The role of a Board of Directors is to provide leadership and oversight so an organization can reach its goals and achieve its mission. Each Director invited to join a board fills a specific need: a passionate advocate; a logical thinker; a financially savvy person focused on the bottom line. Ideally, each of these roles comes together to form a cohesive group of diverse voices whose advice and guidance steer the business in the best possible direction.
When a woman is more junior in her career, if she’s lucky she will match up with a mentor: an experienced and trusted advisor who can help steer her in the right direction as she navigates the early stages of her career. But as women advance in their professions, mentors can be harder and harder to find. And for some, even voicing the desire for a mentor might be a nerve wracking experience. “I’m in the C-Suite,” a woman might think, “I should know this on my own.” The reality is, we all need a reliable and trustworthy sounding board to help us make important decisions.
Enter: Your Personal Board of Directors
Taking cues from the corporate world, women can assemble a diverse group of advisors whose expertise and insights can guide them as they take on new challenges and increase their visibility at work. Here’s my advice for roles to fill on your own personal board of advisors:
The Fiduciary
It’s no mistake that this is in the top spot. This person is smart with money, investing, and finances. They are also comfortable talking about salaries and market value. This is the person you call when you’re evaluating a new job offer, asking for a raise, or other milestones related to your personal financial performance.
Women are often uncomfortable talking about money because there is a stigma attached to women asking for more money or negotiating their salaries. And, let’s face it, we’ve been socialized to be more modest when discussing our pay or career achievements, leading them to have feelings of shame that make the prospect of speaking up about money daunting.
The Historian
This person also fills a critical role: They have a great memory and can help recall important information and details. Maybe you’re good at this too…but this person sees situations from the outside, which is the most important part.
Having an objective perspective on events and important details is essential for any professional woman. Having a person with a keen memory who can recall significant facts, names, dates and other important information is invaluable in helping to make well-informed decisions. This person provides an unbiased eye that can spot errors or quickly fill in gaps of knowledge. They can also help to catch missed opportunities and provide an honest appraisal of how others perceive you. In addition, this relationship helps to ensure that (almost) no action gets overlooked or forgotten about in the hustle and bustle of a busy career. Having someone reliable and detail-oriented gives the assurance that nothing will slip through the cracks or be overlooked by mistake.
Read about my Historian, Lisa Prickril.
The VP
Your VP is your right hand and your closest advisor. They are the one who holds you accountable for your actions, and they won’t pull any punches. She is by your side through difficult career decisions, provides honest feedback on your decisions and actions, and suggests other options or strategies that you may have not thought of or considered.
The VP can also help you confront problems head-on by challenging your assumptions and providing feedback on how to manage difficult situations. By having a reliable advisor with a clear view of the situation, you can therefore make more informed decisions that will help you progress in you career and pave the way for further success.
Read about my VP, Ashley Gibbs.
The Advocate
An advocate is someone who will fight for you and your career goals. They are the person to turn to when there is a need for support, guidance, or encouragement. This person provides sound advice that comes from their experience, while always keeping your best interests at heart.
In addition, an advocate will amplify your voice in the workplace or in your shared network and beyond, helping you connect with resources to reach your professional goals. The right advocate can help put into perspective successes, failures, and challenges, while giving clarity on how best to move forward with actionable steps towards success.
Read about my advocate, Kelly Breslin Enache.
The Social Chair
This is the person that gets you out of your PJs and off the couch, even when you really don’t want to. Especially for those critical networking and career opportunity-rich events that we may dread.
The need for a person who can motivate us to get up and start networking is really important. Networking is an invaluable tool for growth and development, as it allows women to both share their knowledge and gain advice from others in similar roles. This means that having someone who can push you out of your comfort zone and encourage you to attend events or reach out to influential figures can be incredibly beneficial.
Overall, having someone who motivates us to get up and network, even if we’re not feeling it at first, can have a positive impact on our professional journey over time. By expanding our network of contacts through networking activities, we are able to expand interpersonal skills and gain insight which can open many doors along our career journey.
Read about my social chair (and so much more!) Dawn Sheiker.
I encourage you to consider who might be part of your own personal Board of Directors – the professionals and friends whose advice could help guide your career growth. Reach out to people you admire, trust, and respect for their advice or assistance. The more diverse your board is – in terms of gender, race, age, industry, experience level – the better equipped it will be to support you on your journey towards success.
