Give Yourself the Gift of Oversight

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Hi there,

Welcome to issue #51 of the Network Wrangler.

I’ve spent the last three weeks struggling to find my voice (literally… more on that below), and I’ve been forced to cut short or cancel many end-of-year calls with the people who mean a lot to me as mentors and dear friends because I simply can’t keep up my end of the conversation.

This has been a blessing (more time freed up on my calendar) and a curse (I don’t get to have that year-end wrap up I’d been anticipating).

The net effect is, this has given me a new perspective to appreciate my life as a quiet observer and to understand what motivates me to speak and when I should instead listen.

As one of several silver linings of this situation, the forced cancellation of calls has given me a chance to write notes of gratitude and appreciation to the people I regularly consult with who I consider my personal board of directors.

While I haven’t formally bestowed any of them with the Director title, these are folks who give me creative perspectives, honest feedback, and hard truths. They give me the gift of oversight and diversity through our interactions (most of whom I speak with monthly), and I hope I reciprocate similarly for them.

I interact with these advisors directly, but my personal board of directors also includes experts I learn from indirectly and/or virtually. These indirect members of my board are people like Chip Conley, Seth Godin, and Ben Meer.

While I don’t get to talk with the indirect members of my personal board of directors regularly, I do get to learn from them and be influenced by their thinking constantly.

In fact, it was Been Meer who first suggested the notion of a personal board of directors to me.

I’ve been a reader and fan of Ben Meer’s System Sunday newsletter since I scrolled through one of his posts in 2022.

Meer’s premise is that systems allow businesses to operate efficiently, scale faster, and create more value in society, so what would happen if you apply systems thinking into your own personal life? He created a calendar item called “System Sunday” to cordon off the time to work on himself (his systems), and he shares his insights via an eponymous newsletter (I highly recommend you subscribe).

One of the most challenging parts of working for myself has been implementing and maintaining systems, and I’m grateful for Meer’s constant reminders of the benefits of said systems.

And I’m even more grateful for the oversight I get from the rest of my personal board of directors to keep me on the path of future success.

It’s no coincidence that there’s a lot of overlap in benefits and outcomes between this board and what I wrote about in the Inner Circle Effect.

So, who’s on your personal board of directors?

It’s all about being intentional with whom you spend your time.

It’s been almost a year of my writing weekly about the importance of managing your networks with intention.

Whether or not you’ve already finished your holiday shopping, I’d humbly suggest you give yourself the gift of oversight in the coming year by formally naming (to yourself, at least) who is on your board of directors and why they deserve the role.

Then, spend the next 12 months leveraging the hell out of this gift to yourself, and we’ll reconnect in a year to see how far you’ve come.

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The 2025 Networking Game

And, as I presaged in last week’s newsletter, the news cycle is heating up with fodder for the 2025 Networking Game. 

Review any of the myriad lists of recommendations for potential 2025 resolutions to see which ones include some aspect of “be a better networker” among them.

If the list includes such a recommendation, give yourself a point. If the recommendation is in the top 3, give yourself a bonus point. And yes, a list can include more than one recommendation for being a better networker.

I’ve given you a handful in the two links above. How’s your scorecard coming along? First one to 50 wins a free copy of my book.

And for those curious, what got me quiet for so long? Well, around Thanksgiving time, as a consequence of catching one of the many cold viruses going around, I woke up with laryngitis for the first time in as long as I can remember.

I simply couldn’t do anything more than whisper loudly. I thought it would go away in a few days, but it took medical intervention (steroids) to make progress finally, and as of publishing time, I’m only just now starting to be able to speak above a whisper for more than an hour.

I’m hoping to be fully recovered to speak freely again in the new year. :-)

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