What I gained from having Personal Advisory Board.
What is it; who to put on it; and how to form & manage it
As I headed into sabbatical, I had a LOT of questions I was trying to answer AND a lot of uncertainty.
Should I write? What should I write about? How candidly could I write?
Should I start a company? Or not?
If I joined a company, what kind of company should I do next? Nonprofit or for profit? Startup or large corp? Back to D2C or continue in B2B? Product or GTM?
Earlier that year, I’d just completed a weekend workshop on personal brand, and one of the final “assignments” (that was optional), was to assemble a “Purpose Council”, who knew your purpose/mission/vision and would council/advise. The concept draws from indigenous people traditions, where at key developmental milestones, young(er) people looked to a council of elders for wisdom & guidance on purpose, believing that there is wisdom to be found in the larger collective and that we can learn from our elders.
The analog in the business world is the Board of Directors or Advisory Board. Prior to sabbatical, I’d spent a year as Chief of Staff to the Group CEO of multi-business, multinational company, so I was very familiar with the cadence of quarterly board meetings (and materials!) for both the well-established business and the separate, growing software business (which had a different board composition & cadence).
What is the role of a board, generally?
For the established business, I was phenomenally lucky to be exposed to former chancellors of the Exchequer, former government officials and former board members of publicly traded global companies, who deeply understood that the point of the board isn’t to sign off or to rubber stamp, but to challenge the management team and to bring their wisdom and perspective from facing the same or related challenges earlier in their own careers or companies.*
I saw this latter point especially clearly with the software business, where we needed board members who’d done the hard work of scaling a software business, who had subject matter expertise in sales or product or engineering, who could challenge the functional head and “raise the bar” on them.
*For professional and public Board of Directors, there’s also an included fiduciary responsiblity or obligation that obviously isn’t present in a personal advisory board which informs and undergirds their responsiblity to challenge the management team. In some countries, Board Members can be sued and held liable for the actions of the management team & company
So, facing the uncertainty of sabbatical, I assembled my own “personal advisory board”, drawing from my network of friends and former colleagues, to do exactly that: challenge my thinking and raise my own bar.
What is a Personal Advisory Board? And how does it work?
Like a board, the responsibility of the PAB is to ask questions and offer advice, knowing that ultimately, the decision, execution and ownership of the outcomes are on me.
Like a board meeting, I invited them to meet with me quarterly for a focused, one-hour session, where I presented (much like I would at a board meeting):
Key accomplishments/initiatives for the last 3 months (including key metrics because #nerd)
Goals for the next 3 months
The big questions I was trying to answer where I wanted (and needed) perspective
The key administrative steps to making this work:
Keeping the commitment to just one year and a 60 min meeting.
Picking the dates a year ahead.
Meeting over zoom so no one had to travel (and international folks could join).
Deciding who to ask
As I was looking for counsel on my career, my main criteria:
Demonstrated wisdom (including objectivity that comes from emotional maturity): I didn’t require that people on my advisory council were biologically older (in fact, one was younger than me!), but they needed to have demonstrated wisdom or wise counsel in my life prior; having their own groundedness and ability to set aside their own emotions. There are absolutely some brilliant people in my life that I chose not to invite because I didn’t trust that they could set aside their own emotions and be objective.
Experience building their own career in a similar industry: As the focus generally was on my long-term career, I wanted people who had built (or were in the process of building) meaningful careers, who would understand the challenges, potential trade-offs and pitfalls I’d face. I thought about inviting a spiritual director I knew and valued, but I knew that their career-building experience wouldn’t transfer. Everyone on my council who ended up participating was either in the same industry or was slightly adjacent.
Shared values: I had other criteria, and in hindsight, I’d group them under the umbrella that they needed to share my core values. (Your core values may be different!)
Strategic AND emotionally intelligent: I wanted sharp business minds that also understood the human side - and valued it!
Growth mindset & curiosity: I wanted people who understood that failure is part of the journey and wouldn’t bring their fear of failure or risk averse tendencies into the conversation. And, when faced with something they don’t know well, would react with curiosity first instead of judgment/opinions.
Generosity & impact-oriented: I knew that I wanted to think about my career through the lens of more than just “how much money can I make” and so it mattered to have people who valued overall impact (not just in monetary terms) and who would support initiatives that contributed to the common good
Other criteria
Length of relationship: I wanted people who had seen me through many seasons of my life, and I was fortunate to have my college best friend sign on, who has seen me through many pivotal moments. The minimum length of relationship turned out to be 4 years, though that wasn’t an explicit bar. I was open to inviting people who knew me only 2-3+ years as long as I also had people who balanced it with length of relationship.
