Building your cross-functional leadership “advisory team”

Despite fictional stories of lone individuals skillfully leading an organization through difficult times, most leaders have a team of advisors in real life. When constructed carefully, this advisory team can do everything from helping the leader in areas where they are weak to providing a sounding board to test ideas and approaches before they are widely disseminated.

Most of us are like an unfinished puzzle with several pieces missing. A robust set of advisors not only fills in the missing pieces, but also helps interpret the puzzle and provide perspective. As you advance in your career, you must constantly be aware of the formal and informal relationships that form the core of your consulting team. Career growth and changes may also require updating your advisors, adding or replacing those you have outgrown or who no longer provide the right training.

Here are some important considerations when building your leadership consulting team:

Get your house in order first

One of the most essential skills for developing as a leader is realizing and recognizing that most leaders cannot be effective without help. This may seem like an obvious statement, but in many organizations and cultures, individual achievement is celebrated to the point that seeking help is seen as a sign of weakness .

This is mistaken thinking. Just as you strive to bring together complementary, multidisciplinary skill sets in endeavors ranging from building a technology team to building a home, you should also realize the benefits of having strong advisors to support your leadership.

Likewise, an ineffective or troubled individual will not succeed without addressing their struggles, usually through outside intervention. If you feel overwhelmed by challenges in your personal or professional life (or both), focus on improving your condition as the first step to improving your leadership.

Outside consultants ranging from coaches to mental health and wellness professionals should be part of your counseling team. You would probably be surprised to discover that most leaders regularly employ these resources and, rather than a sign of weakness, use them as a tool to build strength. Strangely enough, no one would think badly of a professional athlete who turns to coaches to improve their game. However, there is still an unfortunate taboo in the business landscape around using coaches, psychologists or spiritual advisors to up your “game”, which happens to be high-performance leadership .

Don't be afraid to go abroad

Technical advice is a crucial element of an effective consulting team, which may seem counterintuitive to individuals who are supposed to lead technology teams and are presumably already “experts” in that area. However, technical advice includes technology and other domains where specific expertise is often required.

Your consulting team may include a marketing colleague who is an expert in consumer trends and helps you understand which technologies can help accommodate these trends. You can also have an advisor on your finance team who can help you create compelling business cases and understand the various sources of financing for technology projects.

Avoid “Yes, Men”

There are few risks in developing an advisory team, but the tricky part is creating a team of “yes men” who validate your every thought and decision and never offer a challenge or competing idea. Your consulting team should be a place where you can safely “test” new strategies or initiatives and identify areas of resistance or confusion early.

This requires a leader willing to thoughtfully accept negative feedback and seize the opportunity to create an even better version of the concept. If you find that your consulting team always agrees and rarely backs down, first check your interactions with your advisors. If there is a lack of trust or concern that resistance will be met with resistance or even punitive action, you are probably the cause of creating a team of “yes men.”

This can also occur if you are not challenging your consulting team by bringing them the most difficult challenges, especially those that are most likely to benefit from multiple points of view and backgrounds.

Install updates when appropriate

Just as your devices and applications require routine updates, so do your consulting team. Your leadership challenges may evolve, necessitating team changes. For example, an organizational focus on mitigating supply chain challenges may require the involvement of external supply chain experts.

Your evolution as a leader should also trigger occasional updates for your consulting team . Maybe you've been focusing on time management and turning diverse practices into an art form, and it's time to transition to global leadership. These changes can be tricky, as they may involve de-emphasizing a trusted advisor and transitioning a hard-earned skill set.

However, if you want to continue to grow, you will likely need to replace great advisors with other great advisors with different backgrounds or skills . While this is easier said than done, don't let personal relationships or familiarity let your consulting team become stale.

Building a consulting team is probably not part of your job description or the activity you focus on every day. However, taking the time to carefully assemble and regularly hire a set of trusted advisors will have positive results. immediate and long-term dividends . Involving diverse knowledge, experiences and capabilities will make you a much stronger leader and improve your performance when joining such a capable group.