Webinar: You new board director journey - Where do you start

The journey to the Boardroom is a strategic roadmap, not a game of chance; by starting on the right foot and mastering the specific steps Boards expect, you can navigate your path further and faster.

Stop guessing your way to the Boardroom. Learn the essential steps to start your Director journey on the right foot and move further, faster toward your first appointment.

The path to your first board role often feels like a maze that you’re trying to navigate in the dark, but it doesn't have to be. This webinar provides the clear roadmap you need to navigate the journey to the Boardroom with confidence. We will break down the specific steps required to move further, faster, while revealing exactly what Boards are searching for in candidates today. Join us to ensure you're starting on the right foot and building a journey that leads you directly to the Boardroom table

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

So, hi everybody, welcome to our Governance Made Easy webinar today, titled Your New Board Director Journey Where Do You Start? Today we are having a discussion with our special guest, Lisa Cook, Managing Director of Get On Board Australia, Simon Telford from A Point Better Boards in New Zealand, and Phoebe Kitto from HR Dynamics in Australia. My name is Sean McDonald, and I shall be your moderator in the background for the next 40 odd minutes. Firstly, though, thanks for attending today. We always appreciate the effort you make to be here for our live webinar events. During the session, if you have any questions for our team, please try and use the QA button on your toolbar. It just enables us to keep a track of the questions as they're coming through, and we'll be answering these as we go through the webinar. And finally, if you stay through till the end, which of course we hope you will do, we have a really short one-minute survey at the end of the webinar for you to consider. Your feedback helps us bring relevant content to you week after week and enables us to position the wealth of our expert presenters for you week after week as well. So please take a minute to complete the survey as you exit the webinar. Now, for those not too familiar with Board Pro, we are a board software provider, sometimes called a board portal. We serve just over 35,000 users, about 4,000 boards, and about 8,000 committees around the world, would you believe? We enable organizations to prepare for and run their board meetings more efficiently and effectively, with less time and deliver more impact and value for the organization, all through the power and simplicity of our great software here at BoardPro. And as much as we are a board software provider, part of our wider mission here is to make the fundamentals of governance free and easy to implement for all organizations, but especially those organizations with resource constraints. And one of the many ways we do this is by providing free access to hundreds of governance templates, guides, and resources, which you'll find, funnily enough, in the resources section of our website. And these webinars that we host every week are a great way of accessing key governance knowledge without the time, commitment, and costs associated with in-person events. So for the next 40 odd minutes, just relax, uh listen, and add to the discussion by asking as many questions as you would like. A full recording of the webinar along with the slide deck and other resources will be sent to you 24 hours after our session today. So let's get into it. Let me have the team introduce themselves, starting with you first, Lisa.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

Thanks, Sean. Hi, everyone, Kiora and Geday. My name is Lisa Cook from Get On Board Australia, and I support aspiring board members to find their first, next, or paid board roles. And I've been doing that for about 12 years through Get On Board Australia. Over to you, Simon.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Kiora Farno, thanks for joining us. I run Appoint Better Boards, which is a community of about 27,000 people, mostly in Aotearoa New Zealand, but some in Australia as well. We've uh advertised over 3,500 board roles and helped about 1,700 people uh get into their uh next directorship or trusteeship. Personally, I also do board recruitment and have placed about 230 directors uh directly into mostly privately owned businesses, but some other uh not-for-profit uh NGOs as well. Thank you, Phoebe.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Cura, hello everyone. I am a New Zealander who's been living in Australia for over 20 years now. Um, I am the director of HR Dynamics and also a board member myself. Uh so I'm often working with boards uh to assist them with HR matters uh and uh ensuring that the board is performing their duties as a board uh to the organization and to the staff. So really excited to be part of this today. Thank you. Over to you, Lisa.

