Would you like to be on a corporate board? I’m here to tell you that you can. I’ve been on the Luby’s/Fuddrucker’s board since 2003, and it has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I started from some pretty humble beginnings, and I’m guessing I had a few naysayers out there who thought such a thing was out of the realm of possibility. Thankfully, they were wrong.
So, if a board seat is a goal for you, it’s never too early to prepare. In fact, the earlier in your career you begin, the better.
In interviewing scores of sitting board directors, I invariably asked each of them “How did you get your first corporate board seat?” In tallying their answers this common formula emerged:
Passionate Expertise + Fearless Work + Visibility + Recognition = Opportunity
Many directors identified their passions—that is, what energized them—early in their careers and what they were really, really good at doing. Then they persisted in fearlessly doing their work in visible places over many years, even decades. In time, they became branded by their skills and were recognized for their achievements.
In turn, boards were attracted to their achievements and invited them in.
The same can happen for you! Start today to ready yourself for a board seat by developing your talents and experiences that get you to “yes” for each of these vitally important questions:
Do you have unique experience, key expertise and/or valuable contacts to bring to the table?
A board recruiter posted a board query on a women’s professional board director site and Melanie Barstad responded. The Cintas board was looking for a female candidate with public company CEO experience. Prior to retiring from Johnson & Johnson, Melanie had served at the executive level as a member of several J&J operating companies’ management boards. While she had not held the CEO title, the fit was close, so she contacted the recruiter.
The recruiter was a bit doubtful, but she sent Melanie’s credentials forward anyway. Melanie’s instincts proved right. Several factors gave Melanie an advantage: Cintas was a family-owned business that went public and had big growth aspirations. Melanie had a long track record at J&J helping the former family-owned firm do exactly that. Cintas wanted to grow its healthcare industry uniform business. Melanie had extensive healthcare sector experience. After careful vetting by the board (and her careful vetting of Cintas in return), Melanie received and accepted Cintas’s invitation to join the board.
“The lesson,” says Melanie, “is that sometimes a board doesn’t know what it needs until they see it.”
Are you financially literate?
Financial acuity is an essential proficiency in a board director. I interviewed a male board member who was in financial sales with a mutual fund company and explicitly asked to be moved to finance to learn the intricacies of balance sheets and income statements and all of the background data that preparing those documents involved. He eventually headed up the finance function at the mutual fund and reported to the CEO. With that reporting credential in hand, he became a much sought-out corporate board candidate and eventually joined several boards.
Do you truly have the time/desire to serve?
Saying “yes” to a seat can carry a commitment of five to ten years. In fact, it’s not unusual to serve for ten years or more. This includes attending, on average, six to eight meetings a year (and the travel time to and from those meetings), serving on at least one committee, and being “on call” when unexpected issues arise. The sheer number of small-cap and micro-cap companies weighs in the favor of anyone seeking a seat at the corporate board table. Given the thin capitalizations and pervasive risks that can face many small-cap and micro-cap public companies, their boards are often more “hands-on,” providing constant oversight. As a result, directors can be called upon very short notice. Be honest with yourself. Given these facts, do you truly have the time to serve?
Closely tied to time is money. Is compensation a secondary motive for you in seeking corporate board service? If to any degree you are driven by money to seek a seat on a corporate board, think again. There are probably far easier ways to earn it. Board service should ideally happen when you are financially stable and do not “need” the fees or stock.
Do you think like an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneurial spirit has guided Susan Wojcickl, now CEO of YouTube, from the start. She rented Larry Page and Sergey Brin three rooms in her garage in September 1998, the same month they incorporated Google. A year later the co-founders hired her to launch Google’s fledging advertising business. Wojcickl, who has five children with her husband, also a Google executive, typically makes it home for dinner. She shares that it’s about “prioritization and identifying the most important things to get done.” …. “I also keep reminding people that success is not based on the number of hours you’ve worked…..if you are working 24/7, you’re not going to have any interesting ideas.
Do you like to dig deep for insight?
A board director I interviewed had served as president and CEO of a large investment management firm with more than $200 billion of assets under management. Her oversight included sales, product development, portfolio management, operations, finance, and technology. She reported to an independent board of directors. Before moving to that top position, she held senior vice president/ controller positions in banking. She had purposely sought out the opportunity to move from a singular financial expertise as SVP to a top executive position. She saw the new position as the sure way to broaden her skill set and marketability. This broadening dramatically increased her attractiveness as a board candidate and was key to helping her earn her first public board seat.
Think about all of this and next time, in part two, we’ll ask some more questions and share some insights and stories for each.
Next time, part two.
Stay encouraged.
