Tag Archive for "Advisors"
How well you prepare to select your advisors will make or break your advisory board. It’s not a simple matter of selecting friends and colleagues, at least not if you want to have an effective advisory board and not waste time or money. It requires thought, honesty, analysis, and planning.
I have observed that many advisory boards get “slapped” together with insufficient thought and planning. The end result is people don’t show-up, money gets wasted and the company never starts its ascent toward greatness rather it wallows in mediocrity.
Answering the following questions will start you on your way to selecting advisors successfully.
- What does your company stand for?
- Why does your company exist?
- What is your company good at and known for?
- What do the markets you serve want and need?
What these four questions get at is the vision for your business. The people you ask to be your advisors will be very interested in this information.
- When was the last time you analyzed your business from the perspective of its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
In the course of completing whats is known as a SWOT analysis, you will determine where the gaps are in skills and talent. This exercise requires that you and your senior management team, to the extent you have one, be honest with yourselves and each other.
Once you can answer these questions you will have the information you need to identify what type of advisors you need.
Want help with this and other exercises to build your advisory board? Consider the Advisory Board Kit, A Comprehensive Guide to Establishing an Advisory Board. Learn more by clicking here.
You’ve made the decision to form an advisory board. You know enlisting family and friends is not a good idea despite their best intentions. So just where and how do you locate advisors? Here are some suggestions on how to identify prospective advisors:
- Look to the organizations you volunteer with and the people you serve with (i.e. nonprofit boards, Little League etc.).
- Who have you dealt with lately that left you with a good impression.
- Former customers, vendors, and clients, but only if you think you will not do business again. It is not a good idea to share the confidential details of your business with clients, vendors, or customers.
- Professional service firms (attorneys, CPAs, consultants). Sometimes these firms maintain a list they may be willing to share.
- Family and friends, not to serve but to suggest their colleagues who might be appropriate.
- Other CEOs with advisory boards.
Your search will only be effective if you know what you are looking for. Selecting the appropriate advisors is similar to hiring key senior executives. You will need to do the up front work to identify what skills and talents are most needed by your organization. I will cover what this entails in a separate post.
Look for the Advisory Board Kit, A Comprehensive Guide to Establishing an Advisory Board, to be published in December. Please check the site in the coming weeks for order information and related teleclass information.
Effective advisory board meetings include which of the following? Circle all that apply.
- Start late with lengthy agenda.
- Utilizes a chair/facilitator so to maximize the value received from each advisor.
- All advisors are urged to attend the meeting.
- Advisors who neglect to review agenda & related materials in advance
- Comprised of only individuals presently working, knows the CEO socially or who the CEO “owes”.
This the last quiz for the time being. If you want to know the answers to Quiz #5 ask me via the contact form on the site. The answers to Quiz#4: a, c, d, e, & f.
So how did you do on the five quiz questions? Interested in establishing or joining an advisory board? Contact Susan to discuss. Click here to send her a message now.
Look for the Advisory Board Kit, A Comprehensive Guide to Establishing an Advisory Board , to be published this month. Please check the site in the coming weeks for order information and related teleclass information.
