Developing 'You Inc"

Recently, I spoke to a friend —a technical leader within her company— who was heading to her off-site leadership event with the rest of the directors of a their large and successful tech company. A company managed and led by a team of high-performing, energetic and creative people.

I asked her, “how long are you going for?” and she replied, "Two days."

"I see. Is that an annual thing?"

"No, no, we do this every quarter."

"Really! Every quarter?"

"Yes, it keeps us on track and together as a leadership team, and really helps us build camaraderie, so that when the going gets tough, we stick together. We have our usual monthly half-day board meeting and then we have a day and a half on learning and strategy. Why wouldn’t we want to spend as much time as we can improving how we work?”

And with that, another director picked her up and off they went. Watching them drive away, I thought, ‘Impressive!’

Now that's the way to manage a successful company: super focused team work, regular time out, routine monthly management and strategic, creative time away to think things through and plan the next three months and beyond.

As I watched them drive out of the car park and off to the motorway, it prompted me to think.

What if we, as individuals, had our own ‘mini’ personal board of directors?

What if each of us had our own guiding network?

Imagine if you had a superb team —not too many, say three people— to help and guide each of us just as this team would guide a company. Carefully chosen, they could make a huge difference to our success.

Learning further from companies, we can see that they are generally composed of,

1)    sales and marketing function

2)    technicalproduction, and

3)    back office management.

One thing that stuck with me when I read ‘The E-Myth’ by Michael Gerber many years ago, was this description of the three basic components of a company. I think it’s the same with each of us as individuals: we need to deliver, promote and manage ourselves commercially too. We need a guiding network.

So, here’s my idea.

What if we consciously made a choice to recruit our own personal non-executive ‘board of directors’? What would happen?

One person could be our sales and marketing director. They would have great skill at sales, and an ability to market what we have to offer.

One could be the technical or production director. They would be brilliant —technically— in what we do as a profession. 

And finally, we would have an office manager or our own personal operations director.

Imagine how many fewer mistakes we would make, and how much more success we would have. I suspect that we could be supremely successful if we did this. 

So now to build on this idea further: why not try it out? Over the next few months, why not go out and try to recruit your personal board of directors? Start with just one for now. 

They don't have to be paid!  In fact the won’t work for you at all, the only thing  they will do is provide guidance and support.

They can be three friends who fit the bill – who have strengths in sales, technical skills or management. Just ask them if over the next three to six months they can spare an hour with you over a coffee.

You never know what might happen, but I can't see a downside! I hope this is a good idea for you. 

Personally, I have my own ‘mini’ board of directors and I can tell you that it really does work. 

Just like my friend, with her strong leadership team, you too could be creating an incredibly successful and impressive organisation: You Inc.