Tag Archives: company directors

Find a sponsor or be prepared to be very brave

Some months ago I was at a charity lunch and had the pleasure of meeting a two accomplished women. One was about to finish her current executive role and was planning to develop a portfolio of non-executive directorships. She was already on a couple of community and not-for-profit boards. The other was an experienced company director. By the time we left the lunch, I realised that the experienced director was clearly a sponsor of the first woman, as she was very busy introducing her to others and arranging for her to meet people.

Six months later, the aspiring non-executive director has been appointed to the boards of three listed companies.

Let it be said, I am delighted for this female director for having been able to achieve her goals so well and so quickly. She is clearly talented and brings a particular skill set that is needed by the boards that she has joined. But I have no doubt that having a sponsor who was proactively putting the aspiring director forward would have helped immensely.

For without a sponsor, you have to go it alone. You have to have lots of coffees, develop a profile, speak with headhunters and generally put yourself forward wherever possible, without at the same time looking desperate! You do have to be prepared to be “out there”. And without a clear sponsor, you need to be brave. You may have to ask others to introduce you to third parties or even recommend you to a particular chairman for a particular board.

Not everyone has a sponsor, but if you can find one, make the most of the opportunity. Having someone open the doors for you, be thinking of you and promoting you without your prompting, or even at your suggestion, is a very powerful tool in the world where personal recommendations mean so much. If appropriate, be brave and ask someone to be your sponsor or champion, if you are confident that they know you and would be pleased to recommend you.

However, just because you don’t have a sponsor doesn’t mean you can’t get the roles you want. It just may take more time and effort. You will have to be prepared to take measures into your own hands. There is no doubt, it does take a certain amount of bravery and confidence. You have to “lean in” and push yourself out. But if you have the right skills and experience, and enough people know about you, the right roles will eventuate.

Coffee count: 391

The box conundrum

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This 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…..

2013 Review

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As the year draws to a close, it’s been an eventful one for this blogger.

This time last year I was one of seemingly thousands of women and men looking for a non-executive directorship, trying to distinguish myself amongst many talented and experienced people.

I started this blog with a view to differentiating myself (as I exhort my consulting clients to do) and at the same time wanting to share the learnings I have gained during my many coffee meetings. I also hoped to be able to help other aspirants avoid at least some of the disappointments and frustrations I have experienced as they travel on their own journeys. I will continue to aim to do this and at the same time share my views of the various aspects of the “Diversity Issue” that arise from time to time.

The multiplier effect of social media resulted in my first non-executive director role and this has been a great learning experience. I’ve been thrown in the deep end in terms of the expectation to contribute to the board and have had to put governance theories into practice. I have also closely observed and experienced the boundaries between executive and non-executive roles.

Throughout the year, I maintained the pursuit of my 1000 coffees with people from whom I can learn something or who can introduce me to others. As a result of this and the support of a mentor and champion, I have just secured a NED role on the Foundation of a major NSW public institution. I am excited to be able to work with such a talented and passionate group of people, both within the Foundation and on its board. While they want the skills I can bring, the match-making process still came through networking and being recommended by others.

In the very same week I was contacted in relation to another potential NED role, this time in a privately owned, private equity invested company. While it’s not yet certain where this will go, it is an exciting way for the year to finish.

2013 has been a year where the “Diversity Issue” has had more headlines than ever before. There has been much more discussion and action about how to make change, as opposed to just the need for change. More women have been appointed to boards than in previous years and more women have moved up the executive ranks in more companies and organisations than ever before. I believe there is a greater awareness in Australia of the benefits of having women help run and direct businesses, whether they be public, private, government or non-profit. There is an acknowledgement of the need to do things differently than in the past, to help make that happen. It won’t occur overnight and there are still many hurdles and stumbling blocks to manage, but change is taking place and recognition should be accorded to those who have driven this change.

My thanks to the people who follow this blog and who have recommended it to others. Thanks also to those who have encouraged me to write it and to continue to develop it (you know who you are). Wishing you all “Season’s Greetings” and hoping you enjoy some downtime over the Australian summer. 1000 coffees will continue in 2014.

