Significant Events, Experiences, and People Can Help You!
Posted by Sitkins Advisor on Thu, Aug 12, 2010 @ 09:00 AM
I was a young 28 year old producer with two years in the business. Charlie was a legendary VP of Sales for the company I represented. Charlie planted a “seed” that grew into a significant support structure impacting my career and development.
Charlie’s short “seed of wisdom”: “Young man, you need to develop your own personal board of directors!”. As the seed developed, personal board influencers/mentors came in three categories:
1. Formal Board Members - Regular meetings where they knew I was wanting to learn from them
- Some days I felt I learned a lot
- Some days I felt I did not learn anything
- Some days I picked up a little seed of an idea that took time to blossom into wisdom in my head
2. Informal Board Members - Regular interactions where I took note of what they did and said… and tried it for myself
- Some things worked for me
- Some things did not work for me
- Some things did not work for them, and I learned without experiencing the PAIN myself
3. Celebrity Board Members - Famous/influential people I learned about and tried to mirror my habits, actions and attitudes around:
- Some things were BIG impact ideas for me
- Some things were small impact ideas for me
- Some things were just interesting and entertaining
Who is on your ‘personal board of directors”? What are you learning from them? What else can you learn from them? Who else should you put on your “personal board”?
Throughout my career, the concept of a personal board of directors has helped me grow and develop “my style” to be more effective. Thank you Charlie!
The author, Steve Lounsberry, is a Vertical Growth Advisor with Sitkins International. Click here to view his bio.