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Why YOU should have an Executive Board


Why you should have an Executive Board
daryl m. williams
January 14, 2013

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away? Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came.
I ALWAYS loved the theme song to Cheers. ALWAYS!
Fantastic but what does that have to do with anything and specifically the title about executive boards? Well, the executive board I’m talking about is different but should be a bit closer to our hearts because it is our individual boards.

Let me explain. I believe we should look at ourselves as individual corporations. Our careers are our product and we are the CEO as well as head of marketing, etc…of our corporations. This is not a new concept and while I did not learn it from J.T. O’Donnell or Reid Hoffman, among others, they certainly validated my way of thinking. That said your corporation should have an executive board to better lead you away from danger, toward opportunity and provide insights unique to your board members and potentially foreign to you.

My executive board can number as little as one and as many as 20 depending on the issue but I have some core members and I routinely will call, email, text and/or find some face to face time with them when needed. Examples of when I have recruited their individual skills to assist me are:
• Considering a job offer
• Deciding to leave an organization
• Focus of a blog post
• Starting my own company (not to be confused with thinking like I’m a company)
• Pursuit of my doctorate
These and other personal and private areas of my life, my executive board has proved invaluable. I can count on my board to notify me when my thinking appears to be misaligned with my stated goals. I’ve been sought out to consult with members of my board as well and thus it is truly a reciprocal relationship based on trust, based on honor, respect and love.

Now, your board need not love you (my wife, mom and two brothers are members of my board so they do in fact love me) to be members but what is important is that whoever makes up your board respects you and you respect them. You aren’t required to follow the recommendations and suggestions of your board, but in the case of your individual executive board, you should never doubt that your best interests are in mind when suggestions are made. If you have doubts, it may be time for some new members.



Daryl M Williams, MBA, M.S., is an adjunct professor, teaching Career Planning and Management as well as being a Career Coach. He is passionate about providing information to assist friends, family, students, alums, and even frenemies(really) in professional development and uses his management experience in Fortune 500, non-profit and private corporations to inform his decisions. Feel free to connect via LinkedIn.

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