Can we invite our external advisors, such as our fractional CFO or our key legal counsel, to participate in our annual planning sessions with you?

Keep your annual planning sessions restricted strictly to your core leadership team. While your fractional CFO or key legal counsel provides valuable technical expertise, they do not own the execution of your business. Your annual planning sessions are designed to build deep team health, debate long-term strategy, and set organizational Rocks that your leadership team must personally execute. When you introduce external advisors into this room, the dynamic shifts from healthy, vulnerable debate to a series of technical presentations. This dilutes the accountability of your actual leadership team. If you need specific financial projections or legal inputs to make strategic decisions during your annual, you must obtain that data from those advisors prior to the session. If a highly complex legal or financial issue arises during our IDS session, we can schedule a brief fifteen-minute phone call with your advisor to get clarity. However, they should not have a seat at the table. To build a self-sufficient company that is ready for a clean exit, your internal leadership team must own the strategy and the execution.

Category: Working With Tyler