Have you heard of a "personal Board of Directors"? In an age when an individual's personal brand is becoming a mainstream concept, you may have heard this term crop up in a positive context. What is it, and do you need one?
Your Inner Circle...Kind Of
A Personal Board of Directors refers to a group of individuals that are accessible to you and whom you find helpful when making professional decisions. The term takes the well-known concept of a Board of Directors and applies it to your career. Let's call it your PBoD for the sake of this article.
Your PBoD may include:
Colleagues at your current job
Previous managers or coworkers
Industry professionals you look up to
Mentors or mentees
Trusted professors/teachers
Family members whose opinion you respect
If you are serious about using a PBoD to help your career growth, it wouldn't help to just call on your friend circle or your closest coworkers - you could do that anytime, and you will probably receive validation of your ideas instead of new ones to consider. The point of a PBoD is to grow. It would be great to have some devil's advocates, some people with different career paths or experiences than yours, or even some people you may not agree with all the time, in order to diversify the range of thought you have access to. Thus, in expanding your network, you're expanding your second-hand experiences and making your projects - and overall professional development - better than you could have imagined alone.
How to Use a Personal Board of Directors
Case by Case Basis
We'd be surprised if anyone in your PBoD met anyone else in the group (it might not be unheard of, but it may also seem a bit egocentric to get everyone in a room to solve your problems for you). We at Storyhaven view a PBoD as a series of individuals, like a list of people you may have on speed dial next to your rotary phone (ah, nostalgia). You may choose who to call based on the situation you are facing. For example, if you have to lead a project at work and your team members are not contributing as they should, you may call on a colleague in another department who knows how to work with those individuals, or you may reach out to a mentor who has been in similar situations. You may even reach out to a mentee and ask their opinion on how they prefer to be led, or you might find your college roommate is going through a similar situation at her job.
Bounce Ideas
You may want to bounce ideas off of someone who is especially creative or have a candid conversation with someone outside of your organization. Getting others' ideas early on in a process can help you infuse your project with as much experience, worldview, perspective, and insight as possible, helping it be richer and more successful than if you had done it alone.
Show Respect
Be respectful of the other person's time - don't send an email on a Friday afternoon and expect a response immediately; don't dramatize your situation with unnecessary urgency; don't go into the conversation blind. Hopefully you will have already given your situation serious thought before you reach out to someone on your PBoD - they are not there to solve your problems for you for free. Don't go into a conversation with expectations that may not be shared by the other person. Give context, explain what you are thinking, ask their opinion, honor their experience, and thank them. Don't pry or needle, either - always show class and kindness whenever possible (and it is always possible).
Reciprocate
You don't always have to reach out to someone on your PBoD when you are in dire need of assistance. That may actually backfire, as some may interpret your actions negatively and think you only talk to them when you need their help. Think of ways to make your relationships mutually beneficial, and monitor your outreach. If you were running a fundraising campaign, you wouldn't reach out to the same donor ten times a month asking for money and never providing any value or context or resources. Don't do that with your PBoD. In addition to being grateful, which should go without saying, it may also help to ask if there is any guidance you can provide as well, showing you will also be a resource whenever the other person needs help.
The Value of a Personal Board of Directors
The benefit of having a diverse group of individuals available to collaborate with you in various ways is in the range of perspectives you have access to. As is the case in most situations, the first step of assembling a PBoD is self-awareness, as you must first realize you don't need to have all of the answers and could benefit from asking others' opinions. Then, depending on how formal you want to be with the process, identify who you would place on your PBoD. Consider the various types of situations you may be in or the various skillsets of those in your network and determine who you would call when. For example, someone who is an impeccable writer and someone who listens without offering solutions will be helpful in two very different scenarios. Next, simply reach out to these individuals when needs arise - in other words, you don't have to ask someone to be on your PBoD. But you should be cautious about how you manage each relationship - you don't want it to seem as though you are always reaching out for help and never reciprocating. Collaborating on a problem-solving effort or providing value back to your colleague will help you feel more confident about reaching out when you need it, and vice versa. As a bonus, following up after the fact and sharing your success story along with a note of gratitude will help your relationships last for years to come.
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