SPEAKER_03 4:12

Thank you, Sean. Thank you, everyone. Simon, Phoebe, great to have you joining me today and adding some extra dimension and perspective to our conversation today. What you can see on the screen is exactly what we're going to be covering today and giving you some fantastic practical takeaways that you can go and implement into your board career, into your board search strategy, which is to me the process and the approach that you take for finding your first, next, or paid board role. So we'll step through each of these sections today and get that really quick and high-level understanding of some considerations and practical practical tools that you can implement into your board search strategy, Sean. So let's roll on. And of course, invite my esteemed panel members to jump in when they have some flavor to add. Otherwise, I could steamroll through this to make sure we cover everything. And of course, uh asking your questions in the Q ⁇ A. Uh, we have Simon looking after that today, thankfully. So he will uh be sure to interrupt me when we have a question that I need to respond to. Um, but let's start at the beginning. The critical first steps when launching or even progressing your board career. The first thing that I always recommend when starting out on your board journey or looking for your next board role is to really know what you're getting into. What is it that I'm stepping into? Boards often sound like something cool to do. They sound really interesting, they may look a little bit fancy from the outside. You may consider them as a revenue stream for you. Um, but there's a lot of risk and accountability and responsibility that comes with sitting on a board. And so the first step is really to know what you're getting into, to know if that's something you want to get into yourself. So, how do we do this? There's plenty of easy to access, often low or no cost sources of information where you can get an understanding of what it is to be a board member on a board. Board Pro is one of them, but there's also many reputable organizations and institutes around in Australia and in New Zealand where you can get that easy understanding of what it is to be on a board. Simon, is there anywhere that you normally point people to to build their understanding of really what it is they're getting into when searching for a board?

SPEAKER_01 6:59

A lot of it is uh ex-colleagues or friends or family friends that are in the governance world at the moment and just sort of, you know, these conversations and chats with them, you know, how's their portfolio developed over time, what they find is a challenge, why did they get into it? Uh, is it different than they first imagined? So I think that there's the online content, but there's also just having that correct role conversation with others that are uh practicing directorships and trusteeships on a day-to-day basis.

SPEAKER_03 7:25

Fantastic. And Phoebe, what are some of the things that people need to consider as they're looking at getting onto a board or even onto bigger organization boards? You'll have to unmute.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Oh, there we go. Um, I think one of the most important things is to have a realistic understanding of what the time expectation is going to be. Um, so some boards are a lot more consuming of time than others. Um, my recommendation is that you talk to some of the other board members. Um, and you want to know the positives about being on a board, but you also need to understand what's under some of those rocks, some of the challenges that they've got, are they going through a challenging or um a challenging period that's going to be a bit more time consuming for you? Uh, so that's really good to understand what the expectations are from you coming into that board.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

Yeah, fantastic suggestion there from both Simon and Phoebe. And when you start to build your understanding of what it is that you're getting into and what you're comfortable getting into yourself, not just from a risk and reward perspective, but from that time and really what you can realistically commit to is going to help you to determine where you're going. Where am I going on this board journey? I'm looking to join a board, how I get there. To me, I call that your board journey. And it helps to sort of start with the end in mind, have a realistic destination. And that realistic destination is about where you could serve the best, given a whole range of things. One is that consideration around risk and reward and time, but also what it is that you're bringing to the table. And that bringing to the table brings us to point number three, which is understanding really what you have to offer a board. So I believe that there is a board for everyone. It's just about finding the right board for you at this point in time. And oh, we're jumping a bit further forward. I'm guessing that's going to tell me to move on my conversation today.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Lisa, let me just that that third point, which is the most crucial point, I think almost of the whole session today, is if if you as an individual can't communicate and can't think through the value add that you will bring to a board, then you can't expect that board to. And that is really that understanding. I often ask people, where do you l where would you lead a conversation around the board table? What would be your niche? What would be a differentiator for you? And that's what you then need to test and go, actually, this is where I feel like I'm going to, but is this going to land? Often people will say, look, it's and it does sound a little bit light and a little bit f aerie-fairy, and I think we just need to sort of sense that against someone who's actually bringing you on often for your sector experience or your deep functional skills. I'll know you get into this, but really have to have a clear understanding. If you're going into this not knowing that, you can't expect the board to engage you if you can't articulate it.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Can I just add to that as well, in that um there's not only I think you have to be prepared that you're going to have to step outside your scope as well. So, for example, I could be coming onto a board as an HR industrial relations specialist, but I can't be so narrow in my thinking to think that's all I need to be engaged in interest or all I can offer to the board. Because if I'm a board member, I also equally become responsibility for the financial, the governance, um, the other strategy side as well. Um, so you have to be in a mindset and a position that you know what I'm offering and am I prepared to take on, learn, and um add to participate on the board for some of these other areas as well.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

