Let me consult the board
Posted by Mary Caraccioli | Filed under Personal Development
One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is a personal advisory board. This is a group of people that represent what you aspire to be or to make happen. The challenge before you could be intellectual or strategic, it could be finding balance, or a creative breakthrough. Often this decision or the course of action, feels like an important crossroads and you feel its weight. Your advisory board should be people who have what you want in one form or another. Each member is someone for which you have a great deal of respect. And, no, you don’t need to gather for one meeting in a boardroom. Phone calls and one on one meetings are perfectly effective.
When you embark on something big, something that is really challenging, you will be tested. Lots of fabulous clichés come from these times. Here are a few of my favorite: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, when the going gets tough the tough get going, it is always darkest before the dawn. You have heard them all. But what is missing from the clichés is that it is cool to ask for help. This is not the time to turn inward, even if that feels safer. It is the time to pull-in the people who are the best and the brightest in your world. Don’t expect them to make the big decisions for you, but get their counsel.
What this will do for you, besides the obvious of getting good advice and maybe some fresh ideas– it will take you outside of yourself and force you to confront the hurdles that seem the most daunting. When you open yourself up to your hand chosen advisors, you are living out what it means to trust. Throughout my life I have had to turn to my advisory boards during crucial turning points. The members may change, or stay the same, but what has been consistent for me over the years is the meaningful difference these people have made in my life during my biggest challenges. Pulling in the counsel of others and being willing to be good counsel is the rich stuff that when the hurdle is overcome, becomes the material for rewarding memories. – Mary Caraccioli
Tags: board, goals, job, talent
