Who is in Your Personal Advisory Network?

When the most significant trends, technologies, and threats originate globally, who you know becomes as important, if not more so, than what you know.

Often, we find ourselves in business settings that stifle our potential and organisational objectives. The existing people in our professional world are not always the right ones to help us reach our ambitious goals or achieve next-level business results. This challenge is growing as the most significant trends, technologies, and threats arise far from where we live and work.

I work with leaders, both emerging and established, to connect with the right people globally. By building a personal advisory network, they have strategic, worldwide support in place to achieve ambitious global goals.

How Important is a Network for You?

In Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, Herminia Ibarra, the Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour from the London Business School, asks:

“On a scale of 1 to 5, how important is having a good network to your ability to accomplish your goals?”

Most respond with a 4 or 5.

Ibarra’s second question is:

“On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate the quality of your current network?”

Here, most scores are lower, typically between 2 and 3.

What are your responses?

A Network that Works

A personal advisory network is formed by you to perform for you.

It keeps you informed on the most significant trends worldwide. It teaches you new things, makes you more innovative, and provides a sounding board to test ideas and build initiatives. It facilitates introductions, enables you to secure influence and investment, and helps you innovate where it matters most. Importantly, it keeps your ambitious goals a priority when your role, career, and life create obstacles.

It is crucial if you want to achieve next-level success within the next 12-24 months.

A personal advisory network involves curating a group of people around you whose lead you follow because they align, stretch, and stimulate your ambitious goals. Aristotle said it beautifully, “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.”

It is not networking hoping for the best. It is not digging for diamonds on a stretch of random land. It follows a process of identifying, inviting, and incorporating advisors into your professional world. It is built upon a win-win engagement plan, initially set over a twelve month period, with embedded milestones.

Conducting a Network Audit

We are at the mid-point of 2024. It’s timely to conduct a network audit.

1. Mobile Phone: Who are the top 20 people you speak to and text?

2. Email Inbox: Who are the top 50 contacts that you email?

3. Meetings: Recall your last three months of meetings. How many people did you meet who can provide you personally (not just at an organisational level) with strategic insights? This could be across any of these areas that have the potential to shape your role, career, or industry:

• Emerging technology, such as AI, blockchain, and quantum computing.

• Innovative business models, built to scale for global dominance.

• Geopolitics, offering strategic insights beyond the news headlines and dominant narrative.

• Strategic foresight, engaging in discussions to imagine possible futures and identify critical opportunities and threats.

Building a Personal Advisory Network

If your network is concentrated around your company, industry, city, or country, then it is likely too narrow. There is a world of possibility (and threats) that are not on your radar. And they could be within the next three months.

Having five to seven people who personally advise you means you do not have to feel alone, diminish your ambitious goals, or delay taking action due to a lack of time or knowledge.

When the most significant trends, technologies, and threats originate globally, who you know becomes as important, if not more so, than what you know.

If you would like to learn more, respond with ‘advisory network’ in the comments, by replying to this email, or by direct message.

Further Reading:

• Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, by Herminia Ibarra