by Pamela Meyer
Every great leader grows a network. It’s an important business tool, a way to connect with people who can provide you with opportunities, open the door to potential markets, offer you inside and behind-the-scenes information, and help you build your personal and professional brand. Yet too many people get caught up in collecting contacts like so many baseball cards, and neglect to thoughtfully, deliberately develop the kind of select, trusting professional relationships that all great leaders throughout history have relied upon.
Andrew Jackson had his kitchen cabinet, as did John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan; Ben Franklin had his Leather Apron Club; Andrew Carnegie had his Big 6 mastermind group; Jesus had his disciples; and King Arthur had his knights of the round table.1 Recently, many CEOs have started to publicly refer to their “inner circle” or their “personal board of directors.” Trust, of course, is always the cornerstone of these exclusive relationships; it therefore seems only natural that a trained liespotter should have a “brain trust,” so that’s what we’ll call it.
A brain trust is a small, select group of people you choose for their ability to offer ongoing wisdom, expertise, and support as you progress toward your personal and professional goals. Besides offering you a regular, trustworthy channel for advice, your brain trust accelerates your learning curve, giving you the benefit of experience while freeing you from having to make every mistake yourself in order to learn from it.
Keep in mind that the members of your brain trust are more than confidantes. Like a personal trainer, they should be willing to push you to go beyond your comfort zone, to think bigger and more creatively than you would have on your own. Not only will its members help you develop new plans of action you might not have thought of yourself, they will also give you incentive and inspiration to follow through and accomplish what you set out to do.
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A MASTER BRAIN TRUST
Andrew Carnegie’s “Big 6” has been referred to as the first mastermind group and is a model of an ideal brain trust. Its members consisted of an impressive array of self-made men who gathered together to exchange ideas and receive advice, support, and feedback:
William Wrigley Jr., founder of the Wm. Wrigley Jr.
Company, producer of the famous gum and other candies
John R. Thompson, owner of a chain of lunchrooms
Albert Lasker, owner of the Lord & Thomas ad agency, the largest ad agency in the world at the time
William Hertz and William C. Ritchie, owners of the Yellow Cab Company.2
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ASSEMBLING YOUR BRAIN TRUST
1. Make a Plan
What differentiates a brain trust from a general advisory or support group is that its members help you set and accomplish very specific goals. That doesn’t mean you have to form a separate brain trust for every major decision you make, nor that you need to have different brain trusts to cover various subjects of expertise. But the purpose of a brain trust is to help you achieve your long-term vision, so it’s imperative that you be able to articulate that vision as clearly as possible. It’s not enough to say, “I need a good financial adviser on my brain trust.” What you want to say is, “I want to shift my earnings from $200,000 to $400,000 in three years. Whom do I know who can help me do that?”
Like a board of directors that oversees a company, your brain trust needs to know the direction you are heading in. And its members deserve evidence that they’re agreeing to help steer a ship that’s not likely to sink. So you need to write the equivalent of a personal business plan. Outline your goals and how long you think it will take to reach them. List the resources you have, and note where you plan to seek out those you are missing. Be honest regarding the challenges and pitfalls you’re concerned about. Get this far, and you will have already gone farther than most by thinking strategically about your life while holding yourself accountable to the entity you’ve decided to create.
2. Choose Your Members
You’ve got plenty of people in your network—people you’d even consider close associates and friends—that you can call to ask, “Have you used the new Outlook sync tool for Exchange?” and, “I’m looking for a new production manager. Have you heard if anyone good is looking?” But who would you ask, “Is now the right time to sell?” Who would you turn to for help with crisis management, with detailed business execution, or for brutally honest feedback? Very few people, probably. Yet these are the people who belong in your brain trust. When you reach out to these people, your motive won’t be to stay on their radar or to get the scoop on the competition. You won’t be worried about putting your best foot forward and keeping your tough reputation intact. Quite the opposite. Many times, the members of your brain trust will have seen you at your worst.
You might turn to the person who stood by you when your new product failed; the team member who slogged through a five-day negotiation with you; the friend who suggested the change that turned an ordinary blog into an award-winning one; the colleague who never refused to proofread your work or give you a second opinion even when she had her own deadlines to meet. These people have seen you at your best, but they have also seen you at your worst and most vulnerable. It’s only once you’ve survived a crisis together, suffered together, shared a great risk, or beaten unlikely odds together that you will know if you can count on someone when the road gets rocky. Your brain trust should be comprised of those to whom you can say, “I need help!” when you are feeling stranded or weak. They won’t think less of you. Rather, they will appreciate your courage and do what ever they can to reward it with the best advice, insight, and support they can.
