Create a personal Board of Directors

Your long term career goals are much more likely to be achieved if you create group of advisors you respect that you can check in with periodically. These are not “friends” who will agree without question with your rationale about why your career is at the stage it is. These are business people you hold great respect for who will challenge and play devil’s advocate with every one of your ideas. The payback of putting yourself under the microscope of other business people can be tremendous.

Your “Board of Directors” should include:

• People from industries similar to the ones you have been in and they have been in a role that would have at least interfaced with you so they can give informed, intelligent advice.
• People senior enough that they will not be afraid to disagree with you or tell you that you are missing a point and they are also senior enough that they are credible to you and offer wisdom you may not yet have had the chance to learn.
• No one on your board should be family, spouse, or significant other although these people will offer some insight about how you fit in a company culturally based on what you bitch about when you get home at night.
• A former customer.
• A former direct supervisor or someone who is truly senior to you on the same path you are considering and has been very successful at it. Ideally they should have evolved to a larger, more impressive company or role since they worked with you on a daily basis.
• A former direct report whose opinion you respect. Be brave enough to pick someone who has hop-scotched past your title and is now senior to you.
• One should have had your exact title, and similar business challenges. For instance, if you are currently a Product Manager focused on New Product Development, you want someone like that advising you.
• One should be a good general purpose business person with a broad understanding of company strategies you may not have yet been exposed to. If you are a Product Manager, look for someone who is a General Manager. If you are a Marketing Communications Specialist, pick someone who has risen to be Director or VP of Marketing. You want someone 2-3 steps above you in the pecking order.

See the pattern?

They need to be people who can show you how to get 33% ahead in your career. They need to know enough about what you do that you will actually listen because they are giving real, credible advice that is practical on an every day basis as well as in the long term.

Here is how you use them:

• You meet maybe 3-4 times a year in a location where you can talk about company issues and politics without being overheard.
• Meet with them as a group, not individually. The synergy that comes from group think will make the advice richer and keep it focused on you instead of drifting to the personal experiences of your advisors. They will be more willing to discuss some awkward issues as a group versus when they are talking to you as a friend one-on-one because they are confirming each other’s views. The group setting makes it easier to deliver those topics in a nurturing way that keeps friendships intact.
• If you assemble the board you need to be ready to listen. If you don’t listen, the process may have backfire and you could lose credibility with some of your strongest references.
• Tell the board you intend to change or rotate members over time to gain fresh perspective on personal issues or industry trends.
• Lastly, offer to be on the Board of Directors for your advisors as needed. You will build a business intimacy that will benefit you both over your lifetimes. This is networking at its best.