How to Manage Them

• Understand Time Commitment and Skill Set. Understand each person’s time commitment and his/her specific set of skills and compensation arrangement.
• Assign Tasks Appropriate for Commitment, Compensation and Skill Set. Align their efforts to a finite set of activities that are appropriate to their skill set, time commitment and compensation. To say to an advisor who has a financial background, can you please help us build a financial model versus “help us with the investment process” is a big difference. For the latter, you are likely to come back when your frustrations boil over and say, “I can’t believe that it has been two weeks and we don’t have any investment leads.” However, you might very well be able to get the same resource to build a financial model in two weeks. Pick specific tasks appropriate for their place with the company.
• Create a Regular Check-in Process. Create a process to take advantage of their limited time, bandwidth and mindshare. This takes the form of a regular meeting at intervals that are commensurate with their time commitment. For example, for constituents you are paying and that are tied to key deliverables, you might have a weekly meeting to stay on top of product development, marketing plans and the like. For non-paid advisors, a bi-weekly meeting that addresses their roles and how they are doing against their areas may suffice.

“Success of your business starts with you.” 

• Nurture. Nurture and appreciate their participation. This involves thanking them, but also clarifying that your job is to best align the company’s scare resources with its needs. Communicate that you understand that this is not their day job and that they may not be accurately compensated, but you still need their best effort on behalf of the company. Communicate your appreciation while asking for accountability.
• Make Accountability Public. You must create accountability and follow through. Setting standards and expectations in a public forum, encourages a group commitment to progress, empowerment and mutual assessment. Individuals who make a commitment not only to you, but to a group of their peers, are more likely to perform to a higher standard and take responsibility for their work. When commitments are only to you, it is common to hear: “Something came up and I couldn’t get to it.” However, when that commitment is made to a group, they will find a way to get the job done, especially if progress is also reported and nurtured in a group set- ting. When you publicly set tasks for your team, make sure that the forum involves their peers, but also a variety of advisors who are also accountable to each other. Committing to tasks in this setting encourages greater integrity and pride in performance.