3. Take Inventory
The first step in choosing the members of your brain trust is to make a list of the top fifteen to twenty people in your network that you trust and turn to the most. Next, you’re going to think about the kind of trust that exists between you and each person on your list. Saj-nicole Joni, CEO of Cambridge International Group, a consulting firm that specializes in helping executives connect with strong advisers, explains that there are three types of trust:
1. Personal Trust. To determine whether you share personal trust with someone, ask yourself:
Is this person honest and ethical?
Is he reliable?
Is he well intentioned?
Will he handle confidential information with care and discretion?
Will he be straightforward about what he doesn’t know?
Does he tell me what I want to hear, or is he unafraid to give me his honest opinion?
Have I ever been disappointed in the way he treats others?
How did this person become part of my network? Did I approach him, or did he approach me, even insinuate his way in?
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A WORD ABOUT ADMIRATION
The primary constant—the common quality your members might share? Your admiration! You must admire your brain trust members personally and professionally. It’s not simply a software engineer’s brilliant command of programming code that impresses you, it’s the way she dedicates herself to her team when they’re struggling to get a project done. Admiration knows no hierarchy and no boundaries. Many executives include their secretaries in their brain trust despite the dramatic difference in pay and power. Jack Welch had an extraordinarily respectful and trusting relationship with his executive assistant Rosanne Badowski (whom Newsweek called his “secret weapon,”); there is little she didn’t know about him, and there can be no doubt that he depended on her. In fact, there could be no better description of a brain trust relationship than the one Welch describes in the foreword for Badowski’s book, Managing Up:
For fourteen fantastic years, Rosanne and I were nothing less than partners. She may have been managing me up, and perhaps I managed her down, but most of the time we were both managing sideways, the way teammates do. We passed the ball back and forth, blocked for each other, shouted directives and encouragement (and occasional expletives), suffered together after losses, and, perhaps most of all, shared
in the victories.5
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2. Expertise Trust. This form of trust addresses your confidence in someone’s professional experience and opinion. To determine whether you share expertise trust with someone, ask yourself:
Is this person an expert in her field?
Is her knowledge up-to-date?
Does she present credible information to support her positions?
Is she able to apply her expertise to my specific situation?
Can she offer sage advice on risks, options, and trade-offs?
3. Structural Trust. Structural trust refers to the nature of trust that exists between two people with distinct ambitions and obligations. You may trust someone personally, and respect his expertise as well, yet his ability to give you unbiased opinions can become compromised when his job or agenda changes. For example, let’s say that three years ago your former roommate took a position that required him to break into new markets with his company’s product. If your job is to defend a competing product’s market, how unbiased can his advice be? Your structural trust is compromised, and while he will always be part of your network, and certainly your friend, he should not be a part of your brain trust.
To determine whether you share structural trust, ask yourself:
In what ways has your relationship with this individual shifted, shrunk, or grown over time?
Has something happened to change his perspective such that he is a less reliable adviser now?
Given his professional role and responsibilities, can he offer an objective opinion?
Can he be fully loyal?
Is he likely to spin or filter information?
Is there a chance he will move into a role that places structural constraints on your trust? For example, is it possible you will someday compete for the same position or for the same client?3
As Joni states, too often “trust becomes a habit, unexamined and impervious to context. Meanwhile, conflicting interests, emerging loyalties, parochialism, and plain-old personal ambition gradually diminish the usefulness of established ties.”4 The people who have always been there to help you may still have the best of intentions, but they may not be suited to help you now. Though you may be drawn to someone personally, you must try to see through charisma and take note of flaws. Jim was so enamored with his previous recollection of Kevin from their college days that he never stopped to consider that the qualities that made Kevin an appealing frat brother did not make him an appropriate adviser or confidant.
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GETTING THE BALL ROLLING
Can’t think of anyone you know well enough to recruit to your brain trust? Career coach Michael Melcher has an excellent questionnaire to start the brainstorming process. Note that these questions are not criteria for membership—just questions to get you thinking.
Answer the following prompts…as quickly as you can.
Write the name of someone you know who:
Is incredibly organized
Knows how to have fun
Knows everyone
Can give you encouragement in tough times
Can talk to you straight about your weaknesses
Is unfailingly logical
Is deeply empathetic
Is spiritually advanced
Can handle a crisis
Has known you since childhood
Is politically connected
Is entrepreneurial
Is good at raising kids
Is an expert on money
Is an expert on relationships
Is an expert on health
Is an expert at work/life balance
Is an expert in the type of work you do
Is an expert in a type of work you are interested in
Gives good advice about office politics
Gives good advice about professional development
Gives good advice about how to get ahead
Thinks you are great at what you do
Thinks you have great talents other than those you use in your present career
Thinks you are a great person
Other potential nominees, and their area of contribution to your life:
Review the names you’ve written. Circle between six and ten names.6
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4. Determine Who Is Missing
Once you’ve sifted through your network and identified the best candidates for your brain trust, determine what gaps exist between the skills and resources your brain trust provides and the core challenges you are facing. For example, if you’re not particularly strong in scenario development, but it’s a critical skill you need on board to accomplish your goals, you might recruit a futurist to your brain trust, or another strategic thinker. If you don’t have a legal background or a rock-solid understanding of the rules of your industry in all their permutations, you’d be wise to make sure you have a strong legal mind on board.
