Do you really want a Board Directorship?

Board Directorship?

If you are considering becoming a Non-Executive Director, it is of vital importance that you understand the risks, rewards, commitments associated with holding board directorships, along with your suitability. You probably would not be reading this if you had already made the decision. You need to determine if the rewards of a board directorship outweigh the risks and that you are suited to becoming a non-executive director. Some reflective questions will help you make this decision.

Why do you want a board role?

Any Chair or nominations committee is going to be intimately interested in why you want a board role or another board role.

It was not long ago that I conducted a counselling session with a highly-experienced woman with tons of Government, Commercial Change, IT and strategic experience. At the time, she was advising SMEs and C-Suites on how to commercialise new products and break into new markets. She was passionate about doing this and very good at it. She brought a wealth of contacts, good quality clients and personal executive experience – she was also well respected as a consultant and very intelligent.

Her goal was to develop a board portfolio – she told me so. We spent a good 30 minutes together with her explaining what she did – particularly her experience and passion for strategic work around change and product development and working with boards. However, she could not explain why she wanted to sit on a board, other than being capable. I asked her again why she wanted to sit on a board, she would be doing what she already does and being paid well for?

In this situation, she had misread the role of a board director and had not properly assessed her own working style. In fact, she was an autonomous decision-maker who, as a consultant, was tasked to make things happen.

Who are you and how do you operate? 

Are you an autonomous decision-maker? Are you used to making things happen and getting frustrated when you have to get others on board first? Be critical. Board work can be frustrating for those who need to get their fingers into the operational detail of an organisation. Having settled that in your mind, you should ask yourself whether you have the capacity to look at the macro issues and risks facing an organisation. This can be more difficult than it might initially seem.

To begin with, you must have a certain character to be an effective board member; you must not be afraid to provide an opinion. One of the main reasons you will be appointed to a board is because of your different perspective. However, it is of no value at all if no one hears it; you must have enough confidence to deliver your opinion in front of others.

Equally important is the way that you deliver this opinion. A board is a fragile ecosystem and relies upon clear and appropriate communication. The Chair should manage this, but it is reliant upon the directors themselves to understand that an autonomous approach to making decisions and providing opinions is not appropriate and can devastate the effectiveness of a board.

What sort of board role is right for you?

These are useful questions to ask yourself during your search for a board directorship. There is no easy answer to these questions, although it is one that I am asked often by aspiring board directors.

Take a moment to answer this – be critical and don’t just answer with the name of an organisation you like. Instead, name the organisation or industry you think you can be appointed to and state WHY. You need to be realistic here!

Let me give you an example of why managing your expectations is so important. I recently counselled a client who had run a significant sized family-owned food manufacturing business and wanted to sit on the board of a major food retailer. He had no prior board experience and few connections in this space. He was also used to doing things his way and making autonomous decisions. The sum of it was that he was never going to be appointed a board – despite some evidence that he was good at what he did and knew the business. The problem was not the aspiration itself – it is good to be ambitious – but rather that he was unwilling to be moved on which board he was likely to get appointed to.

His inability to manage his expectations had two negative impacts:

  1. He became disgruntled with his search very quickly. He believed that he was right and all the boards rejecting him were missing out.
  2. Worse still, his reputation suffered immensely. Prospective recruiting organisations, colleagues and search firms recognised quickly that he was too arrogant to sit on their, or any, board. This translated him being seen as a reputational risk for recruiters or connections who would otherwise recommend him to others.

Once you have clearly dealt with the top 2 questions move onto these:

This set of questions will help you begin to define what type of roles you roles, organisations and industries you should be focusing your attention on.

  1. How much/do you need to get paid?
  2. Do you have past board experience?
  3. What is your skillset?
  4. Where do you live?
  5. How valuable are your contacts and to whom?
  6. What are your timings?
  7. What are your passions?
  8. What time do you have to spend on board work?
  9. How much preparation are you willing to do?

The cumulative response to these questions will guide you in your decision making about what sort of board role is appropriate for you. Further, they will provide some structure to help you eliminate perceived opportunities that may never pay off and reduce your journey to a board directorship to a tried but failed experience.

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