“How can I get appointed to a board?” It is a question we are asked frequently by up-and-coming, high-performing professional men and women and just as often by established, long-tenured leaders and chief executives who view an appointment to a corporate board of directors as the pinnacle, defining achievement of their careers.
Getting the call to the boardroom is a testament to a successful career. It is a special recognition of hard work, experience, and expertise, and one typically reserved for individuals who have conducted themselves as consummate professionals while building their credentials — and, just as important, their peer relationships and professional networks.
While many highly accomplished men and women hope and expect to get that call to the boardroom some day, the truth is that few are asked to serve organizations in such a critical governance role. Unless you have the wide name recognition of a former secretary of state, cabinet secretary, or U.S. senator, or you have celebrity status as a high-profile chief executive officer, you're not going to be openly solicited for board service.
For most people without household name appeal, the pathway is clear — we have to earn it. There simply is no big “easy” button to push for appointment to the boardroom. It is for this reason we committed to put together this roadmap for getting to the board appointment you want and which you may also deserve.
Starting qualifiers
So what separates those who actually get appointed from all those who would simply like to get appointed? These factors are particularly important qualifiers for securing a board appointment:
1. Your reputation, experience, and credentials for a board appointment.
2. The expert knowledge and insight you bring and how it will extend and deepen board competency in the right areas, at the right time.
3. The networking relationships and advocates you can engage to rise above other successful leaders.
4. The clarity, consistency, and conviction of your own efforts to engage with influential people.
So how do you get on a board?
The answer is, a lifetime of hard work creates what, more now than ever before, represents only an opportunity to do more hard work in today's corporate boardroom under an intensifying glare of public opinion, shareholder advocates, activists, lawyers, labor unions, the media, and more. But to get there, you have to have a plan and stick with it. Of course, luck also factors into the board appointment equation. Be at the right place, at the right time, with the right people. You can control two of those variables. As for timing, well, let us just say we hope luck is on your side.
It is hard to serve a need until you understand that need. In order to get to the boardroom, you must understand what boards want, what they need, and what is motivating their directors to seek new competencies that will improve governance and, in some cases, cover their rear ends if something goes wrong. As has been the case for decades, today's boards of directors do not want to be taken by surprise or be caught unaware.
To get yourself appointed to the boardroom these days, you have to bring both the “who” and the “what” factors directors believe they need to add to their boards.
The ‘who' boards need
Today's boards are looking for globally experienced business executives. They are looking for big thinkers who can implement ideas. They want successful women and other accomplished professionals who would add racial, cultural, and ethnic diversity to their boards, in part to reflect greater connectivity to globalizing consumer groups. Progressive boards now seek successful individuals from all fields — from business to law and politics and from academia, science, and public service. They want innovators and boundary spanners. They want people who are wise enough to think for themselves and bold enough to stand up for what they believe.
Just as every diamond is a lump of coal that “did well under pressure,” a good board director brings well-developed soft skills, hard skills, people skills, and exemplary behaviors and actions born in the crucible of organizational challenge and healthy conflict. Among the attributes boards seek and find highly desirable, executive coach Kevin Arvin adds, is leadership courage — characterized by a balance between high candor and high respect. Individuals who feel an obligation to bring a different perspective to the board, who understand that it is not how well you “sing in unison” with the board, but how often you add a unique voice, can serve a critical role in advancing the board's effectiveness.
Boards want people willing to stand firm, if necessary, when it comes to principle. Yet they also want men and women who understand that negotiation, compromise, and straight talk and candor might land them in the minority of directors on a certain issue, but that it is important to engage gracefully and unify quickly for the sake of the bigger picture.
Also in high demand are individuals who have demonstrated sound business judgment and who bring a solid reputation. Boards want men and women of integrity and character. They want people who are dignified and true. They want directors with a confident, inquiring, but likeable demeanor.
They require leaders who are honest, straightforward, highly informed, and deeply engaged. They need individuals who want to serve for the right reasons — a purpose that transcends their own needs and, rather, puts the focus on what is truly good and sustainable for the enterprise, no matter the industry, region, or brand.
If it sounds as if we are describing someone who is almost too good to be true, that is correct. Boards want — and need — men and women of uncommon ability and experience for a uniquely individual challenge. Yes, discerning directors want the moon and the stars when it comes to picking one of their own. After all, they understand the power and influence that will be bestowed on the next director and want to work with a peer of the highest order.
That is why the boardroom is rarified air. Some of the most important things that happen to companies and to leaders at every level of the organization have their genesis in the boardroom. The search for the best board directors is, in part, a search for the true potential of the organization and what it can deliver to its shareholders, be they stockholders, employees and their families, vendors and suppliers, and, of course, customers and business partners. It is only natural that the boardroom be reserved for men and women of distinction who by their words and deeds qualify uniquely to serve the best interests of these greater and far wider constituents.