Ideally, your brain trust will include representatives from the following categories:
Business Associates. This will be the largest group, comprised of colleagues within or outside your organization or field. Remember, brilliance can come from anywhere. Most leaders have advisers from the upper ranks of their industry, but they would be wise to seek input from people at the lower levels, such as salespeople out in the trenches, and assistants. Their perspective is invaluable. When choosing whom to include, what matters is trust and expertise, not rank or pedigree.
When considering a business associate, think about the following:
When people talk about him, do they exclusively discuss his business accomplishments, or do they often mention how great he is to work with?
What is the power dynamic between you? Will this person be comfortable being taken into your confidence?
Can you identify a moment when this person went out of his way to help you?
Forward Thinkers. Successful leaders are always looking to the future. You should have a vision for where you want to be in the next twelve to eighteen months. Who in your circle would be able to help you implement your plan? Who has a sharp bird’s-eye view of the market, the economy, and the other critical factors that influence your world?
Specifically, you’d want to think about the following:
Does this person have a broader perspective than I do?
Is this person genuinely invested in my future?
Do I feel empowered or insecure after sharing my ideas with this person?
Paid Advisers. These are the people you turn to for specialized advising—accountants, consultants, and lawyers. You only need one or two paid advisers on your brain trust. Some might counsel against including anyone in your brain trust to whom you have financial ties. Perhaps that would be possible in an ideal world, but there is some expertise that simply can’t be obtained for free. Also, it is possible that over time, a mutually financially beneficial relationship can also become a deeply committed relationship. Authors and actors often feel extremely close to their agents, and many people include their personal lawyers in their group of most trusted advisers.
In addition to finding out as much as you can about a professional adviser’s credentials, his track record, the structure of his practice, his experience in your sector, you could also ask:
How long have you worked with most of your clients?
How do you tell your clients bad news?
Will you occasionally meet with me in person, even if we don’t live or work in the same city?
Would you consider your approach cautious, aggressive, or neutral?
Though you should fill your brain trust with representatives of each of these categories, you won’t approach all of them with every challenge you face.
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WATCH OUT FOR TOXIC TYPES
Look out for four particularly toxic types of confidantes:
The Reflector only tells you what you want to hear and what makes you feel good. This adviser can inadvertently steer you wrong by fueling your self-destructive tendencies and applauding poor dec
isions.
The Insulator thinks she’s helping you by acting as a strict gatekeeper between you and your organization, specifically by filtering incoming and outgoing information. This person can inadvertently separate you from the pulse of your organization, making it difficult to connect with your team or know when a problem needs to be addressed. Insulators are often women.
The Usurper is the only type that intends to do harm. He tends to be near-sociopathic, showing an extreme lack of empathy, compassion, or conscience. He is out for his own interests and will promote them in any way that he can.7 Kevin, the creative director who betrayed Jim Sehorn in the story that opened this chapter, was a classic usurper.
The Power Player runs a large company, controls enormous resources, is famous or publicly known in some way, or is always “on the make” doing deals, on the phone, speaking at conferences. Watch out for the big, narcissistic personalities that can accompany the power playing mentality. Your best bet is to target those who aren’t using you, who can step back from their own needs to assist you, who align themselves with you because they truly care about your success, not because they’re targeting you as a networking partner, future board member, or some other self-serving reason.
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5. Initiate Contact
Building, restructuring, or repopulating a brain trust takes patience and finesse. You’re not asking potential members for a small favor—you are asking them to act as unpaid consultants. Why might they agree to a job like this, one that offers no pay and no perks? Because the people you plan to approach are already as invested in your relationship as you are. And because they know that one day they may need a trustworthy ally on the business battle-field, and that they’ll be able to turn to you.
How you approach each member will differ depending on their character and your relationship. You might make a somewhat formal approach to a former boss, but you might ask your old business partner to meet you for beer and wings. Regardless, there are a few rules when asking someone to join your brain trust:
Meet Face-to-Face. If possible, meet in person the first time you approach someone to join your brain trust, even if you have to travel. Approaching someone face-to-face rather than by phone or e-mail will emphasize the importance and serious nature of your request.