Absolutely. Thank you for considering that. And Simon, thank you for circling back and emphasizing the importance of understanding what it is that you have to offer a board for a really quick and easy sort of shopping list of the things you might want to consider. Think of your expertise, your work experience, your board experience if you have any, your lived experience, your network, money, either yours or access to others, and your passion, interest, and purpose all feed into what I call your unique board value proposition. So now let's look at our board journey on a bit of a roadmap. So when talked about setting your board goal, your destination, and we've just touched on the next step, which is articulating your unique board value proposition. And think of your board goal as the audience that matters most as you're going on your board journey. And Sean, if we can put up that next stop on our journey, is that board value proposition, which is the message that matters most. Together, I call this uh messaging or story that we put together here or narrative is your board story. And like Simon said, it needs to be compelling, it needs to be clear. And people who aren't you or from your industry need to be able to really easily comprehend what it is that you're offering and that value that you bring. The next stage on the journey really starts to look at building some aligned board brand assets, which can include things like your LinkedIn profile is normally what we often think here. But other online channels or other online uh profiles that we have could also fall into this, just expect people to do thorough due diligence on you. So, what are all of your online assets saying about you, but also what are all of your offline assets saying about you? The next step is to translate your board story into a strategic board resume. And your strategic board resume is a really handy tool, not just for um further refinement and tailoring to respond to advertisements, but something that can you can use as a tool on your board journey, particularly when you're having conversations with the right people at the right time about progressing your board ambitions. Uh so that brings us to the next stop on our journey, which is a strategic networking plan. And this is where everyone's probably feeling like, really, do I have to do this? But when the majority of board opportunities often come through a network, um, either someone's suggesting you or recommending you, or someone's approaching you directly for an opportunity may or may not be advertised. More often they're not advertised. Um, so this is really to emphasize that you can't just rely on the advertisements to find a broad opportunity, but you really do need to do a strategic networking plan.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

I I think sorry, Lisa, I think too, there's nothing wrong with putting it out there. I'm really interested in getting on a board in whatever industry or if there was something specific. Like you can let that be known in your networks, and it's important too.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

Absolutely, Phoebe. And that's what I I'm emphasizing when I'm saying have the conversations that matter with the people that matter. And it is around not just going to them and saying, I want to get on a board, you know, think of me when someone talks to you about boards, but to having them having a more compelling message around these are the kinds of boards I'm looking for. This is why. And by the way, here's my strategic board resume. Please feel free to share this as you see fit to really make those conversations work for you and to not waste those coffee catch-ups that you're having with people. And Julie, I know you're tuned in today. Julie Garland McClellan is a real advocate for not wasting those coffee meetings and conversation opportunities. So our next stop on the journey is around creating board opportunities. So there's other things that you can do that can help create board opportunities to sort of come your way. And one of those includes working with board recruiters or engaging with board recruiters like Simon. So, Simon, how does someone best come to you when they're looking for boards?

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Uh I learned very early in my career when I started doing board appointment work about uh 15, 20 years ago, that if I had a coffee with everybody that was looking for board roles, I would get nothing done and my family would have nothing to eat. Okay, so I've turned that into a service, Lisa, a little bit like you, that people engage me for a one-on-one session that helps give them confidence and uh envisaging where their board career will go. So I've turned that into a service, uh, I'll be honest. Uh for me, uh if someone applies for one of my roles, I suddenly in my network, I suppose, and I go, well, you're not quite right for this role, but I have it in mind. So I'm not saying scattergun, apply for roles, but the that is probably the one way where I build up the network is saying, well, if someone applied for this role, they weren't quite right next time. I get a a role comes along. So yeah, some recruiters may be a little bit different and they'll take the time to to to sort of meet and maybe have a coffee. That's not the the style and approach I take. I I look for those that have previously expressed interest in roles.

