Your Personal Board of Advisors

Here's a question worth sitting with: who holds you accountable?

Companies, universities, and nonprofits all have boards — of directors, of advisors, of trustees. In many cases the law requires it. Why? Accountability. People in positions of power aren't meant to have absolute power, especially when they're responsible for assets that belong to others. A good board creates a system of checks and balances that holds senior leadership's feet to the fire. And if that discipline is good enough for a corporation, it's good enough for you and me.

That's the idea behind a personal board of advisors: a group of three to five people — more if it serves you — drawn from your most important Centers of Influence, who share your vision and genuinely want to see you succeed. This is the natural culmination of everything we've been building toward in this category. Once you've cultivated real relationships with the mentors and heavyweights I described in Centers of Influence, the strongest of them become candidates for something more formal and more powerful.

What a board gives you

A well-chosen board exists to give you four things you can't reliably give yourself:

• Objective feedback — an outside read on your decisions, free of your own blind spots.
• Counsel — wisdom from people who've been where you're trying to go.
• Encouragement — a steadying voice in the seasons when your own runs low.
• Accountability — the quiet pressure of knowing you'll have to report back.

That last one is the engine. It's easy to let yourself off the hook when no one's watching. It's much harder when you've told a group of people you respect exactly what you intend to do, and you know they'll ask about it next quarter.

Who should serve — and why clients

To begin, consider asking three to five of your best, most influential clients to serve. Why clients? Because only a client truly grasps and understands the value of what you offer. They've experienced it firsthand, which makes their counsel grounded rather than theoretical. That said, your board can also include suppliers, colleagues, and other trusted advisors — the common thread is that they're elite members of your Centers of Influence: people whose judgment you respect and whose belief in you is real.

You share your mission and your business plan with them, and they commit to meeting with you as a group — perhaps two or three times a year. Now, one honest caution: movers and shakers get asked to sit on boards all the time, so being invited to yours is no small request. Approach it with the seriousness it deserves. You're not collecting names; you're asking a handful of people to take partial ownership of your growth.

The six jobs a board fills

In his book Love the Work You're With, author Richard Whiteley describes six distinct “jobs” that together make up an effective board of advisors. You don't need six different people — some members will wear more than one hat — but you do want all six roles covered:

• The Mentor. We've covered the power of mentoring already. In many ways your whole board is a group of mentors, though some will take the role more to heart than others. A good mentor cares about your success and feels a real stake in your development.
• The Strategist. Someone who can anticipate the challenges and opportunities coming down the road, alert you to them, and teach you to look past the next step to the next five or six. That's preparedness in human form.
• The Solution Provider. More focused on the present, this person helps you confront immediate obstacles so you can keep moving toward your goals.
• The Coach. We all need one now and then — someone who keeps you focused on what you're trying to achieve and how, especially in the stretches when the world feels like it's pushing back.
• The Butt-Kicker. The one you don't want to let down, because you know you'll get an earful if you do. He or she pushes you to challenge yourself in ways you wouldn't on your own.
• The Cheerleader. The one who reinforces a positive outlook — not in a Pollyanna sense, but by helping you see problems as opportunities and find the constructive side of whatever you're facing.

What this means to you is that a board isn't just a panel of yes-men or a panel of critics — it's a balanced team. The butt-kicker keeps you honest; the cheerleader keeps you upright; the strategist keeps you looking ahead; the coach keeps you on track. Assemble the mix deliberately, and you've built yourself a personal governance structure most solo professionals never think to create.

How Prospect & Flourish approaches this

In the program, the personal board of advisors is where the whole networking arc comes home. You started by learning what networking really is, planted relationships before you needed them, cultivated Centers of Influence and referral partners, and made yourself known through genuine service. The board is the capstone: you take the deepest of those relationships and formalize them into a small circle that counsels you, challenges you, and holds you accountable. It's the difference between having a network and being genuinely supported by one — and for a one-person operation especially, that accountability may be the most valuable thing your relationships ever give you.

Frequently asked questions