Join WEST on Tuesday, May 18 at 12:00 p.m. EST as we host Stephanie Lajoie-Lubin to talk about building a personal advisory board to support your professional and personal goals. Lajoie-Lubin is the founder and principal consultant of Lajoie Consulting Group, a firm that works with organizations to transform their workplace cultures through Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and supports early- to mid-career professionals through career transformation.
Lajoie-Lubin draws on the concept of a personal advisory board, outlined here by Natascha Saunders, to develop a holistic view of her clients’ and her own personal and professional goals. Lajoie-Lubin's talk will outline the key roles to include on your personal advisory board to help you gain perspective, build a career strategy, stay personally grounded, maintain financial stability, engage with key communities on- and offline, and create a vision for who you want to be.
The process of identifying and working with personal advisors will be different in different seasons of life. During a period of focus on career growth, you may look for an additional professional mentor, while a period of personal struggle may necessitate extra check-ins with an emotional or spiritual advisor. Such life events may overlap or evolve quickly, so it’s important to build a framework for strategically building a network that will support your success and happiness over time.
Lajoie-Lubin emphasizes that personal advisors should keep you accountable and authentic. Choose advisors who are not afraid to push you out of your comfort zone and who see your ability to succeed in ways you may not yet recognize. Your advisors should be willing to be open and honest with you, giving forthright, constructive feedback without sugarcoating. An effective personal advisor will challenge you to be your best self, even when it’s not easy.
Good advisors are also supportive through issues of inequity in the workplace. As a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practitioner and through her personal experience as a Black woman, Lajoie-Lubin understands the importance of applying a DEI lens when talking about career growth and development. She is passionate about uplifting those who are underrepresented in the workplace, such as women of color and especially Black women. Barriers to equity need to be addressed at a systemic level, but individuals can create a personal advisory board that is a resource for navigating cultural barriers, made up of people ready to help you face any issue in the workplace. All of us, especially those in majority groups and privileged positions, should also acknowledge our responsibility to be conscious of our own biases as we work together to provide more equitable outcomes and opportunities.
Finally, a personal advisory board should be composed of people who see and validate your capacity to achieve your goals. Your advisors’ role is to help you maximize your potential, so they should be among the strongest believers in the brightness of your future. An outside perspective can help you to recognize and develop strengths and avenues for applying those strengths. Getting that perspective from multiple people—role models and peers, colleagues and protégés, all members of your trusted support network—can help you gain insights relevant to your own unique goals, identity, and experience.
“We all have the potential to be great at what we do—our careers, how we serve people, our goals,” Lajoie-Lubin says, “and often the challenges to accomplishing this come from our mindset, from limiting beliefs. An advisory board creates space for you to have people in your corner saying, 'I know you can do this!’”
Click here to register for Building Your Personal Advisory Board on May 18, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. EST.
You can also register for our other upcoming events: The Anxious Go-Getter: Keep The Achievement, Lose The Anxiety on June 3, 2021 from 4:00–5 :30 p.m. EST; In It Together - Sharing impactful stories and supporting each other on June 8, 2021 from 4:00–5 :30 p.m. EST; and our free virtual Spring Networking Event on June 10, 2021 from 5:30–7:30 p.m. EST.