SPEAKER_03 16:48

Yeah, perfect. Thank you. Um recruiters out there that may be recruiting it for the boards that you want to get on to best know who those are. You have to come back to that beginning point and know where you're heading and whether that's realistic for you. This could also include joining board registers, approaching boards directly to register your interest in joining them, um, or signing up to alerts for advertisements. Or I know that there's uh organizations that do uh a paid-for service where they send you an email digest with board advertisements included. Again, you need to know if the boards you're going for are advertising and that's how they recruit, whether you assess that that sort of channel or avenue is valuable for that. Um you could do something simple and free, which is setting up alerts on LinkedIn. I'm not sure, Simon and Phoebe. Um Phoebe, you know a little bit about New Zealand, whether boards are advertising more on LinkedIn these days. I've kind of noticed an uptick here in Australia. So that is an avenue that's worth considering.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Yeah. So so in New Zealand, look, the main one is appoint better boards that I run. It's free to access, and there's probably about 30 roles at any one time. Institute of Directors, if you're a member, so there's already a barrier, you have to pay the six or seven hundred dollars to become a member for that. Seek is the other one where there is some board roles, and then LinkedIn, you tend to get amplification from the recruiters when they're actually, and and I would put something on LinkedIn saying, I'm recruiting this at the moment, go over to a point better board. So uh not-for-profits probably are advertising more, and there is uh places like Margaret has just said ethical jobs and theirs do good jobs, etc. So there's plenty out there. I will caveat it, and in the six or seven hundred one-on-ones I've done, I will always say there is probably an 80% chance that your next board role will come through a conversation, a relationship, or an introduction. So I don't want to hammer home the air cover around applying for roles. I've got roles at the moment, the last one I did that closed yesterday, paid role, 52 expressions of interest for one role. So you just have to understand that those remunerated roles with organizations that are got a high brand, uh high brand profile are really, really well sought after. Someone's got to get it, yes, but then there's been another 53 that wouldn't have been able to. So using that network of your influencers and hopefully getting a couple of people near you who are your champions. Champions are those that know you, have seen you around the executive table or the management table. They'll be able to advocate on your behalf, open up doors, and put their reputation on the line. That is the balance that you need to leverage that influencer network and a couple of champions.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

Yes, thank you, Simon. Could not have said it better myself. And you're far more eloquent than I am. Our next step on the board journey does involve closing out that board journey. So applying for those board opportunities. And Simon's just highlighted to us how competitive the marketplace actually is. So again, to Simon's earlier point, which is what I emphasize a lot to the clients I work with, it is on you. It is your responsibility to be able to paint a clear and compelling picture to whoever it is that's receiving your application about the value and potential that you're bringing to this particular board. So no one's going to figure that out for you. You have to go and do the thinking and do the work and do the research around how do you best position yourself in this competitive marketplace for the boards you want to get on. To close out your board journey, hopefully you've then got through to the interview. So we're preparing for the interview, and then you get into that boardroom, you go through that induction process, you maintain that open, always learning mind that Phoebe was talking about, so that you can start to deliver value faster to that boardroom once you get in there. Let's progress forward, Sean, to make sure we cover everything in time. Let's now consider board expectations when evaluating and selecting new candidates, which we've kind of talked on a little bit. But from what I've noticed in my 12 plus years doing this, primarily boards are going to bring in someone who's filling or meeting a skills gap or a skills requirement that that board has assessed is important for them at this point in time. And what they want to see then is your proven expertise through things like your resume, through conversations that they have with you in an interview, if you get to that point. And this is through demonstrating the business strategic and financial related outcomes that you've achieved with and through your professional expertise, whatever that is. And I often encourage people to think of themselves as a candidate with substance. And this is not just about holding a qualification or a credential, which a lot of people think that if I just had a credential or if I just had a particular qualification, then I'm going into the boardroom, then I'll be. Someone who is seen as potentially valuable. But it's about more than that. It is about showing how you've used your expertise for positive outcomes for an organization. And included in that is your reputation and credibility. So that's really important to for boards to know that they're bringing someone in who has a proven track record that is actually positive and won't bring any disrepute potentially to that group, to the board, to the organization. They want someone who is committed, committed to attending the board meetings, committed to doing sufficient and adequate preparation, committed to serving on subcommittees or committees, committed to doing whatever it is that board members need to do within the context of that board and organization. It's not just about getting a role so that you get an entry on your CV and leverage that for other opportunities. It really is a commitment that you should commit to at the barest minimum one full term, which is usually two or three years. But certainly if you have a three by three where it's three-year terms three times and you're maxing out your time, you see it that role unless something extreme happens that you're in it for that long haul. You also want to be conscious of a cultural alignment, which is why you need you to do your due diligence onto the org or into the organization to know that you do have that alignment, that your values match the values of the organization as well. And there may be then other sought-after attributes that this board wants at this particular time. And that could be around your sort of softer skills. So we start to think of um EQ as well as IQ together here. It could be lived experience. It could be any other attributes that you've picked up are important to that board. So Simon, Phoebe, are there any insights that you can give around board expectations?

