Build your Personal Board of Advisors - Why & How?
For complex personal & professional environment we live in, one mentor, coach or advisor isn't enough. Everyone needs a board.
Till the end of last century, most of the people relied upon parents, elders, teachers and seniors doubled up as mentors, for both personal and professional purposes . Very few went out seeking professional mentors, coach or advisors outside the work environment. With the turn of the century that started changing. As we got exposed to more information and choices, the need for professional support and mentoring became more pertinent.
Since then, over past couple of decades, our personal and professional world has changed unrecognizably. With increased access to technology and ease of global mobility, the life choices available to us have turned unlimited. And, none of us are equipped to make those decisions by our own.
Our elders aren’t sufficiently equipped to guide us. A single mentor isn’t enough. Our lives - both personal and professional - have potential to grow exponentially, just like a startup. So if we want to achieve that, we need what startups have; A Board of Advisors.
Let us understand what has given birth to this need. What has changed so drastically? Why do we need a personal board of advisors? How to constitute one? And, how do we know our board works?
Let’s unpack!
In this post:
Build your Personal Board of Advisors - Why & How?
What changed, why do we need a personal board?
What is a Personal Board of Advisors?
How to build your Personal Board of Advisors?
Neel’s Job Board - a curated list of open roles in my network
What changed, why do we need a Personal Board of Advisors?
Short answer. Our learning needs.
Increased access to technology, and ease of global mobility has made our choices endless. It has also heralded an era of alternate career choices, side hustle and gig work. In the least two decades we have seen a surge in passion and creator economy which has changed the meaning of ‘professional career’ as it was understood for most of the past century. Distinction between personal and professional choices has reduced and the line between personal & professional life has blurred. Everything that we do has a potential to be turned in to a profession; or have a detrimental impact on our profession.
We have grown up in to a completely different world, than the one our educational system had prepared us for. There are a lot of things we did not learn, effectively for two reasons - we didn’t know we needed to and nobody new how to teach them. Thus we need to learn them on the fly.
Also, we are now living in a world which is rapidly changing and thus any learning gets outdated pretty fast. We need to keep updating - unlearning and relearning. This is not possible in the conventional setup. The variety of parallel learning that we require, makes it important that we have multiple sources for learning with varying experiences. Put together, in today’s time we need on demand, specific and up to date guidance on a diverse set of topics. A sort which cannot come from a non personalized or singular source.
This necessitates carefully selected set of mentors, coaches, trainers, experts and advisors who form our personal board of advisors, guiding us though different facets of our life - personal and professional - at different stages. It also requires to build a support system which helps us cope with this environment and maintain our wellbeing.
What is a Personal Board of Advisors?
Your personal board of advisors is a selection of typically 5 - 10 individuals, based on complexity of your professional and personal life. Like the board of any company, this is a dynamic body which will change overtime - adding more people, or removing some. But, ideally each of them should be on it for a considerable amount of time.
Like the directors of a company, your board should also be duty bound to provide you with the best advise for the development trajectory you are on. Thus they should be
Unbiased (not friends or family)
Specialist (they should really know what they are talking about)
Have some skin in the game (not meeting goals should affect them)
This boards should ideally be comprised of three sets of people - one who advise us on our personal life, others for our professional life and the third who advise us on balancing the two. Depending upon what stage of life we are at, and for what purpose we have assembled the board, the count of individual set can be decided.
The objective of this board should be to ensure that we achieve our personal and professional goal in a sustainable and efficient fashion while maintaining our wellbeing. It should also be looking out that we are setting the correct goal for us and aspiring to meet our true potential.
But unlike the board of an organization, this board doesn’t have to meet for a regular meeting, the board members aren’t required to know each other or have to share information with each other. We also don’t need to disclose all our information with each of them. This board is constituted for us to get consistent and unbiased suggestions, feedback and advise. To that end it helps if the member of this board have no role to play in our personal or professional life, except for being on this board. But that is not necessary.
How to build your Personal Board of Advisors?
Building a Personal Board of Advisors might sound a bit daunting, but thankfully it is not that difficult. We do often have those people around us who can be assembled to be the most incredible board; the need is to lay down our requirements and identify the right person to fulfill that position.
The first step towards assembling the board is to identify what are your current advisory requirements.
Set out your personal life improvement indicators - wellbeing, health, lifestyle, mental health etc
Set out your professional life improvement indicators - business goals, skill development, promotion, recognition etc
Withing your network identify following kind of people:
Those who are subject matter expert in the field relevant to your professional growth and developmental needs
Those who have had similar career track as you
Those who have had the career path you want to follow
Those who have had similar personal journey as you
Those who have expertise that can help you improve your personal wellbeing
Design your board from these people, to fill these three sets of people:
Those who solely care about your wellbeing and personal goals. They shouldn’t be worried, or even care for your professional needs. These are essentially life coaches, trainers, etc.
Those who are experts, guides and coach for your professional and developmental needs. They shouldn’t be worrying about how your professional journey affects your personal goals. These are experts, advisors, trainers, SMEs etc.
Those who help you balance your personal and professional life. These can be mentors, counsellors etc.
At different stage of your life - personal or professional, maintain this group around you. Build a relationship which would last beyond the required time. Some of them can be renumerated and hired as professional to help, others can be built on shared interest.
Neel’s Job Board
A curated list of open roles in my network
Performance Marketing Manager at Haldivita in New Delhi
Golang Developer at Kreate in Bangalore
Backend Developer at Kreate in Bangalore
System Architect at Kreate in Bangalore