Coffee count: 217

Circles of Action and Confirmation

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Those of you who are familiar with Steven Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” (a book I read back in the early 1990’s and have revisited a number of times since) may recall his concentric circle model of the Circle of Influence and the Circle of Concern. His theory is that proactive people focus on their circle of influence, which sits inside their circle of concern. It’s a notion that I have often considered, along with the fact that worrying about things in your circle of concern but over which you have no influence is wasted energy (like getting frustrated when you’re stuck in traffic!).

This proactive focus can also be applied to the process of finding board roles. However, I have come to the realisation that the process also has two other circles in play: the circle of action and the circle of confirmation. Regular readers of this blog may recall that it is called “1000 coffees” because someone told me that it would take 1000 coffee meetings to achieve the board portfolio I was after. This resonated with many others and it seems to have some truth. While one has to have coffees with people both within the circle of action and the circle of confirmation, a board role is much more likely to come from the inner circle: the circle of action. Let me explain from my own perspective.

The circle of action consists of people with whom I have worked. It may be people who I have reported to, clients, people I worked alongside or who were part of the same team. They may be people who worked in the same organisation at the same time and while not working directly with me, were aware of the work I was doing. The things these people all have in common is that they have seen me in action: have seen how I work and the product of my work. They can speak first hand of how I operate, how I deal with people and issues. That gives others a degree of comfort if they haven’t worked with me themselves.

The circle of confirmation is a much wider circle. It consists of people whom I have met (and often had coffee with). They may be people who have talked with me at length, interviewed me (in the case of headhunters particularly) but not actually worked with me. They are the people who can confirm that I might be a good sort, don’t seem to have two heads and seem to be able to string some sentences together to make sense.

Until I have enough board roles so that my experience speaks for itself, I believe potential board roles will largely come from the circle of action. They will come from people I have worked with previously taking action, suggesting me to a chairman, a headhunter or a member of a nomination committee as someone who might be able to meet the requirements of the role they are seeking to fill. Their personal experience of me will carry the weight of a recommendation. And when my name comes up on a list, it will help if there are a number of other people who can confirm (and thus are in the circle of confirmation) that they have met me or heard of me and believe I might be able to do the role.

One needs both circles. Understanding the potential role of the people within each circle and to which circle a person belongs helps to bring focus to the process and the outcomes that might be able to be achieved from each of the coffees.

As with all things, there will be exceptions to the rule, but I thought this theory has enough legs to make it worth including in this blog.

Coffee count: 192

Good time for women

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After my blog a few weeks ago noting how difficult it is to get into government, I thought I should give credit where it’s due.

Anyone interested in the non-executive director (NED) space would be aware of the discussion about women on boards in the past few years. The discussion has covered the gamut of topics, from the fact there are not enough women on boards, why this is so, how to improve this situation, that companies with more women on their boards do better, and consequently what a good time it is for women who are seeking board roles. Plenty of talk, real change is taking longer….

There are lots and lots of very qualified women looking for board roles. I’ve met many of them and everyone I meet tells me that too. While there aren’t lots of female ex-C-suite executives to fill board vacancies, it would not be unreasonable to suggest that there are many women seeking board positions who are better qualified for a NED role than some existing male NEDs. As this blog canvasses, there are lots of reasons why it’s hard for women to break through into the network and there are lots of lessons we are learning in the process. But despite the fact there is both a supposedly strong demand and certainly a plentiful supply, that first board role is still elusive for many women.

Last year, the Federal Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Penny Wong, announced the BoardLinks initiative, directly aimed at providing “more opportunities for women to be appointed to their first board, to launch and further their directorship careers” and to meet the Australian Government’s own target of having 40% women on Government boards. It was very gratifying that someone in a position of influence understood the “first board barrier” and sought to do something about it!! At this point, BoardLinks has operated to provide a database of appropriately qualified women to Government organisations, which at least makes the organisations aware of potential candidates who are women who might not otherwise be seen through networks or recruiter introductions. So far so good. However it’s still a passive process from the relevant women’s perspective. Hopefully there is more to come.

