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Form A Personal Advisory Roundtable

Guest post by: Millard MacAdam

Article Overview: Are you tired of trying to do life and work on your own? Are you looking for a way to gain a broad perspective about resolving sticky personal and business issues as well as to better capitalize on opportunities in your personal and work life? Read on and you'll gain some tips on how you can form a stellar personal advisory roundtable group that will help you avoid costly mistakes and make better decisions.

Form A Personal Advisory Roundtable

In life and in business, have you ever found yourself symbolically hanging by your fingertips on the edge of a cliff wondering how you'll ever get to safety? Have you ever thought, said and done the wrong things that catapulted you over a cliff as you arrogantly "went for the gold"? Have you ever unconsciously placed yourself in jeopardy, later finding yourself being pushed over a cliff by others? "Accuracy first, then momentum!" is an admonition I keep telling myself. This helps me avoid the "cliff hangers" and wasted time, energy and money spent crawling over the rocks and out of the dark "canyons" of life and business. My dad told me many times after I had messed up something , "Haste makes waste, my son."

Most of the fast-paced people I've observed are short on both patience and prudence. Too often they think they know it all and fail to seek or ponder the advice of others. As a result, they experience many "cliff and canyon" episodes in running their lives and their businesses. Each episode negatively impacts stress and health, trusting relationships, credibility, and economic stability.

Gaining and maintaining a trusted Personal Advisory Roundtable will keep you from the unnecessary and avoidable "cliffs and canyons." However, selecting the right people to participate in your Advisory Roundtable can be fraught with peril. Think through and develop an "attribute profile" for the people you need on your Roundtable.

Some of the attributes I look for in members of my own Roundtable are: Integrity, Allegiance, Experience, Knowledge, Judgment, Time Availability, Commitment, Team Player, Communicator, Prevents And Solves Problems.

An Advisory Roundtable of five or six people is ideal. If you own your own business, you could consider developing a professional level Advisory Roundtable that exclusively serves you. In this case, you should think about including your lawyer, CPA, management consultant and banker plus "business specific" talent who bring their experience and technical expertise to the table.

If the people on your Roundtable are involved just to serve you and not one another, investing in fair retainer fees to have a quality group of advisors available to you on a regularly scheduled basis will pay you countless dividends. Well selected and developed advisors will become the key accountability partners you need to avoid the "cliffs and canyons." They will be invaluable in helping you grow and go to the highest level of character and competence possible.

While living life and running your businesses in an age of relativism and a spiraling helix of ethical scandals, members of your Advisory Roundtable who mutually mentor and serve one another can provide one another with sound strategies and tools to help each member "notch up" leadership and integrity in their lives and businesses.

As I've observed both professional and collaborative Roundtables in action, I believe some of the benefits you'll gain from forming an Advisory Roundtable are:

· Perspective, encouragement and coaching in resolving sticky life and business issues.

· Straight talk and affirmative and course corrective personal and business feedback.

· More purposeful, successful and significant personal and business decisions.

· Better maintenance of your critical physical, emotional, time, and financial reserves.

· Enhancement of your leadership, managerial and organization development skills.

Brainstorm and list the names of the people you would like to invite to participate in your Advisory Roundtable. List under each person's name the strengths they will bring to your Roundtable. Prioritize the list and start contacting them. Interview them and ask them questions that will help surface their relative strengths in the advisory areas important to you.

If you want to start a collaborative roundtable group, you can contact me and request a complimentary electronic copy of one of my PAL Advisory Roundtable Manuals. I have one written for Christians to use and another for non Christians to use. Let me know which one you want.

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Article Tags: accountability, advisors, decision, feedback, making, personal



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