One of the critical areas I focus on when working with a client is to help him establish what I call his “structures of support”. This means creating and maintaining processes, systems and people to support his new way of living as he emerges from his Disquiet.

If you read the biographies of successful leaders, you will discover that most of them had mentors and advisors in their lives. I formalize this with some of my clients by tasking them to create their own corporate board. Just as a CEO would have a group of people with a vested interest in how successful he or she is doing, you can do the same.

I have a 3 person corporate board. They are part of a master mind group that was originally created to support each of us in developing out respective businesses. This has evolved to each of us being considered a board member to the other. That means we thoroughly understand what each of us is trying to do with our businesses. We hold each other accountable in working on our strategic plans. We know each other’s unique ways of getting stuck and we help each other through the tough spots.

You can do the same. Gather a small number of trusted advisors. They can (and I believe should) be diverse from different parts of your life. For example, you might have someone in the same organization you work in, someone else in a totally different line of work, someone who is a social friend, a colleague from church and a fellow member of the civic organization you belong two. Whenever you are struggling with a decision, you can take that struggle to them for advice and counsel. Just the power of their listening and questioning can provide clarity and support.

Some clients actually make it a formal meeting, bringing all of the board members together. Others just contact the members individually - in fact the members don’t really know each other. You can find the right arrangement that works for you. A colleague of mine scheduled a year-end strategy meeting with his board every December. At that meeting, he presented a report on how he had done in working towards his goals and they worked on his goals for the next year. They also met quarterly. Talk about formal! But it worked really well for him. You don’t have to be that formal. In fact it’s important that you create the right board and how it is to support you. Tat is the only way it will work.

Worried about how to ask? Don’t! I find people are honored to be asked and actually happy to help in a concrete way.

In another post, I will describe a very powerful way your board can help you when you are stuck with a decision or quandary. You will be very surprised where it comes from!!! Stay tuned.

What are some of the ways your own private corporate board could be helpful to you?

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Tags: Resources, Work, Working with change, career, master mind group, mentors, personal corporate board, personal support, resources for men

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Resources, Work, Working with change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.