SPEAKER_01 24:10

I'm going to throw that open to Phoebe and then I'm going to quickly run through some QA and answer some of those off. Phoebe, anything else you want to add to this slide?

SPEAKER_02 24:17

Uh no, look, I think one of the important things is when you're pitching yourself for that board, you know, you're you're operating at a strategic level. So, you know, I would be wanting to be able to see some demonstrated experiences working as a team at that strategic level. Um, I'm also wanting to be able to see someone who's willing to take some risks or calculate it or understanding what your ability to take risks. So if you're a person who doesn't like taking risks and you like to work in quite a conservative environment, I want to know that when I'm looking at it. Or if you're someone who's very, you know, very out there, wanting to get out there, tread new ground, then again I want to see that because, you know, the reality is that you should be matching your skills and what you're wanting to the board. Otherwise, there's going to be, if you go to a risk-adverse organization, whereas you're really wanting to progress, there's going to be some challenges that's going to be happening there. So I do think that is really important. You've got to understand yourself and what you want to provide and bring and participate on as a board. And then it's all about, as Lisa said, the ability to be able to clearly articulate that to the board who are looking at um selecting who they want to come on.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Well, I asked a question instead, uh, can I become a board member for similar organizations? I have aged care experience. And my answer would be uh, well, if there's a direct conflict of interest in your competitors, that would not be uh likely to happen. But your sector knowledge is one of the key things when I'm recruiting that I look for. Okay, it's either the functional skills or the sector experience, that is often the case. So if you have understanding of the uh the key industry players, the value chain, the industry dynamics, all that sort of stuff, it does put you uh in a good place to better come in, get up to speed, and start contributing and adding value to that board pretty quickly. A couple of other questions. Uh Deborah asked, around in a post-COVID world, are we going more back to in-person, local, uh, or you know, rather than online participation in board meetings? I think that's a fair comment to say. It'll be interesting with the current crisis that we're facing at the moment, where that will push back again. But there has certainly been uh over the next three last three or four years that that in-person attendance uh is is becoming more and more important. I I would suggest there around, you said about New Zealand, uh New Zealand is able to go for Australian role roles and vice versa. Look, the key thing, even when it's like I'm living in Adelaide, is someone gonna fly you to Brisbane? Is my skill set so unique, my value ad so good that they're gonna have to pay$1,200 a flight or whatever to get me up to a board meeting or not? I think that is the key determinant. Some cases, yes, because they do want someone that can bring the voice of South Australian customers or something like that. But otherwise they're gonna go and say, if someone's around the corner, why would I bring someone from Adelaide for that? Last question before we move on is Margaret asked uh Lisa, do you have a recommended resume template?