No conflicts of interest: There was one person I wanted to bring on my board but I knew they wanted me to work for them, so I intentionally chose not to invite them because of the possible conflict of interest.
Availability & willingness to commit: I ended up inviting 6 people to join my advisory board, and 3 people fully committed and showed up for all 3 quarterly meetings.
What I gained from the experience
One of the moments that stands out to me came halfway through the year, where for the “metrics”, I included my monthly burn expressed as “money spent so far” and “months of runway remaining”, where the first was an exact dollar number.
It felt vulnerable and embarrassing to share it, but I wanted accountability and transparency, so that they could see the cards I was holding (and help me evaluate my choices).
And as I expressed my worry and anxiety about money, especially in deciding whether to travel, whether to take on supplemental contract work or as a reason to end sabbatical early, the chronologically oldest person in the group (who is about 10-15 years older) said to me:
“Tiffany, you’ll figure the money out. You have assets.
The limiting resource you have, the scarcest resource, which will only diminish as you age,
is your time.”
I felt so deeply grateful in that moment for her generosity in sharing her time and wisdom with me. Despite knowing I have assets (my education, my network of people who would hire me, my savings and retirement accounts, my house), I sometimes still feel like the child who grew up wearing hand-me-downs, shopping in thrift stores not because it’s cool, but because it was economical.
Sometimes, I still feel (and react) like I’m poor, even though I’m not.
Her words reminded me of my actual reality and gave me the wisdom of her own stage of life: Time is the most precious resource.
The gift of the Personal Advisory Board were the distinct perspectives that helped me see beyond my own tunnel vision and initial fear-based reactions.
I’m especially grateful for each person’s skill in asking open-ended questions (instead of closed questions with inbuilt assumptions and judgments) which helped me hone in on what I was truly asking or solving.
In terms of other benefits:
Accountability: As someone who is motivated by public commitments and for whom accountability is helpful, just knowing that I’d have to present a summary of the prior 3 months to my friends that I respect was a helpful forcing function to stay on track on the days where I was feeling unmoored.
As the quarters passed, I could see my measurable progress as the list of big, open questions I was facing shrunk to a smaller, more precise list, as I got clarity on different big picture questions.
What they gained from the experience
At different points, I checked in with them about the experience and asked how they found the experience, and they talked about appreciating:
Exposure to the concept & being part of a personal advisory board (and maybe the inspiration to do their own!)
The community: As I exit sabbatical, I checked in on whether they’d want to continue to participate - and while I’m not doing a personal advisory board this year, we all enjoyed talking and dialoguing enough that we’ll meet up again in person to simply connect!
Going forward
I’m grateful for the space my Personal Advisory Board held for me the past year, to externally process, to dream, to imagine and to wrestle with that intersection of career and identity.
I’m exiting sabbatical with a clear sense of purpose and conviction for the next 9 months and because of that, I’m not feeling the same need for accountability; I need the time back to simply execute!
I am planning on forming an advisory council for a specific longer-term project: writing the book version of my class!
How to form your own Personal Advisory Board
If you’re facing a big decision or major life transition, like a sabbatical or career change, I invite you to consider forming a personal advisory board of the wisest and best people in your network.
Take 5-10 minutes to reflect and write down:
Who would I love to have on my advisory board?
What is the reason they specifically come to mind (whether it’s their experience, character or a specific attribute) - write it down.
When you’re ready to take action, here are the three things to do:
Plan. Pick the 3-4 dates you’re going to meet over the next year and block them on your calendar (the first date should be at least 4-6+ weeks out as people are busy!)
Invite verbally. Reach out to those people individually and verbally ask if they’d be open to the concept. Give them time to think and ask for a commitment after you send the follow-up email.
Confirm over email. Send an email after the conversation with the exact dates they’re committing to, the specific reason you want them on your PAB, and then send calendar invites after they accept!
How to prepare for & run the quarterly meeting:
2 weeks prior to the meeting, start thinking about your answers to the questions:
What have I accomplished the last 3 months? What have I learned?
Looking ahead, what are the major decisions or events coming up in the next 3 months?
What are the big questions I’m tackling that I need help or advice for?
(optional) In the week prior, send out your answers either in the form of an email or a powerpoint if you prefer as a pre-read.
For the meeting itself, a rough agenda:
Start with gratitude for them (and intros if it’s the first time meeting) (5-10 min)
Verbally walk through your answers to 1a-1c (10-15 min/section, depending on whether you take questions)
End with leaving time for the advisors to simply ask more questions or share initial reactions (10-15 min)
If you decide to do this, let me know! You can email me at tiffany@tiffanyteng.com.
If there’s someone else in your life who could benefit from a personal advisory board, send them this article!