Building Your Shadow Mentor Exec Team

My parents owned a pie shop in Northern Queensland sometime in the 70s.They knew nothing about pies but wanted to run their own business and be masters of their universe and fortune.

For a while, they ignored their lack of return customers; the shop was in a tourist spot, and maybe people just would come and go. Until one day, a stranger walked in and bought a pie to eat in the shop.

He took one bite and threw it in the bin before offering my startled parents a lesson in real pie-making baking and setting up in their kitchen.?

While they never sold the recipe to Thain’s Bakery or appeared on Masterchef, they did see a significant improvement in return customers from then on in.

I wonder if they'd be directed these days to look at their productivity, customer footfall, and marketing spend - rather than focusing on the product.

Now, more than ever, we are bombarded by all sorts of advice - the good, the bad, and the ugly and while it's great to have this access, there are only 24 hours in the day.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog on finding your perfect shadow mentor; I was just starting on my business journey, and one shadow mentor was enough – now, I think it's time to gather a team.

What's a shadow mentor? It is simply someone you can learn from with who you have no formal agreement or relationship. It's someone you can shadow.

Advantages of A Shadow Mentor

-?????????It's free, and you don't have to feel bad because they are putting their content out there to grow their audience, and you will probably buy one of their courses at some stage.

-?????????You have the time and space to action the advice of the mentor

-?????????You have taken control of your learning by focusing on the advice that will help you the most

-?????????You’re not wasting time trying to action every piece of advice that comes your way.

-?????????You’re more focused and less in danger of giving up.

-?????????You can choose anyone in the world; you are in charge of your education.

The Disadvantages of Listening To Every Voice On The Circuit

-?????????The opportunity cost of consuming all content is doing what it is your trying so hard to master.

-?????????The law of diminishing returns will quickly set in if you’re stretching your attention span thinly across multiple mentors.

-?????????You might get disheartened, making each task more difficult

-?????????You could get brain indigestion and take to watching soap operas on the sofa instead – please don’t do that.

You've probably got a ton of shadow mentors already – maybe the life cycle goes something like this.

?You've read an article, paid for a course, signed up for a newsletter etc.

But often, you get halfway through the course and get bored or give up. Unfortunately, statistics around quitting online courses are around 90%.

You may not be a repeat quitter, and the course is probably beneficial for the right audience, but you've rushed into signing up for something on a whim. We've all been there.?

Now the energy you've spent reading up, registering, and starting the course is wasted for you and the poor content creator who thought they had a good lead.

Do this cycle on repeat; suddenly, a year has passed, and you're not closer to the promised land, just a little older and probably disheartened.

Sticking with your purposefully selected shadow mentor for a long time is more likely to yield results.

The Executive Shadow Team

HBR have been writing a lot about mentors recently but they’re focusing on the corporate realm and those lucky execs who get invested in.?But even so, they only get one mentor at a time. We, my truly lucky imaginative friends have our pick of as many of the best minds as we can handle at any one time.

An executive shadow mentor team takes this concept and finds an entire executive team to shadow. My current team includes:

Business/Productivity

Marketing

Fiction Writing

Health and Fitness

What makes a good shadow mentor:

Voice

They speak in a voice that appeals to you. Kind and wise may suit one goal, whereas harsh and authoritative could suit another. Do they shout, whisper, give wry smiles etc.?

Values

What are the core themes in what they create? What reaction are they looking for? Are they always trying to see you something? Maybe that is the right mentor if that's your focus.??You can tell a lot about a person by the stories they share.

Who do they write/speak/emulate? Do those values chime with yours?

Shared values could be the greatest indicator that you're following the right person and give you a sense of a shared journey.

Relatability

Can you visualise their routines? Can you relate to their successes? Picking a shadow mentor whose routine you can imagine will build a connection, whereas focusing on someone so detached from your world may be a barrier.?

What Stage Of The Journey Are They On?

Are they somewhere ahead of you, on a path you want to take? Or have they just written a book at the top of the Times Bestseller list?

Having a shadow mentor doesn't cost money but takes up some of your resources; time, application and the biggest one is your brain space.

Instinct

Sometimes it is difficult to express exactly why something appeals to you. If you’ve got an instinct to follow a certain leader then go for it.?You’ll soon discover if they’re for you or not.?Instinct is our greatest data processor, and in a moment of confusion or uncertainty, we give it up in favour of louder or more forceful voices. Our instinct combes our memory for positive or negative sticking points, and whenever I throw mine away, I regret it.

What to do with your executive team?

Write them down in your journal, or somewhere – create a shadow mentor contract with yourself. I know, how that sounds but until you write it down they’re just one of a trillion voices penetrating your consciousness.

Use them like you would a real mentor. Schedule time each week to read, listen or watch their wares and to develop an action plan.

Review them and fire where necessary – the great thing about this one-way relationship is that there’s no awkward conversations.

Finally, to give your mentor their best shot at helping you achieve your goals it is time to turn down the volume on the other experts and focus, one month at a time on actioning their advice.?

Inverting Your Shadow Mentor

Now you know what makes a great leader – voice, tone, values, relatability etc you can spend some time construction what those things mean to you and in your business persona.??

How to Thank Your Shadow Mentor

If you achieve your goals you can always get in touch and let them know. You could buy a course to say thank you or shout out on social media.?

Good luck with your new executive shadow mentor team.?