SPEAKER_03 27:18

I do. Uh I do have an article uh that goes section by section that I can certainly share with Sean so he can get that out in the resources that he emails after this.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Fantastic. Well, you can connect with Lisa on LinkedIn and ask her for that as well. It's a good way. So let's move on, uh Lisa, and I'll keep an eye on these QA. Thanks for everyone's great questions.

SPEAKER_03 27:40

Thanks, Simon, and well answered. Uh so next consideration, we want to think of some high impact actions that lead directly to a successful board appointment. So there's probably a lot of stuff that you can do that will keep you busy, feeling like you're working towards getting that board appointment. But I've there's a few things here that I've noticed that people tend to avoid uh in in place of what actually works. So they spend a lot of busy work doing things like trawling websites, looking for advertisements. But as Simon said, most of those opportunities are going to come through having the right conversations with the right people at the right time. And we've touched on what those right conversations are, talking about your board ambitions in a more specific way, not just saying, I want to get onto a board. Can you just keep me in mind if you hear of anything and they've already forgotten you? Um, who are the right people? Well, if you know where you're going or where you'd like to go, you can reverse engineer that and nearly map out who are the right people, who might be connected with who I need to be connected with, or who's had this experience, or who are on these boards that I'm interested in getting onto as well. And those could be some of the right people. A board search specialist might be the right person. It could be a mentor that you have, or one of your colleagues, or someone you've worked with in the past. Really, that right person is someone that you can see is valuable to you on that journey to the boardroom. And of course, doing that in a professional way, you're not just there to get something, you also offer to give something and help them as well in the right way at the right time. And what's at the right time, it's on that board journey. You'll know when that is. It's um when you've got that time and energy that you're putting behind your board ambitions. And that's got me thinking a quick rule of thumb is that if you don't have time to find a board role, I'm going to wonder whether you have time to serve on a board and to do that well and fully. So that's something to keep in mind. The second thing is really to fish where the fish are. I said you could do a lot of busy work. You can feel that networking is all about going to events and throwing your business card everywhere. That's not how I see that. That could be helpful from time to time. But really, where are the people who you need to know and have the conversations with? Where are they hanging out? How can you get introduced to them? How can you put yourself in that proximity so that you're having the right conversations with the right people? And lastly, if you're wondering whether you're quite ready for the board or now is a good time, that I encourage you to start now before you will 100% feel ready. Any board that I've been on, uh particularly as I've stepped up to larger organizations, you never really feel ready, but have faith in yourself that you'll figure it out, that you'll learn it, and that you'll do that job to the best of your ability at all times.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Can I say with that, Lisa, too? I I actually sometimes in the boards that I've been on, sometimes the people that don't have all the experience and everything are some of the best board members because they ask questions. They're like, you know, what does this financial statement mean? Or why did you make this decision? Um, and it actually makes the board as a whole, you know, have that conversation and the discussion around it. So you don't need to be an expert in every area or ready for every aspect, but you need to be prepared to learn and ask questions and um build your knowledge. Absolutely. Great.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Ben, you you ask how many board appointments is too many. Yeah, there's this a concept called overboarding. I tend to after COVID, whenever you think went crazy in the governance world, people sort of started to par back and make sure within their portfolio they left enough capacity for when uh the proverbial hits the fan. It it's really hard to sort of say there is a magic number because if a board meets quarterly versus monthly, uh, the length of the board members, if you're a chair versus a director, all those variables come in. So it's like there's really not a one-sized fits-all there. There's another question uh around, let me just click onto that, uh, whether remuneration, uh, the current trend in remuneration for not-for-profit organizations, look, we could probably do a whole nother seminar and and workshop around that. I think the concept of remuneration and not-for-profits is uh is more visual than it has. I'm not suggesting it's changed dramatically, but I think people are making a conscious decision and not-for-profits whether to pay or not, as opposed to maybe a couple of decades when I started, it's like you just don't pay not-for-profit board roles. I think we've transitioned fit from that. And I think that for some not-for-profit organizations, they understand that it's very competitive to get capable board members, and just paying a little bit can suddenly get you in the choice set of a number of board candidates. Whereas everyone else says, look, my pro bono capacity is filled up and you're missing that. So uh it does help some people get on that journey uh and does open up a broader cohort of individuals that will express interest, but uh it's uh it's still a little bit of a slow journey there.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

