Build your own board of directors and advance your career

Why you need one and how to do it!

Welcome back! First things first, I hope you’re enjoying the summer book club so far - we are reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, and I’d love a few more people to contribute to the discussion (I promise it’s not as scary as you think!) over here.

So far, we’ve covered the fundamentals of good habit making, bad habit breaking, and in a week’s time, we’ll go on to discuss how we can make habits “obvious” which is the first “law” of Atomic Habits. So please join in if you’d like! Remember it’s for all subscribers, it’s free and you can share this to get more people involved (perhaps you want to do it as a work activity too?)

Today I want to talk about something that in hindsight, I really wish I’d done earlier in my career. And that’s to build your own “board of directors” as part of your career planning and progression.

When I was starting out, and even as I became more senior and with more years of experience under my belt, I never really paid much focused attention to my career plan. I worked hard, I played hard and eventually I got burnt out. (True story!)

But did I really have a plan? A meaningful vision for where I wanted to end up and why?

No I didn’t. And too often, I equated “more money” and a “more senior job title” with career progress. Which it is, of course, but it is a linear path and as I found out in my mid 40s, I was really meant for more of a “squiggly” approach to my destination - (check out the amazingcareer book “The Squiggly Career” for more on this!)

I wasn’t fulfilled, I wasn’t happy and I didn’t feel I was always doing meaningful work.

If I had been a little more intentional, I would have done what I’m suggesting you do in this article today - create my own board of advisors to help me on my career path (up, down, sideways direction!) and navigate my choices with more focus and more intention.

This can be your own merry band - full of advisors, friends, maybe even family and sometimes work colleagues, peers and managers - who bring their own superpowers to the table in order to support your career planning and thinking. It doesn’t have to involve a formal coach or mentor (although it can and I do this work a lot as a coach), depending on your circumstances, financial situation etc etc. And it can evolve over time, just like you!

Think about the role of a board in any organisation. They are there to hold the organisation (that’s you in this instance!) to account, to ensure you are doing what you say you will do and to provide constructive feedback and advice in order to help you improve and perform at your peak.

This is eactly what you need at various stages in your career, and that’s what we are going to construct today. Keep reading for how you can get started and who you need on your personal board…