When I think of a Personal Board of Directors, I get a pit in my stomach. A group of bosses, watching over me to make sure I don't mess up? My mind goes to their alignment with wealth, capitalism, shareholders...bleh. No thanks. 

So if I'm honest, I have historically felt some resistance to this common coaching practice. 

At the same time, especially in times of uncertainty in life, there is great power in resourcing ourselves in collective care, connection, and support from those we trust. I know many of us are struggling amid the polycrisis around us. Many of us have been unemployed for some time now and are feeling disheartened and hopeless. Many of us are exhausted. 

How can we bring a different kind of energy to a practice that is ultimately about surrounding ourselves with support? And for those of us working in social justice, environmental justice, social impact, and adjacent fields, what does it mean to resource ourselves with exactly the care we need and can offer others? 

Forget the Personal Board of Directors. We're going to craft your Liberation Team. That means:

• No policing your choices
• No judgement or shame
• 100% shared values
• Any "pushing" looks like reminding you of your intrinsic worth and your deep inner longings
• Not a many-to-one situation, but a collective vision with mutuality baked into how you collaborate 

First, let's establish the archetypes you need for your Liberation Team. Here are some examples:

💜 The Caregiver - asks if you've had enough water and whether you need a nap 

👽 The Weirdo - brings a dose of quirky and creative thinking to challenges that opens new perspectives

🦋 The Future Embodiment - who is already doing things you dream of and living that reality?

🪢 The Connector - seeks opportunities to weave you into different networks and communities (and says nice things about you when you're not in the room!)

😈 The Trouble Maker - is always game to make good trouble (as the late Congressman John Lewis said), and encourages your outspokenness 

Other archetypes might bring play, visioning and dreaming, planting seeds with curiosity, or making big visions into concrete plans.

There's no wrong answer and you are welcome and encouraged to shape your own team, thinking of at least 5 (but probably no more than 8) archetypes that help you thrive and who you care deeply about too. 

Step 1: Create the Archetypes for your Liberation Team

Set a timer for 5 minutes as you review my examples and identify what roles are most important to you. 

Step 2: Who fits your team?

Another 5 min timer: Reflect - who do you already know who fits these archetypes? Where are there gaps? Write names down wherever you can. 

Step 3: How will you support?

Set another 5 minutes: Now that you've named at least a few of the people on your Liberation Team, reflect on the ways you want to support each of them. What might your archetype be, recognizing that you can show up for different people in different ways? 

Step 4: Make it official (this is the hard one)

In many coaching practices, the "personal board of directors" is a theoretical tool for imagining what advice someone might give, or informally using someone in the way you've defined but not necessarily communicating the role you see for them.

Because we're going for a non-transactional non-extractive approach to this practice in which we are inviting people into mutual support towards liberation, we're going to be very explicit and communicating our goals, needs, and ways you can mutual support one another. 

Send the first text or email. You might say, "I'm dreaming up ways we can support one another and would love to play to role of X for you. Would you be open to being Y for me? I can share more about the practice too." (and then you can link to THIS blog!) 

You can also discuss specific ways you might support one another like a weekly check-in text, monthly call with the whole team, or commit to sharing a monthly email to let everyone know what's going on with you. 

Step 5: Apply this resource

 So all of this is nice in theory, but how might you actually tap into a Liberation Team? You know those moments where you doubt yourself, or feel low, or alone, and wish there was some other insight or answer? Start here. Where it's a small moment where you imagine what someone in your Liberation Team might say, or just actually reach out.  

 Give it a try and let me know how it goes and what else you would add (or remove).