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It is also important that you can take some no-holds-barred and no-punches-pulled feedback. If one of your advisors tells you, “I think you are full of sh*t on this issue, and this is my evidence”, what do you do?
Remember
boardroom is not for politeness and niceties. It is for brutal bone honesty. If you advisors tell you something it may hurt your ego. But if market tells you something, it can cost you big dough, or even can send you to wall. Business is an emotional issue and during heated discussions four-letter words can fly sometimes uncontrollably. It is just part of process.
Using Orson Welles’s words as Harry Lime, in “The Third Man”, “In Italy for 30 years under Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed—and produced Michelangelo, da Vinci and Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce — cuckoo clock.”
Once you have these advisors, let them push you into a little bit of boardroom warfare and bloodshed, and let them help you to become a da Vinci of your field. Nobody has ever been sweet-talked into excellence. Except if your vision is to build cuckoo clocks.
Sadly many business owners would throw these advisors out of their offices, which only confirm that so many business owners do not want advisors. They want a group of people who unanimously agree with business owner’s choice and praise his/her god-like wisdom.
The other problem is when business owners do not even involve board members in decision making. They only call emergency meetings when ship is sinking after repeated hard blows caused by a chain if decision icebergs.
Meet your advisors 2-4 times per year at least for one (two are better) full day. You do not have to pay them a fee but paying their expenses at a reasonable resort or a restaurant is bare minimum.
What to Discuss with Your Advisors?
Keep your discussions as strategic as possible. Then when strategy is done, you can ask for some help on tactical issues, but main emphasis is on strategy. Include topics like...
* New people to hire
* Market movements
* Economic trends and indicators
* Current and upcoming management issues
* Your strategy in current and future market climate
* Competition intelligence
* Your publishing ideas and intentions
Your personal growth and life plan (Business is just a means to an end, that is, to a better quality of life. The idea is not to balance your business AGAINST your life, but to seamlessly blend business into your whole life. With balance something has to give. With blending you can have your cake and eat it too. Watch that waste line!)
The final wisdom is this: “Only Prince who himself is wise, can be wisely advised.” ~ Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince. You can have best advisors under sun, but if you habitually ignore their advice, then nothing will happen.
So, what can you do today to bring objectivity to your firm through advisors?
Start shortlisting people whom you would have on your board and explain why. Make sure you avoid typical Multilevel Marketing (MLM) problem. MLM people only mix with other MLM people within same company. What is wisdom there? It looks like incest to me.
Make a list of first three issues you want to discuss with your advisor and get moving.
Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan of Dynamic Innovations Squad helps professional service businesses to build high trust client relationships in which they can deliver higher value at higher fees, using less of their time and effort. You can request his e-booklet “Why Most Service Professionals Consistently and Persistently Undercharge for Their Services” by emailing booklet@di-squad.com. Reach him at www.di-squad.com.