Now the Federal Government has launched a new website called Australian Government Boards which contains information “relating to more than 450 Australian Government boards and bodies across government, including a description of each board and its function, positions and appointments and term expiry dates” (http://www.ausgovboards.gov.au/). This site provides a single location to make an active search and campaign for a government board much simpler and more transparent. Anyone can now find out easily what boards there are, who is on the board, where there might be opportunities and when and work out how to make an approach. This is definitely a step in the right direction and should be applauded by all those who have had the advice “try and get on a government board”!

I do suspect this information might result in a few more coffees for me…..

Coffee count: 160

Industry focus vs agnosticism

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Right from the start, one of the questions I am always asked is “what industry are you focused on?” For many, the answer is obvious – years spent in banking would lead one to focus on the financial services industry; with deep experience in FMCG one would focus on retailing or manufacturing, as appropriate, etc. With a “lattice career” and broad experience across strategy, marketing, general management and business establishment in different industries, the answer has been less obvious for me.

However, it has always struck me as a catch-22 question. If one focuses on one industry and then attains a non-executive directorship for a company in that industry, one is then generally conflicted from seeking a role in another company in the same industry. Equally, it labels how people think of you. So I have been pleading agnosticism and saying that few industries are “rocket science” and my skills should be applicable across any number of industries. Usual response: nods of acknowledgement.

Two coffee meetings in the past week have led me to rethink this proposition….. At the first, with a mentor and experienced NED, the nod of acknowledgement was accompanied with a shake of the head. The problem with my answer, I am told, is that it doesn’t help people to place me in their own minds into a category. And for a first role especially, it needs to be easier for people to do that. I was advised to focus on what my key skills are and consider to what kinds of businesses those skills would be most applicable or useful. It narrows the range of industries or companies by being more specific, without being so specific that one might be excluded from being thought of as a specialist in one industry only. Articulated this way, I realised one can describe kinds of businesses rather than be very general.

The same question came up the following day and I applied the advice of the previous day. This time, the person (who was a colleague in the past) provided insight into how thinking about kinds of businesses and focusing on changes in the market, could lead one to think about one industry in order to access many others. For instance, the advent of the NBN will affect not just the obvious telecommunications businesses, but also others such as e-health, music, retailing and so on. This thinking allows one to talk to people in one industry about the implications on other industries – being industry focused without being industry limiting.

Two very enlightening coffees…..

PS: Shortly to have second round interview for first board role. It’s unpaid and it’s local, but it could be the first one!

Coffee count: 152

Getting into government

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In at least half of the meetings I’ve had with non-executive directors and almost all the meetings with head hunters, their advice has been to seek a role on a government board. Government boards are regarded as good places to gain experience and make connections. How one achieves that is another thing…

The Federal and NSW Governments both have registers for women seeking board positions. No doubt similar registers exist in the other states. As it’s the obvious place to start, I register and receive automated replies acknowledging such. Given that, as with all things, a personal interaction is usually more helpful, I try to find a way to add a personal element to my submission on the register. It takes a fair bit of research but eventually I have a conversation with the person responsible for maintaining the NSW register, only to be told that it works a little like a matching database and there is no opportunity to have any personal contact. No response to from the person who maintains the Federal Government database…

The search for some personal contact continues. A friend with contacts forwards my CV directly to the NSW Treasurer. I receive a letter from a member of his staff acknowledging it and suggesting that I register on the NSW register. Hello, I’m already on it! Didn’t anyone cross-check??

Finally, one of my coffee meetings elicits the name and number of the person who manages the process of recommending directors for NSW State Owned Corporations (SOCs). He described the multi-layered approach to coming up with a shortlist of names for board vacancies for SOCs, which seems to involve the existing chairman and board, possibly head hunters the board has appointed, the Treasurer and his staff and possibly another Minister and his or her staff. He went on to explain that his role is to manage the process to a point and then from the time of the interviews to a decision being made, the process is out of his hands and the time it takes is variable; it rests with the Ministers, the competing demands on their time and, inevitably, some politics. With the patience obviously gained working in government, he explains that the process is not dissimilar to that of the corporate world – it helps to be known by the people involved in the process.

