Nothing is as lonely as trying to figure out everything by yourself.
Yet many organizational leaders – whether they’re a business owner, CEO or an Executive Director of a nonprofit – find themselves in just that spot.
If you’ve ever lay awake at 4:00 a.m. solving the problems of the free world and avoiding your own worries like the plague, you need to figure out how to find other smart people to help you find solutions.
The challenge is that most leaders are not sure when and how to build a group of advisors, and therefore find themselves stuck far longer than necessary.
So, what is the best path for gaining access to and leveraging outside advice?
The first step seems easy enough. Simply determine the type of help and thinking you need. However, there are so many options out there - all of which can be valuable - that I suggest spending time formally strategizing about what you truly need and what you hope to accomplish.
To start, ask yourself just three questions:
The answer to these questions will help you to determine whether or not to hire a consultant with a particular expertise, build a board of advisors or join a peer advisory group.
Regardless of the answer, though, you want to approach this step very carefully so as to make sure your time, money and investment are worthwhile.
Lonely at the Top Solution #1: Hire an Outside Professional
When there is a specific organizational need, such as accounting or tax, legal, human resources, fundraising or hiring, securing the services of an outside professional can be the best path. When hiring a professional, do your due diligence to make sure they have the expertise you need.
This may sound intuitive, but I often discover that my clients aren’t looking at relevant expertise when making hiring decisions. For example, they might ask the attorney who handled the purchase of their office building to also handle their corporate transaction.
Not a good idea because of the high level of specialization required.
Most professionals spend years developing their expertise, and business leaders need to understand the nuances of what they require to find the right person for the project.
Another important step that’s often missed is asking for references – or, I should say, actually calling those references to ask about their experience while working with the professional they are considering.
Always ask. Always call.
Lonely at the Top Solution #2: Form an Advisory Board
Nonprofits have the benefit of a board of directors to help with strategic discussions and decisions for the organization, and grooming and leveraging that board is key to a nonprofit’s success. Effective boards conduct annual assessments of performance, identify skills and experience gaps and actively recruit members with those skills. They also use board meetings for strategic discussions, rather than for operational updates. An effective nonprofit executive will understand how to best leverage board members’ talents, interests and resources to engage the member and help the organization.
Privately held companies have the opportunity to form advisory boards to help them grow and reach their goals.
Advisory boards can be particularly useful if the company is at a pivot point in terms of growth, introducing a new product or service, entering a new market or significantly scaling the business. This is because advisors offer insight and contacts as well as guidance to the CEO.
Here are some things to consider when putting together a board of advisors:
Lonely at the Top Solution #3: Join Peer Advisory Group
Senior level executives join peer advisory groups to gain access to a forum to discuss business challenges, network and share best practices. These groups are designed to give you access to support from other senior level executives who understand the challenges of your position and whom can serve as a confidential resource. This means that peer advisory groups are a great way to discover best practices and look at challenges across various industries. They can also serve as networking channels, which are, of course, key to growing and thriving professionally.
Peer advisory groups can serve as an informal advisory board for your organization until you are ready for support that’s solely focused on your organization.
So, what’s the RIGHT answer FOR YOU?
Each of the options above requires a strategic approach and investment to improve the chances of success.
If you start by defining your organization’s key success factors (those attributes that most determine whether your organization will thrive) and by considering the strategic challenges your organization will face, the best solution for you will begin to emerge.
The reason many organizations hire high-level strategy consultants to help them figure all this out is that there are often many variables (sometimes opposing) in the way of perfect clarity.
Tapping into objective strategic guidance can have the effect of greatly reducing the time it takes to come to a decision, as well as significantly minimizing the risk associated with making a decision that doesn’t fully serve the organization’s needs.
Let’s talk! If you’re in the process of determining the best type of support for your organization’s growth, I’d welcome that conversation and would be happy to offer you my thoughts about what direction might be right for you.
Simply fill out the form on my contact page and I will reach out to you.
