Advancing Your Career through a Personal Board of Directors

Or why you need to go out and setup your Personal Board of Directors today?

If you haven’t taken ownership over your career, you need to do so right now. It doesn’t matter what your job is, what your role is, or what your seniority level is, you need to go out and take control. If you don’t invest in yourself, why should anyone else? The first thing you should do, if you haven’t already, is set up your Personal Board of Directors.

What is a Personal Board of Directors? Well it is very similar to an actual Board of Directors of a company that helps guide a company in the right direction by advising the CEO. The success of a company depends on a great Board as much as the CEO. Well you are the CEO and you need a board for your career. A Personal Board of Directors doesn’t operate exactly the same way, as there are no regular meetings, but you do meet with each individual member on a regular cadence and they help advise you on the direction of your career. That is why you need a great board as well.

The Personal Board of Directors is a group of people that you actually consult regularly on an individual basis to get advice, feedback, coaching and direction. Just like any great board, the people you choose should be diverse and each member should bring something unique to the table. They also need to be aligned with your goals, thinking and needs. This group is at least four to six people who can aid you in your professional development. A great board will help you rise through your organization’s ranks and help you surpass your professional career goals.

Now let me highlight a few points. First, there is never a need to hold an actual board meeting. You do not even have to inform each person of his or her status as a board member. You do have to be thoughtful and be sure to select the right people that will make up your best possible board. It is also up to you to ensure that you stay in touch with your board and meet with them regularly.

Your personal board of directors includes people who over time become personally invested in the advancement of your career. Think about and approach your board from that perspective. Think about how you can get someone to invest. You should build a walking deck about yourself similar to a prospectus for an investment to share with every new member of the board. Your board should be a diverse group of leaders, influencers, and corporate heavy hitters, each of whom brings unique strengths to the table. They also will individually inspire, challenge, and motivate you to make bold moves.

When you think about your board like a business, the money in play is called your social currency. Social currency is actual and potential resources from your presence and activity in your network. Social currency is what can help you get your foot in the door for a new opportunity. Social currency requires you to check your integrity and character. Social currency helps you close professional gaps and navigate blind spots. Social currency provides you with honest and constructive criticism. Use this currency to pay the salary of the board by making it a truly two-way relationship--it cannot or should not be one-sided or transactional.

There are a number of different personas that make up a strong Personal Board of Directors. First, there is someone who can make the connections for you. This is the person who is well-connected and can teach you a great deal about relationship management. They are essential to progressing your career as they can make the proper introductions to get you that next role.

Furthermore, there is the influencer. This person can make things happen for you. If you need folks to get on board with a new idea or initiative, tap your influencer. This board member has a way of eliciting agreement and collaboration from cross functional teams across organizations in your business, and can provide the heavy-hitting support that can guarantee the success of your initiatives. An influencer is someone who has earned the respect of the organization for his or her professionalism and work ethic. Utilize the influencer to get in the door and figure out how to be successful.

Next, there is the personal sounding board member. This is the person who will provide clarity to your career through sound advice and balanced feedback. You need someone that can keep it real and give you the honest truth. They can answer questions and you can always run ideas by them. Hopefully, they can speak from experience and share their thoughts based on their accumulated wisdom.

Subsequently, there is the challenger. This is the person who will push you beyond your comfort zone. They will encourage you to consider things you normally wouldn’t consider and pursue opportunities you wouldn’t otherwise look at. They are more than just contrarian and regularly practice using constructive tension to challenge you to think from multiple perspectives. After all, having a yes man, isn’t very useful, but the challenger can push you to be your best self.

Then there is the experienced leader who can serve as your personal career coach. This is the person who has already navigated the career path that you want to take. They are an essential asset in creating a career strategy. They provide you with direction with your career and show you the way. This can be someone that is either more senior in your current role, or perhaps in your next role. They can help be your guide to lead you in the direction that is best for your future.

Beyond just a coach is the informational powerhouse. This person always has a finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the organization and in the broader business environment. This person gives you intel about new trends, ideas, projects, opportunities, and so on. An informational powerhouse doesn’t necessarily need to have a senior job title. It could be the knowledgeable colleague or peer who everyone looks to for the final word in meetings, because this person is so well-versed in your business.

It is worth discussing the difference between mentors and sponsors (who will make up this board). Let's start by looking at the general role of the mentor. This person supports your growth and development by providing advice, feedback, and guidance. A mentor also acts as a sounding board for career-related decisions and can help you navigate challenging situations at work, so is similar to a number of the previous roles. To enlist a mentor, start by identifying a role model, someone who inspires you and is willing to invest in your success. Your manager should help you find a mentor and once you have one mentor, they can help you find more. Let them know something specific you admire about them (everyone appreciates a sincere compliment). Then request a 30-minute meeting to get some actionable solutions to tough or challenging career-related questions.

Now, the mentor is different from the sponsor. The sponsor person is a truly influential individual who can accelerate your career, by putting your name forward for career opportunities like high-visibility assignments and promotions. They have significant influence and are senior. Unlike mentorship, the catch with sponsors is that you don’t choose a sponsor, a sponsor chooses you. But there are actions you can take to make it more likely that an influential sponsor will want to advocate for you. It starts with demonstrating outstanding job performance, and making your achievements known to leaders who have a track record of developing talent. Once you have done these things, you can start working towards getting a sponsor by finding various methods to make genuine connections.

Now there are some important gotchas that I should mention. The board should not be homogeneous. You want to create a diverse board where everyone should look different and you definitely want people that do not look like or think like you. The board is there to support you, but they should also challenge you and are not your Yes Men. The board is also not just for senior mentors, add some people that are senior to you and some that are at your current career level. This mix will ensure that you are benefiting from various perspectives. The board should not be a group of friends, fans or your personal social club. It should be much more than that. Lastly, and most importantly, it should also be more than just a service to you, and it needs to be mutually beneficial with reciprocal benefits to the board members.

Now that you have learned about what a Personal Board of Directors is, go take some time to reflect and think about what your Board is going to be. Get clarity on what exactly it is you want to get out of your career--not necessarily what job--but what you are passionate about and want in your career. Tie this to the board and think about what purposes you want to have filled. Consider who in your network by making a list of your most valuable contacts that could potentially add value as a board member and would be willing to join. Finally, go and do the outreach to form your board.

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Zeeshan Javed Hafeez, is the Head of Cloud Sales & Customer Growth for Canada and the Northeast USA at Google Cloud. He is passionate about developing his people and helping them surpass their career goals. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of his employer.