Tag Archives: AICD

The box conundrum

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coffees4This past week I met with the chairman of a number of listed and unlisted boards and who has over 20 years of board experience. Introduced by a friend of mine who happens to be an executive member of one of those boards, he was aware that I was finding the process of building a portfolio of non-executive directorships harder than expected. This chairman is a willing mentor of women (and men) and has been a mentor in the AICD Chairmen’s Mentoring Program three times.

He told me that most of the people he meets with have been in a role or an industry for many years and have deep experience. Often they have been lawyers or consultants. They fit squarely in a particular box and in order to be attractive for board roles, they need to widen their experience and skill set. However, in my case, the chairman noted, I have had a broad range of experiences that have utilised a broad range of skills and I don’t seem to have a particular box to fit in! The problem with this, the chairman went on to say, is that people don’t know what I am good at. Generalists are not sought out anymore, people with particular skills or industry knowledge are.

Without trying to sound too frustrated, I pointed out to the chairman that rather than having stayed in one role for 25 years, I had chosen to try a few different roles and enhance a range of skills. However, I did feel there was a consistency across all my roles that focused on “top line revenue generation”. In other words, helping a business grow. Not unlike another senior board director I had spoken with, he noted that this was quite an executive trait. “You could be fielding calls from head-hunters for CEO roles,” he said. “I am” I replied. But surely a board needs people who understand the skills required for a business to grow and can ask and challenge the executives? That theory applies after all to industry knowledge, to financial management, to risk, and so on. After all, the 2014 AICD Conference later this month is all about growth.

I have to confess that following the meeting my mood was quite sombre for a while. Too much a generalist, not enough experience in big companies, no specific industry experience… It’s going to keep on being tough. Then I refocused and decided one meeting doesn’t determine my direction or my outcomes. It’s has to be about taking in the information and assimilating it with all the other information and advice. I could assure the chairman that I had spoken to most of the head-hunters in town, I had tried the government approach (admittedly with little successful penetration to date) and I was doing the networking. I am sitting on boards now and I know I am being effective. I also intuitively believe that working in a small or medium size business means one learns a lot more about business than working in one or two areas of a larger business (although I did work for an organisation that had 90,000 employees…).

The chairman did say that so often it is about serendipity and the planets being in alignment. I can’t help but think that the 1000 coffees along the way may assist the circumstances that eventuate in the “fortuitous happenstance”.

 

Coffee count: 253 coffees

Postscript: Following my last post, it may not surprise anyone that there hasn’t been a rash of offers from head-hunters or recruiters signing up to follow this blog. But I did have a call regarding a CEO role…..

Managing Expectations

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images-7You’d think, given the title of this blog (1000 coffees), I might have managed my own expectations in the quest for a non-executive directorship portfolio.  But as with most things in life, there are ups and downs and times when things look like they’re going well, and times when, frankly, they don’t.

As would be the case with many people in my position, when I meet with people in the context of seeking a non-executive director role, I am regularly reassured that I have the attributes boards are looking for, having run companies and been responsible for a P&L as well as having the appropriate financial and legal skills.  I can tick all the boxes of things one should do: do the AICD course, focus on a particular sector, target not-for-profits and government as well, network with the people I’ve worked with before, and so on. However, it’s not a science.  There is an element of timing, luck, synchronicity that plays a part too.

There are a lot of very capable people out there, looking to do the same thing.  I had coffee with a gentleman a few weeks’ ago who told me of numerous occasions where he was “this close” and something happened for him not to get the role, whether it’s a deal falling apart, a change in focus, someone having just something else, or the inevitable “someone just knew someone else better”.

It can be disheartening, but it can’t be the end of the road.  Recently I was approached and asked if I’d like to be considered for a non-executive directorship of a mid-level ASX listed company.  In theory, I had all the requisite skills that the board were seeking given the company’s current state of business and the sector it was in, with one exception.  I didn’t have listed company experience.  I put forward all the reasons why I believed I could add value to the board and the company, but the feedback I received was that it was the lack of listed experience that didn’t get me onto the shortlist.