Looks like getting into government roles will take a few more coffee meetings….

Coffee count: 148

Morphing executive to non-executive

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The CV. One has to have one and it is meant to show your skills and experience. Having had an executive career for 25 years, it’s pretty hard not to have a CV that reads like an executive CV. But to present as a credible non-executive director, one has to show how the executive experience translates to being of value in a non-executive way. In the first twelve months of looking for non-exec roles, I think I revised my CV four or five times (maybe more), following advice to reflect more metrics, bring out my commercial acumen, emphasise skills, limit it to two pages… But it still reads like an executive CV because it reflects an executive career.

Of the five meetings I’ve had this week, one was with a head hunter, who after talking to me said she understood much more about me than my CV represented. Clearly my CV is not doing its job! With some of her comments in mind, I am now working on making the CV one page and rather than talking about where I have been, will try to have it reflect what I have done that will have relevance to boards. Seemingly the same thing as I was doing before; but perhaps the titles of the executive roles create a perception that the words that follow don’t necessarily dispel. Turning my CV on its head is going to be a challenge, perhaps a bit like turning myself inside out. But a different perspective will be a good thing. After all, that is part of the value of a good NED.

Coffee count: 135

Stalking vs keeping in touch

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In the process of doing the coffee rounds for a little over a year, I have been seeking people’s advice and suggestions as to how to build a portfolio of non-exec directorships. The purpose of meeting with people has also been to try to put myself into people’s frames of view and make them aware of my skills, so that they might think of me when a role arises.

So now it’s time to go back to many of the directors and headhunters to tell them I’m still around and looking for roles. Unfortunately, I don’t have much new to tell them! Will I look like a loser if I say “Hi there, still out there looking. Only changes to my CV are that I’ve taken on people’s advice as to how to describe my skills”? Or do I say “Just keeping in touch. You said the search would take a while and it is. I’m still out here”?

Most of these people are busy people and I don’t want to keep emailing them with nothing new to tell them. But how does one keep front of mind if one doesn’t? Don’t want to be seen as a stalker, or even worse, a persistent sales person (because let’s face it, one has to sell oneself in this process). I’m going to go with a space of 6-12 months to reconnect with people. Ultimately, persistence has to be seen as a good attribute……doesn’t it?

Coffee count: 130

Introduction

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I took a career break in the second half of 2011, having spent 25 years working, much of that on a full-time basis. While it was confounding to me that with “nothing to do” I was busy all day, it was a nice change to be able to sit and have a coffee, read the papers and solve the problems of the world economy at my kitchen table.

With the benefit of some time and space to reflect, I realised that I didn’t necessarily want to be in the “cut and thrust” of an executive role any more. My preference was to consider a variety of business issues and help to solve problems. A portfolio of non-executive directorships and consulting work seemed to be the solution. After all, an experienced female NED had said to be me five years before that if I still wanted to roll up my sleeves and fix things, then I wasn’t ready for NED roles. Having spent the interim five years with not only my sleeves rolled up but my nose to the grindstone, I was ready to operate at the next level.

Seems that the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ (AICD) Company Directors Course was a necessity, and worthwhile. Then started the serious process of breaking into the NED space. It’s a process of writing and rewriting one’s CV and developing an appropriate elevator pitch. It’s also a process of meeting lots of people and continuing to expand one’s circle of contacts.

For the record, as I start this blog, I’m up to 126 coffees; coffee meetings that is. Truth is I’ve drunk many more coffees than that in the past year! Seems like a long way to go. On the other hand, if you divide it by 42 weeks (I’ll explain why the 10 week absence in another entry), it comes to an average of three coffees a week. For each coffee meeting, there are emails seeking introductions to the person, emails and/or phone calls to arrange it, research about the person and so on. That alone is a part-time job. But I have resolved to up the pace this year, even if it means I might have to have to add green tea to my choice of beverage.

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