Yeah. Well done. Thanks, Simon. Uh so our last piece of the puzzle point that we want to talk about today is how do you bridge the gap between your current experience and the needs of the boards you aspire to? If you've calibrated well between the destination that you're heading to and what it is that you have to offer those boards, chances are you're the majority of the way there. If you're looking to uh expand your board roles, um, your board experience, move into larger organizations, move into different organizations, you may start to uh recognize that there could be some things about your unique board value proposition that may need work on before you're in a position where you can aspire to those kinds of boards. Or it may be something that you've recognized at the beginning of your board career too, that you feel that there's something about you that that uh is not quite as strong as it could be. And a great way to go about that is to do a skills gap analysis between you and the board members who are on the boards or on the kind of boards that you would be interested in joining. And you can start to pick up clues and indications uh of of what it is about your offering, your unique board value proposition that needs adjusting. But just keep in mind that just because the people on the board don't quite look and feel like you, it doesn't exactly translate to mean that you're not of value in that context. So there may be some conversations that you might want to have with the right people around. Would they still be interested in me? So for example, if you see that everyone on a board has many years of board experience, you may think that, well, I've had no board experience, so they're they're not going to look at me. There may be an appetite in that board of bringing in first-time board members because they know the rest of their bench strength has quite substantial board experience to make up for that. And they're happy to take a chance on you because you're really strong on that expertise that you're bringing, that perspective, that thing that Simon was talking about, they're going to fly you from Adelaide to Brisbane to tap into. But there are some ways that you can look at where you are now, where those sort of people are, where you aspire to be, and what can you do? But there's also a whole range of things that you can do in your professional life that will help your board career, help your board life. And this is around some of these universal things that will hold you in good stead, not just from a board career perspective, but also a professional perspective as well. And that's about building a network. Notice I didn't say networking. You don't have to go out to events and do all these things and throw your business cards around, but work at building a strong network. If you've heard the saying your network is your net wealth, then it can be really valuable for you, for your board ambitions. But having a really strong network is going to help you in a professional capacity as well, not just for board roles, but also having people that you can tap into their expertise, if and when you need it, while you're doing your board service. The next is to really consciously and intentionally establish a strong reputation and credibility for yourself. If you're not sure what your reputation and credibility is, start asking those people closest to you, perhaps in a professional capacity, to give you some feedback and perspective on that and be prepared for what they feed back to you and some suggestions that they give you. But, you know, be considerate about who exactly you're asking that question to and whether they're actually answering in your best interest or they just might have an ax to grind. The next thing that can always help is to learn finances, even if your role is really far from finance. Um, and this will help you to develop what we call business acumen. And that's really understanding the business of running a business with strategy in there as well. So starting with where you are in an organization and understanding how your role fits in with the bigger picture, what the purpose of that is, how what you do impacts the finances, how what you do, can what you do in the day-to-day helps the organization to achieve its goals that it has. That can be really valuable perspective and understanding for you to develop. It's going to help you in the boardroom, but also that's going to help you with your career as well. So it's not wasted time. Simon, do you have anything to add in this conversation?

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Again, I'll throw it over to Phoebe. Uh I could speak, but let's throw it over to Phoebe and then just with some time, we'll just finish off the Q ⁇ A. Phoebe, do you want to pick up on that?

SPEAKER_02 38:20

No, look, uh, I think you really hit on it, Lisa. It really is having clarity around what does the board needs, what can you bring, how's this going to match together, um, and being really realistic. As I said, if you're looking at boards, don't just look for the positives for that organization, have an understanding of what the challenges are. Um, there certainly are some legal responsibilities that you have as a board member. You know, in Australia, there's the whole wage theft, there's the safety side of things that, you know, you are responsible. And, you know, what are the mechanisms that the board's got in place to ensure that you're meeting those obligations and what is the risk profile around that as well? I think that's really important as well. Um, so you have to take all of those factors into consideration. Um, but I think that from my experience, from you know, joining a board and being part of that strategic planning and seeing uh success within the organization you work for, is it's it's fantastic. It really is a great opportunity to build your own skills and also impart your knowledge to see a company or an organization flourish.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

I just want to uh uh Sean, we've still got five minutes, haven't we, before we wrap up or two minutes? What's the time?