A recent conversation with someone at the AICD indicated that the Chairman’s Mentoring Program is really for people who are ready to step up to ASX200 listed boards.  Given that this is not in any of their PR around the program, I responded that perhaps they should manage the expectations of the applicants better….

It all just confirms that despite the talk about the need for diversity in gender, skills, background and approach, most non-executive directorships are going to come through sponsors, mentors or recommendations.  As one person said over coffee recently, it’s going to come from someone who is prepared to “stick his or her neck out and feel the breeze”.  And the planets being in alignment.

Coffee count: 200

The inevitable dip

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coffees2It’s been just over a month since my last blog entry, but I’m back in the saddle.  Rather than it being an issue with writer’s block, I have experienced the dip in enthusiasm and confidence that seems to strike from time to time.

I know I am not alone here, as during a conversation last week, a female non-executive director who is similarly building a portfolio of NED roles but has not yet “cracked” a listed company role, mentioned the same thing.  When one needs to promote oneself each day and keep finding methods to connect with people in a relevant way and one receives warm responses but no real action, inevitably it becomes a tough road.  The enthusiasm to keep going, to keep sending emails, making phone calls, perusing LinkedIn, ebbs a little.  It’s not like I’ve run out of strategies, or don’t have a list of people to follow up – but it’s tough to just keep hammering away. It’s like the business development executive who intuitively understands that success will come from relationships and that it takes time to build relationships, but who sometimes wonders if the sale opportunity is ever going to come.

The director I was conversing with last week said she had a group of women with whom she meets regularly and they share their experiences, ultimately giving each other support.  She is absolutely right.  One needs friends, a mentor or a colleague with whom one can share the frustration and disconcertion of the process and who will encourage and support you.

You could see it as being part of the process of building resilience in future directors.  Or alternatively regard it as part of the natural selection process – those who can manage the adversity of being ignored and having to nevertheless stay the course (or veer to find a better course) will ultimately be better directors.  And if not ultimately true, that’s the kind of positive self-talk one needs to have to focus and get one’s stride back again!

For me this time, a 10 day escape to New York was a good way to have a break from the process.  The distraction could not have come at a better time, although it was disappointing to hear news that I didn’t make the cut for the AICD mentoring program (more on that in a future blog).  Right now, I’m back and ready to go again.

Coffee count: 162 (coffee in NY doesn’t count – despite an increase in boutique brewers, good coffee is still hard to find)

The experience conundrum

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latteThe experience conundrum is two-fold.  The first relates to the desire of boards to have non-executive directors with experience. Understandably, companies want their boards to function well and the directors need to know that each of them sitting around the table understands what their role is in terms of governance, oversight and decision-making. However, boards need to continually refresh and the wider community want to improve diversity.  How do you find new directors if they need to have experience?  Did the first ever director have experience?  It’s a little like the sign in the window of one of my local cafés: “Junior waitress wanted. Experience required”!!

Governance experience can be gained from working with not-for-profit organisations such as charities, school boards and sporting organisations. An understanding of governance and the decision-making process can also be gained by executives who report to boards or attend board meetings or board sub-committee meetings.  The AICD runs an excellent course that all aspiring non-executive directors are encouraged to attend. If the knowledge gained there is not considered sufficient, then what does that say about the value of the course?  And if all of that isn’t enough for a new director, couldn’t a chairman or existing experienced NED take the new NED “under their wing” for a while and mentor and them and pass on their wisdom and learnings from their own experiences?

The other experience conundrum is in relation to industry experience.  A chairman putting a new board together told me that I wasn’t appropriate because I didn’t have experience in the particular industry that group operated within. Diversity doesn’t just come from a mix of genders. It comes from a mix of perspectives, which may derive from different genders, different ages and different industries.  Very few businesses could say that their industry is so specific that they could not benefit from experience gained in a different industry, tackling similar issues. There are a huge range of industries where focusing on customer/client needs is critical, including retail, manufacturing, services etc. Similarly, there are a range of businesses where understanding capital-intensive assets is vital  – it’s not just in mining and resources.  Bringing a perspective from a different industry and from different experience will help reduce the risk of “group think” and sometimes lead to thinking about a mature business in a fresh way.

Coffee count: 141