Got an advisor? Listen to their advice.

What good is an advisor if you do not listen to their advice?

Advisors are experts that a business leader can use as sounding boards or to fill gaps in expertise and experience. They bring perspectives on the business that are easy to miss from the inside, where bias, familiarity, and momentum make it hard to see clearly.

A Real Example

Seven months before the COVID-19 pandemic, I advised a CEO not to renew their office lease.

A large downtown office was a nice signal of company status. But clients rarely visited. The team was technically capable of working remotely. And the space was significantly larger than the headcount warranted. The math on the lease was poor and the operational case for it was weak.

The CEO renewed the multi-year lease anyway. Two reasons: "the office exudes our company image" and "the team cannot work remotely."

The pandemic proved both beliefs were wrong. They spent the following year trying to find a way out of the lease.

The advice was right. The outcome was avoidable. The decision to ignore it was expensive.

Why Entrepreneurs Discount Advisor Advice

It is usually one of three things.

Internal bias. Founders and CEOs are optimists by design. That optimism is what builds companies. It also makes it hard to hear that a decision is wrong.

Proximity. Advisors see your business from the outside. What looks obvious to them is invisible to you because you are too close to it.

Status quo. The office renews because it has always renewed. The process continues because it has always continued. Changing things is uncomfortable, so the advice that requires change gets rationalized away.

The Data on Advisory Boards

A BDC study found that only 6% of Canadian entrepreneurs have an advisory board. But 86% of those who do say it has had a significant impact on their business.

That gap. Between those who have advisors and those who act on their advice, is where most of the value is lost.

The Point

If you have brought in an advisor, whether a board member, a fractional CFO, or an outside expert, you brought them in for their perspective. When their perspective differs from yours, that difference is the point. It is not a problem to be managed. It is information to be considered.

The question is not whether to have advisors. It is whether you are genuinely open to what they tell you.