Board You Cannot Afford One Year On - The Importance of Finding Your Tribe
My Board You Cannot Afford Blog was born out of my work as a consultant and coach. In particular, it focused on why and how Founders, CEOs and Business Leaders need to build a Board You Cannot Afford, a personal board of directors as a fundamental pillar to their current and future success.
I continue to spend much of my time working with my clients on the issues of profile, exposure, networks and connecting with impact and authenticity (with the virtual space increasingly dominating) – all of them integral to the concept of Board You Cannot Afford. Once clients grasp the approach and start to plan and execute, results come quickly which is hugely rewarding. What has however become more apparent through my work is that there is something more that is needed now more than ever and that is the concept of Tribe*! – Finding your tribe
What do I mean by Tribe?
The Board You Cannot Afford approach is powerful – helping leaders identify key gaps and opportunities to forge and nurture critical relationships based on reciprocity to power their journey. However, it does not necessarily meet the needs they have for companionship, peer learning and safe space on their leadership journey. Coaching helps with the creation of safe space to discuss and explore issues, but a Tribe is where clients find space to exchange frankly, get support, share ideas and learn from each other’s experience and where they can truly be themselves.
Arguably, male leaders, possibly due to their far higher numbers, have opportunities to connect with peers – their tribe – more naturally than women in similar positions. Female leaders across sectors, functional specialisms, locations etc. can find themselves a rare breed and therefore very alone and potentially isolated – but maybe female leaders also look to connect and find support in different ways to men and finding a Tribe is therefore more appealing to them.
The concept of a Tribe as part of Board You Cannot Afford is an exciting one that I’ve been ruminating on for a while. It can be difficult to figure out how to go about finding and building your Tribe. A good first step can be to identify leaders in your area of interest with whom you would like to connect but haven’t had a chance to. These can be individuals who have encountered or are faced with some of the same challenges as you and where you think it could be valuable to share, learn and connect. Warm introductions through shared contacts are always helpful to send them out.
For the Tribe to get off the ground quickly, it is key to have some form of agreed-upon common purpose. What does this look like? An example of this is the start of lockdown, when it dawned on a group of us female founders that we were going to need to rapidly upskill and upgrade our communications, we created our own small Tribe where we talked on a fortnightly basis initially about our content, shared contacts for interviews, reviewed each other’s content and ensured we also amplified it into our different networks and spheres of influence so it would reach beyond our own echo-chambers. The common purpose that bound us together as a Tribe was our belief that the world needed our diverse range of voices and perspectives to be heard now more than ever. Years later, we are still connected and continue to nurture our relationships and each other’s’ work.
*I’ve played with lots of names for the concept of Tribes – incl community, village, collective, but none have landed as well as Tribe. If you think you might need a tribe, the best way is to just do it!
A bit more about the author –
Rebecca Hill, founder at Wise Sherpa, is an experienced respected, trusted, sought after and award winning coach, consultant, facilitator and mentor.
Her passion is working with purpose led and impact focused leaders, professionals and organisations (including start ups and scale ups) in London and internationally in a thoughtful, collaborative and considered way guiding them to successfully realise their aspirations and achieve their goals. Rebecca’s approach is highly personalised and tailored to the needs of each client which is why clients report strong outcomes and she is considered one of the best leadership coaches and consultants.
Rebecca is also an author and speaker. She speaks on a range of issues including mid-life to later life transitions into fulfilling encores, navigating major life stages from a career perspective and women’s economic empowerment to name a few.
She holds an MSc in Coaching and Consulting from HEC Paris (in association with Said Business School, University of Oxford), as well as being a Chartered Marketer and qualified coach. She has lived and worked in several countries including France, US and Switzerland and speaks several languages. In her spare time, she also sits on a number of boards and committees.
