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Pathway To The Boardroom with Joe Pollard & Debra Singh
Michelle Gardiner • April 10, 2024
Derwent welcomed more than 100 aspiring board members and guests to our Pathway to the Boardroom series with experienced Directors Joe Pollard and Debra Singh.
Despite taking different pathways to secure their first board roles, both speakers emphasised the importance of building out executive experience and breadth before marking the transition to non-executive positions. There was also an emphasis on staying connected to the people who will keep you across the right board opportunities, which can be vastly different to executive networks.
In exploring the journey to the boardroom, Joe and Debra uncovered some key tips and tricks including: understanding your passions and value add; a board career is not a part-time role; getting comfortable with rejection; and learning the art of the good question.
Understanding your passions and value add:
- It’s important to find clarity in where you can add value, and what your experience is. Then consider target companies of interest that are aligned to those skills.
- Prioritise the things you are passionate about, as the subject matter will be more intuitive to you.
- When looking at board roles, you have to sell yourself more and establish your own value proposition and what you will specifically bring to the board table.
Being a Board Director is not a part-time role:
- It is important to be across the detail as a Director; you can’t govern a business if you don’t understand it.
- There is still a significant and important time commitment associated with a board role. There will be times when you are in the trenches alongside other board members and executives.
- You may need to upskill yourself beyond your existing expertise in order to ask the right questions and provide the right governance.
- Invest time up front when considering if a potential board role is right for you. Spend as much time as you can with the business to get a true sense of the culture. Getting to know the chair and fellow board members will also enable you to build trust, respect, and foster constructive debate.
- Face-to-face time is important.
Be comfortable with rejection:
- Get used to rejection. There is a lot of competition for board roles, and vast ranges of experiences and skill sets.
- You need to be able to bounce back from rejection, it’s a reflection of what the board needs at a specific point in time and not always a reflection of the candidate.
- Don’t waste a rejection, it’s okay to seek feedback from a board that did not appoint you.
- It can take time to get on a board, someone needs to take a risk on appointing you. ASX and public sector boards are typically the most conservative in their appointments.
The art of asking a good question:
- Learning how to be a good Director is fundamentally different to an executive job. The art of asking a good question is extremely important so that you can govern and steer, rather than just bringing the right answer.
- There’s a skill to be learned from reviewing the papers and asking the right questions. Read the board papers thoroughly and ensure you have adequate information for decisions.
- Explore the non-technical areas – is this a team you can build trust and respect with? Ensure the board has similar values and moral compass to you.
- Have the courage to also reject the boards that aren’t right for you too.
- New directors can bring a fresh perspective, new dynamic, and prompt different thinking and questions.
- Learn the art of a good question and the difference between what questions to ask, what questions not to ask in a board meeting, and what questions to take off-line.
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Derwent are delighted to have hosted over 100 attendees at our Pathway to the Boardroom event in Sydney this week, with guest speakers Inese Kingsmill and Robyn Stubbs . This ongoing series is designed to provide tips and perspectives to aspiring board members as they explore opportunities beyond their executive careers. Inese and Robyn shared their insights on how to plan for a board career; how to effectively develop and position your personal brand and expertise; and tips for identifying and assessing different board opportunities. Highlights of the discussion included: Gaining exposure to boards during an executive career provides professional development and foundational board experience to point to. Establish your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – t here are unique skills, expertise and attributes that are personal to you, including adjacent experience applicable in other settings (such as regulated settings, customer, transformation, technology). You may be ‘pigeon holed’ throughout your executive career, so it’s important to further develop functional and industry experience in a variety of settings which can help to open up greater board opportunities. Finding board opportunities – there are a myriad of different channels including networking, board search recruiters, consulting engagements, industry associations, LinkedIn, personal connections. Develop a target list and do some initial research, but don’t boil the ocean. Due diligence is key to finding the right board, including research into growth opportunities, competitors, financial positioning, and skills gaps on interesting boards. Future fit boards and diversity including age, functional expertise and different styles around the boardroom table are increasingly valued. Keep an open mind to different opportunities in private, listed and NFP settings, focusing on where there is space for you to learn and contribute your skills. Not for Profits, Industry Associations and other Community Boards are helpful starting points, developing experience working directly with Board Members. This exposure can help to better understand board dynamics, governance responsibilities, the rhythm of board meetings, and how to effectively work ‘on the business’, not ‘in the business’. Continuous learning – with rapidly evolving macro environments, continuous learning, particularly in relation to emerging technology, will be crucial to staying ahead of the skills that boards will require in the future.
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