service providers that you hire.  It may be the coach you hire to partner with you to get clear on your vision and to protect the vision you design. It will also be the people who are rooting for your success, your mentors.  It’s the friend who is brave and kind enough to be honest.  It is the friend who will talk you off the metaphorical ledge and the one that will drive you to the airport.  Your team is the people that you will need to maintain your energy, to see what you can’t see and to bring the skills that fill in your gaps.  You must have a team.

Indeed.

The Whisper (Your Personal Advisory Board)

Can you imagine a corporation without a board of directors?  Well, of course, there are legal reasons that that doesn’t happen.  There are also practical reasons.  A complex mechanism like a corporation requires the careful input from people whose individual perspective and expertise brings necessary ingredients to any discussion or decision.  

Do you know what else is complex?  Your life!

Therefore, you would benefit from a board of advisors.  The good news is that you probably already have likely candidates in your life.  Ask yourself:

• Who supports me and is always enthusiastic about my ideas and my work?
• Who supports me by challenging my ideas and my work in ways that are always constructive?
• Who has the expertise that fills in my gaps?  (A note here:  We are not looking for a free consultation. We are looking for people who can let us know when we need to source professional services and who can help steer us away from pitfalls we can’t see)
• Who would I enjoy helping?  (Reciprocal agreements are very powerful.  They serve on your board.  You serve on theirs)
• Who has been a great resource for me?
• Who shares my most important values?  (They may not have the same opinion about how one successfully executes on those values, but they value the same important things.)
• Who gives advice and who offers counsel?  (This very important distinction comes from the excellent book, Designing your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.  They define the difference as someone who tells you what they would do versus someone who helps you understand what you want to do.

There are people who make formal arrangements and set up a board that meets with them at regular intervals.  There is some magic that can come from having them all in the room at the same time, as long as there aren’t more than about 5 of them.  Some meet regularly with each person, checking in and weighing the different feedback.  

Sometimes it is just good to get clear about who your supporters, mentors, and resource people are.  Thinking with gratitude about what the people in your life have meant to you is also a valuable exercise.  

No one, and I mean no one, succeeds at anything in a vacuum (unless it is “being alone in a vacuum” but I digress).  Getting clear about how we are supported and about how we support means that we are building the system of connections that will serve us as we add complexity and edit for simplicity in the plan of our life.