Appoint your Personal Advisory Board for success
“When you know what you are doing, then you can do what you want.”
Moshe Feldenkrais
Last week, I was interviewed by Scott Charlton from Slipstream Coaching for the regular podcast that Scott provides to his business network. Scott’s organisation provides business coaching and consulting to accounting and financial planning firms so that they can reach their potential.
I have had a long association with Scott through the financial services business that I founded and helped grow – Integrity Wealth. Scott is interested in what I’m doing in the women’s leadership space and kindly suggested that a podcast may assist the businesses that he works with.
One of the first questions that Scott asked me was “What’s a helpful piece of advice that your present self would like to pass onto the younger Denise, just starting out on her career?”
Of course, there are a thousand things that you think about when you reflect on this type of question.
When you start out on your career, you are so naïve yet so full of the sense that you know everything about everything. The naivety helps because you stumble into opportunities and just go for them. The sense that you know everything about everything is another story. It’s only over time that you realise that you only know what you know at a fixed time in your life. Everything just evolves.
So, my answer to Scott was around this self-awareness piece and seeking support early in your career.
I said that my advice to the younger Denise starting out in my career would be that I would develop my personal advisory board very early in my career. I often took too long trying to do everything on my own. Of course, it would have to be perfect too or I wasn’t happy with myself!
I think this is a human trait too. You think you are lesser because you need to ask for help or guidance. It’s not true. You can achieve so much more when you know what you are doing and what to do as the quote this week says.
So, the positions on my advisory board for young Denise would be a male champion, paid executive coach, mentor and venting partner.
I would consult them often to challenge my thinking and assist me to work out what I’m doing that works for me and what works against me. I would consult them often to help me develop personal and career goals and to help me keep striving to achieve them.
The male champion is necessary because it’s still a male dominated world in the positions that matter. A male champion can assist you to know how to negotiate your way through this current structure. Also, it’s a wonderful opportunity to learn from a different type of energy. In general, women tend to want to have all the ducks lined up before we do something whereas men will just go for it. The world needs to understand and harness both energies so having a male champion is a wonderful way to observe and discover. I’m sure they will challenge and encourage too.
Elite athletes have coaches to study what they are doing so that they can become aware of what to do better. Why not adopt the same approach for your life and career?
Mentoring is necessary to show you the ropes in whatever career you have chosen. A good mentor will help you map out your career and guide you through the steps necessary for success. They will provide advice on education to undertake as well.
A good venting partner is essential to allow emotional download. We are emotional creatures. I also believe that women are more in tune with our emotions than men because of the caring nature of the traditional roles that we undertake.
Caring requires empathy. Empathy requires you to recognise the emotions in another person so that you can help them negotiate them. This may lead to an emotional vortex for you too. Having a venting partner that you can debrief with will help quieten the mind.
Of course, the person you choose must be able to respect the vault ie not share your stories with anyone inappropriately.
Finally, be prepared to hire and fire within your personal advisory board. Life changes us, so you may need different people on your board at different times in your life. The litmus test will be if your board is taking you out of your comfort zone regularly or not. Personal growth, self-awareness and learning happens in the uncomfortable.
Self-awareness is a daily journey of discovery and when you know what you are doing, you can do what you want as Moshe Feldenkrais said.
A wonderful way for self-awareness is to take time for immersion in discovering who you are and what makes you tick. My Women’s Empowerment and Leadership program is built on this premise. You will have the opportunity to take two days from your regular life to explore you. This will allow you to discover what you do and what you want to do with your life.
My next program is scheduled for 5th and 6th July 2018. Please contact me to discuss.