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Uh we've got about four minutes. So go for five minutes.

SPEAKER_01 39:39

Great. Let me uh shoot through. So uh Robin, you asked about engaging a professional organization to write a board resume. If you're in Australia, you go to Lisa. If you're in New Zealand, you come to me because we are governance specialists. We don't just use AI to run it through the algorithm. And yeah, we we understand boards and not just CVs in general. Um there was another question, team. I'll ask each one of you what's the one piece of due diligence you would do, Phoebe, and then Lisa and then me. What's the one piece of due diligence you'd do if you were uh offered a board role?

SPEAKER_02 40:12

Um I the one thing that I would be doing is I would be wanting to talk to other board members, have a casual conversation before going on and getting an understanding of what you're walking into so you can see, as I said before, what's hiding under any rocks. That that's the piece of due diligence that I'd be wanting to do.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

Nice. Lisa?

SPEAKER_03 40:36

Yeah, further to that, I would be looking and understanding not just from the board members, but from others as well who may be connected with the chair, who that chair is. That's such a critical role in the success or not of a board that that instantly came to mind.

SPEAKER_01 40:57

Isn't that funny? Because I think the natural answer is, oh, you look at the financials, you check out the strategy, you look at the risk register, you do all that. And we're not saying that's not important, but I'm bang on with Lisa. I would have a coffee with the chair because I am yet to see a really effective board that's got a poor chair. And that chair is going to be so influential as to how successful you will be on that board. If you don't find there's a values alignment, if you don't find there's a personal connection, if you don't find there's a genuine, genuine interest in you being there, then it's going to be really difficult and you're probably not going to enjoy that board experience. Lars, you answered uh really good uh uh a a very valid point that start-up early stage companies aren't simple board roles just because they uh at that stage of their business continuum, they are often more complex, they're more fraught, there's more uh there's more challenges around financing and everything else like that. So that's a that's a a a really uh valid point. Don't think that early stage companies are easier to govern. I'd also like to then push that out too, and I often get to say, I used to hear it a lot more a decade ago, I don't hear it quite as much now, but I'm gonna join a not-for-profit board as a stepping stone into governance. And I think that as countries we've matured around that, and we see that actually having a not-for-profit governance portfolio in its own right is very sophisticated, it's very rewarding, and it doesn't have to be seen as a way to reach the holy grail of a listed company, a position, or anything. I think that's dated thinking now. So uh, and and the other side of things is don't think I'm gonna get a not-for-profit role before I go into commercial role. If they're your aspirations, you run them in parallel and you give respect to those not-for-profit roles, which can sometimes again be more complex and more challenging than uh than other roles. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:44

So uh and quite commercially minded too these days, Simon.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

I find that that And the not-for-profits are looking for they're not just looking for uh not-for-profit experience. You're right, they're wanting to bring other skill sets. And with that, no one sure.

SPEAKER_00 42:59

Thanks, Simon. So you'll receive an email from me tomorrow now, which will include uh a copy of the recording of today's webinar, the transcript, and as well the presentation slides. Uh, these will also be hosted on the website, on our webinar uh library on the website over the next uh 48 hours or so. Of course, if you're considering board management software for your organization, then we'd love to hear from you. Better still, why not try our free 30-day free trial? It's simple, straightforward. There's no credit cards required, and it's really simple to get started. Thank you again, everybody, for your attendance. I hope you enjoyed the session today. Thank you, Lisa, Simon, and Phoebe for the great conversation. I look forward to seeing you all on our next webinar, everybody. And don't forget to fill out our short one minute survey as you leave. It really helps us craft this great program for you. So have a great day, everybody. We'll see you. Next time.