The ‘what' boards need
If you have the right stuff to check a board's “Who” sniff test, as we have outlined above, it is time to take a serious look at the “What” you would bring to the table. The “What” is the board's answer to all the new pressures it may be facing.
Is your chief executive officer really worth all that he or she is being paid? What do you make of the latest cybersecurity breach at your competitor and what are you doing about it? Is this corporate strategy the right one to beat low-cost market disrupters? Why isn't the company committed to higher dividends? Why aren't there more women and minorities in the executive leadership of the enterprise? And shouldn't the roles of chair and CEO be split?
These are just some of the new and emerging questions that are keeping board directors awake at night. That is, aside from all the reading material they must now pore over in advance of every single meeting of the board if they are to avoid being blindsided, jailed (for financial impropriety on their watch), or looking unprepared. It is for these reasons that boards are spending more time than ever before on assessing their own strengths and weaknesses via a board evaluation. Serious boards are taking stock of their composition and what they know. Just as important, they are identifying serious gaps in knowledge, skills, and structure and how filling those gaps can be addressed via the addition of a new crop of board directors.
To say there is more scrutiny on board director nomination and succession today would be an understatement. There is more pressure to get director selection decisions right, and the best path to that end is to understand what the board lacks, what it needs, and how it can be improved. Today, boards of every variety (corporate, charitable, advisory, academic, and community) want people who bring that certain “What” factor that is something unique to offer in terms of adding to the board's overall competency and functionality.
Pathways that can work
Experience tells us there are actually several pathways to secure a board appointment. The following pathways and actionable goals to qualify for the boardroom might just give you the “What” you need to stand out from the crowd of others who would themselves like to serve as a board director:
⢠Be a success story. Successful people from all walks of life have what it takes not only to be appointed to a board but also to serve as exceptionally effective directors. To be a success, you must be successful at making a commitment to something you really believe in and giving it all you have to make it work. Some of the best known and highest performing companies on earth learned long ago that enabling successful people to recruit other successful people into the organization creates its own multiplier effect. Successful people want to be surrounded by other people who are successful.
⢠Start your own company. Become a successful entrepreneur. Starting your own business takes courage and guts. It requires vision and boldness. It demands focus and discipline and flexibility in ways that other life opportunities do not. It can be all consuming, so be careful.
But most of all, be confident and be yourself. As you plant the seeds of your own business and become a successful entrepreneur, do so knowing that you will be building a very attractive building block for service on a board of directors. If you've already built a successful business, you may already know the key lessons that another company would welcome as new insight to go farther, go faster, and go beyond. Successful entrepreneurs often make fantastic board directors — that is, if they have their head screwed on correctly. An entrepreneur who can learn to be a collaborator and a team player can bring real-world experience and expertise to boards that really need it.
⢠Be an investor. Hitch your wagon to a promising start-up company. Get in on the ground floor. Put your money behind your enthusiasm about a new company's innovative product or service. Attend and participate in shareholder meetings. If you can help conceptualize a company, commercialize its idea(s), and put your money where your mouth is, your standing as an investor will indeed move others to take notice and provide a platform to leverage your financial influence. Enough said.
⢠Increase the diversity of a board. Women leaders and leaders from underrepresented racial, cultural, and ethnic minority groups — particularly those with a track record of success in business enterprise — have not received enough consideration for paid, public company board seats. Things are beginning to change, but not nearly fast enough because the board nominating process remains handicapped by insular thinking. Boards simply are not pushing themselves, their nominating committees, and corporate heads of human resources with the right questions, the right recruiting partners, and fresh perspectives. If you are a woman or bring a diversity profile and you do get called to serve in the boardroom, make sure that you have more to add to the board's discussion than your own personal advocacy for getting more people on the board like you. You have to build credibility with your peers on a variety of issues, not just the challenge of making boardrooms more diverse. Serve with distinction, first and foremost. Let others notice your exceptional contributions to the board above all else, and maybe then your board peers will realize that not every director hails from the same background and that there is real value in a diversity of experience, perspective, and life history on the board.
⢠Demonstrate you know more about the company's industry, markets, customers, competitors, and supply chain. If you can convince a board of directors that it's missing the boat, pursuing a flawed strategy, or otherwise missing a big opportunity, you might just garner the attention you would need to convince its members that you would be right for their board.
Fill an important gap in the current board's vision of vital market, competitor, regulatory, and/or consumer indicators, and you will immediately differentiate yourself from all the other would-be board directors who might try to engage on their respective “Who” qualifications alone.
