While advisory boards can help leaders see the truth about others, they also help us to be accountable ourselves. In fact, preparing for the board of advisor meetings is as meaningful for me as the meetings themselves. The leadership team works diligently to prepare documents outlining our progress toward goals, sales and net profit updates, as well as personnel updates and other items that makes us all “get off the dime” and ensure we’re executing on previously agreed upon plans. (As Bob Dylan once famously sang, “Everybody’s got to serve somebody!”)
Not surprisingly, having two groups (the BOA and the leadership team) dialogue and ask questions leads to better accountability and results.
And now a caveat: while a board of advisors is an invaluable asset for a private company like Intertech, it’s not a panacea for all leadership decisions. As CEO, the buck – as they say – still must stop with me. I have, on occasion, disagreed with our advisors and made a decision that did not correspond with their exact advice. But, the process of explaining my thinking made those extra challenging decisions a bit easier to make in the end.
