Somewhere in the high drama of sweeping employment trends and life changing career decisions are sometimes lost the details, or truly helpful "small" ideas that can have a big impact on your work life success. I'll conclude the discussion of choosing a path with this thought: Get a board.
When I decided to test my mettle independently, a good friend, executive search consultant Nick Gardiner, suggested that I try something he did early in his career: form a board of directors. Ask a handful of your best business friends and contacts-insightful people who care about you-to be part of a group that reviews your options and makes recommendations about how to proceed. It could be convened once at a critical career-decision point, become a quarterly lunch or a biweekly online bulletin. You make up the rules. The point is, you can learn a lot, and you've established a mechanism to thwart the isolation that is sometimes overwhelming when you go out on your own.
Nick did this in 1978. He had been working for a Rockefeller family company called International Basic Economy Corp. that was being dissolved, and was one of those responsible for executing the divestiture. The last of the business units was sold in June and Nick spent the next several months investigating his options. "I was completely open to change and looked at all sorts of things."
He was also going through a divorce and was sharing a sublet with friends. "I was down to one suit, and it had a cigarette hole in the left knee, so when I went on interviews I had to cross my right leg over my left knee," Nick recalls. "And I remember standing one day on the subway platform at Columbus Circle with 200 resumes under my arm, sweating like a pig in this winter suit, and asking myself, 'What's happening to Mrs. Gardiner's little boy?'"
He decided to set a deadline: By noon on Dec. 22, he would choose among whatever options were available and be done with it. Then, while he explored and surfaced a few choices, he asked a half-dozen people "exceptional in their good judgment and who'd shown concern for my personal welfare" to be his directors. "I treated my decision as a corporate one."
The group convened for lunch on Dec. 22 and began to quiz Nick on four opportunities for which he'd provided written briefings: a job in banking, one in investment banking, and two opportunities to enter executive search. The board's unanimous recommendation was for Nick to take a crack at executive search, with one of the great search firms at the time.
"Many years later, I can say it was a very good choice," says Nick. And though circumstances have altered the group's membership, Nick has used his board several times since then at major decision points in his career.
At about the time I went on my own and was planning to pursue Nick's suggestion, something came to me, in a nifty bit of good fortune that meets the same need in another way. A group of people a lot like me-independent consultants, at various stages of their careers, of different but complementary disciplines invited me to join their once a month meetings in New York to brainstorm on business ideas and share concerns about how to do this thing we call being in business. Our inventive facilitator's name is Sam, so we're Friends of Sam (not yet incorporated).
There may be a group like this lurking informally in your network, or there may be a professional or trade group that offers the right people and setting. But if you can't find one, form one. Again, you make up the rules, but we've noticed a few things that make it work: keep it very confidential, so you can be as open as possible; keep it sufficiently intimate to truly address the concerns and suggestions of all members; keep obligations between meetings minimal, but offer a receptive hearing to efforts people make because they want to; and, significantly, make regular attendance a matter of high honor.
The benefits of these meetings have been extraordinary. Friends of Sam helps alleviate the occasional fear that creeps up when I wonder whether the next engagement will be there for me after I complete this one. Even though I can trace only one billable, small project to Friends of Sam to date, I know that if and when I do run out of work, there are eight people I can call for ideas.
The monthly meetings in New York (I live a commuter plane-hop away in New Hampshire) tie me to a time when I'll be there. Appointments with current and prospective clients seem to magically fit around my schedule when I'm able to say, "I'll be in the city on the 17th," rather than not knowing when I'll be there or picking a date that's of convenience to only one client or friend. And if the 17th isn't a good day, I'll catch you on my visit the following month.
I've gained confidence in setting my fees because I have a peer group that shares experiences on this and related issues (trade groups can't help here). Friends of Sam give me a running start on being able to respond to an opportunity that's beyond my resources. Perhaps it's something I can do with just one other member of the group rather than with everybody, which isn't a problem: we can meet separately before or after Friends of Sam.
Finally, at a minimum, I get a sense of professional support and camaraderie connected to my new career. It juices me up. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