⢠Volunteer for a charitable organization's board of directors. Volunteer your time, talent, and treasure to a charitable board or some other mission-driven entity to gain valuable experience and to increase and diversify your professional network relationships. Many not-for-profit boards could gain considerably from your service and perspective and offer you the fulfillment that comes from helping others and giving back. Many of these boards are comprised of highly successful, widely interconnected individuals from a variety of backgrounds. You might be surprised by just how well connected they are. Rest assured, they will take notice of anyone who shows real commitment to the kinds of “hands-on” work these appointments require. Your success as a key contributor to the health of these organizations can really get you noticed. Often, you will find that outstanding service to one not-for-profit board begets appointments to other boards. Just be careful not to overcommit.
⢠Build a reputation as an effective fundraiser. This can go hand-in-hand with service to a charitable organization's board. If you're gifted at demonstrating a compelling need and making “the big ask,” even in political or academic circles, you will win the support of a wide variety of people. After all, without a budget and your work as a fundraiser, the organization or campaign you care so deeply about and have chosen to serve likely would not be able to fulfill its mission. Of course, you'll be a far more credible fundraiser if you yourself have been as generous as you can be.
You have to earn it
Remember, you have to earn your right to enter the board of directors' conversation. You must have a plan and act on that plan because board appointments are not going to fall magically out of the sky and land on your lap. You are going to have to work for it if this is what you really want. You are going to have to set your sights on it and go after it.
You may be setting yourself up nicely for an appointment if you can bring significant “Who” and “What” qualifications to a board of directors (see main text). But experience proves that it is simply not going to happen without a consistent, multipoint effort to make others aware of those qualifications and your interest in applying all you would bring to a board. The truth is you are not going to get a board appointment unless sitting board directors believe you have earned it and unless they are convinced you are going to make them look good by bringing something of real value to their team. They cannot reach those conclusions without some help.
That is why it is so important not only to have the credibility for a board role, but also a concerted action plan that inserts you and your reputation in just the right conversations. You have to be positioned effectively as an exceptional “get” for the board. You have to convey — or have others do it for you — some level of interest in at least exploring the possibility of joining the board. And you have to be prepared to present yourself — and your experience — in the best possible ways. The following tactics will help you get there:
⢠Networking. It should almost go without saying that no matter how well known you are and how much your accomplishments are appreciated by others, it pays to continue expanding your professional and personal networks. A range of business networking websites makes that easier today than ever before. It is up to you to market yourself or have others very selectively do it for you.
Caution: There is a very fine line between making your interest in a board appointment known to others and being perceived as selling or promoting yourself in a way that will be a turnoff to the very people you would try to influence. This is particularly true for “network” connections you don't know well or whom you've never met personally. Remember, at the most senior levels, board directors want to choose you. You will not sell directly to them. Let your closest peers and friends know that you would be willing to consider a board appointment. Tell them why and what you would add to a board. If they see it and understand it, with your approval they will let others know and before you know it the word-of-mouth may just lead to your getting the call you have been waiting for.
⢠Engage an executive search or board search firm. If you have truly been successful in business or some other walk of life, it is likely you have already built relationships with executive search firms that occasionally recruit for their clients' boards. If you have not, do some research and figure out who knows executive search firms and can make a personal introduction of you, since most retained executive search firms will not acknowledge you if you come knocking on your own. This is truly one of those “Don't call us, we'll call you” situations that reflects the power of who you know or who you can get to and whose support you can enlist.
If you have been named to a corporate board or a high-profile not-for-profit, you will find it is easier to get named to another board because you are seen as a known commodity. Once a search firm views you as a marketable asset, it will market your experience — and your board experience — as never before because you are perceived as a safe bet.
⢠Leverage or develop relationships with high-power people who can lobby for you. Who do you know who might make an introduction for you? Who could give you a great recommendation as a business partner, a colleague, a consultant, or a savvy business expert? One of the best ways to curry favor with board directors is to get to know them, get to know what makes them tick, and find areas of common interest with them. If you can engage personally with sitting board members, that is great. If you cannot at present, map out who knows them and how you might get introduced and acquainted.
⢠Build a boardroom portfolio. One of the best ways to lobby for your own appointment to a board is to build a portfolio of background information that can quickly get others up to speed on your experience, education, accomplishments, and what you have to offer. Build a convincing and compelling boardroom portfolio of your experience, qualifications, and expertise that explains why you would make an outstanding board director. Develop a plan and let your boardroom portfolio outline reasons for others to market you as a great director candidate. If you don't make others aware of your interest in a board appointment, no one will do that for you. You have to go after it if you really want it. A boardroom portfolio can speak volumes for you and can be conveniently passed around by members of a board.