One of the roles in my job is helping groups to see how important relationships are to successfully completing their goals. The ability to build connections, influence, and trust is often crucial to the success of a project.
I recently facilitated an activity for a group where we brainstormed all around the topic of recruiting more champions.
We defined champions as highly influential people who believe in your cause and support you. These individuals can:
- Open doors to new opportunities
- Make introductions to valuable connections
- Provide expertise and consulting
When I facilitate this exercise, it is not uncommon for groups to quickly realize they don’t have any champions.
Have you ever been there? You set a lofty goal, but you lack support to really make it happen?
A dear friend of mine (Katie Hurst) created what she called her personal board of advisors. These were trusted individuals she would reach out to for support. This is something I encourage everyone to do regardless of if you are on your own or part of an organization. We all need champions.
To create your own personal board of advisors:
- Brainstorm a list of who all you would want to be your champions. Think BIG here. Don’t cross people off the list because you assume they would never agree to be your champion. Focus on possibilities in this stage. The more people on your list the better your odds of creating an incredible board of directors. I have a friend who chose 100 women who she admired and wrote them all individual handwritten notes. When I first heard this, I was blown away. First, I am not sure I could even come up with 100 people I admire to write a letter to. Then just thinking of the time on top of that to write the letters! This sounds like crazy talk. However, many of the women she wrote, wrote her back. Several years later they still champion her work and have opened numerous doors for her. With those kind of numbers you don’t even need a high response rate!
- Contact your list of individuals you brainstormed. Influential people are busy, but a heart felt note expressing admiration and asking for help is more rare than one might realize.
- Ask for help. There is psychological research behind this. When people help you, they will convince themselves of your worth to explain why they helped you. The more they help you, the more attached they are likely to become.
- Respect their time. Influential people are typically busy. Know what you want when you enter the conversation. Be succinct. They don’t need to know every detail of your situation.
- Finally, be open to helping others get to where you are and making connections for them as well. It also helps to pay it forward.
Let me know what projects you are looking for champions on in the comments below and of course if I can help, let me know that as well.
