2018 – The Year of the Gender Balanced Boardroom!

The Time Has Come – The Facts

In Australia, the calls for increased diversity on boards are getting louder, although the rate of change is still “glacial”. Each day, businesses are offered compelling examples of how diversity on boards increases profits, progresses the company culture, increases staff retention and cultivates creative thinking. The demand is strong but the progression is slow. So if you are a woman, you might be thinking now is a good time to seriously develop your own path to the board.

But “muscling” in on the men is no easy feat.  The Australian Institute of Directors’ targets for 30 percent diversity on boards by 2018 will most likely not be met, according to Chairwoman Elizabeth Proust. A staggering, 11 ASX 200 companies have no women on their boards and 64 have just one. One woman on a board does not mean it’s diverse. At all. Proust says the issue isn’t just the fact that there are still companies with no women on their boards, the real issue is the one-woman boards.

“Ten of the 64 companies with a lone female director have been there for three years or more. And since she was appointed, multiple men – as many as eight or nine – have been appointed”.

There are several reasons why men exclude women from boards, all of which are created by gender role expectations and limitations. But we’re not going to go into the reasons why here. What we want to do, is get you to the board.

What does it mean to be on the board?

Let’s start at the beginning. What does it mean to be “on the board”? There are essentially two types of boards; an executive board of directors and a non-executive board of directors.

The executive board, also known as the C-Suite, are the chief members of their division. For example, the Chief Financial Officer or the Chief Marketing Officer. Usually, these members work full time at the company. The Chief Executive Officer or CEO is the manager of this board and is responsible for the overall results of the company.

The Non-Executive Board of Directors is a group of people who are the strategic managers of the CEO and the company. The Board can hire or fire the CEO. Strategy, investment, and all important decisions are presented to or created by The Board. The Board represents the interests of shareholders and oversees how the company works. The Board may have some internal members but usually, most of them are external and do their Board duties part-time.

How to Get started on a Non-Executive Board – The Three C’s:

Competency

All board directors are fiduciaries. This means they are in control of and have the best interests of the people at the company they are directing, its assets and its finances. Governance is the name of the game here, and you cannot ever wing the financials and governance of the company, the law and its regulators. You need to know the legal and behavioural requirements involved in being director, all the duties and jurisdictions, and this cannot be overstated.  

Commitment

Directorship takes up a lot of time and good directors plan for it properly and as such, it is like any other demanding role in your life. You must be prepared, constantly educating yourself on the company and the sector it operates in. You must be able to act in times of crisis and make level-headed decisions based on the specialisation you bring to the table.

Confidence

You have been appointed to a board for you, your work history, unique qualities and experience and your potential to add value. You cannot feel less than equal to any other board member. You will be required to speak up and voice your opinion and how you will drive the company and why.

How to Get the Skills

In Australia there are several educational and facilitation groups whose purpose is to encourage diversity on boards and train those needing work on their three C’s, or simply contemplating their first non-executive board role:

Our favourites are:

Women on Boards

Women on Boards says it all. Women on Boards has been working for more than 10 years to address gender inequity in the boardroom and across leadership roles. They offer courses covering strategic career advice, courses, mentoring, networking and access to board positions. They also offer counseling and guidance on career advancement on executive boards.

Future Directors Institute

The Future Directors Institute’s mission is to create, empower and support, an international community of next generation directors steering meaningful change from the boardroom. The Institute also offers kickstarter courses, accelerator courses and one-on-one coaching solutions. Their emphasis is not only on gender balance but dispelling the myth you are too young or too old to be on the board.

Board Direction

Board Direction is more of a recruitment service that helps people gain board appointments. Its services range from recruitment to advice and information on finding a board position.

Australian Institute of Company Directors

The AICD is for those people already on a board looking to further their experience of board membership. It’s a deep and wide resource representing the Australian company director and they offer many courses on any current issues affecting directors; from cyber issues, to modern governance, to reporting on gender issues.

How to Get on a Board

Choose Carefully

Work out what your passion is and how your skills and knowledge can help in a particular sector or company. It’s important that you’re specific about what type of board you want to be on. Investigate which industries, sectors, causes and company-types would best suit you, and work from there. You will be hired based on your unique skills and experience, so focus on those strengths and truths.

Volunteer Your Time

Volunteering for a company is a great way to get noticed by its board. This approach can work well with cause-related organisations and boards, that tend to not have the time and money to go out and proactively look for people. Once you’re proving your value within the organisation, you’re more likely to be considered when a director position arises. Also, boards are always building lists of prospective directors to contact when positions come up. Getting on these lists is a useful step.

Market Yourself and Your Boardroom Training

If you’ve been through some sort of formal board training, shout it out. Put it on your CV, LinkedIn and any other public platforms you have. Talk about what you’ve been doing and make sure people know you are board ready and waiting!

Networking

Even if networking is not your thing, it’s a great way to meet people who can really accelerate your progression to the board. Networking doesn’t always mean presenting at a meetup or attending industry events. It can be as simple as picking up the phone to an old colleague or approaching someone via LinkedIn.

But if you can stomach industry events, you’ll be positioning yourself as a director even if you’re not one yet, simply by being in the same space as active board members.

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How To Set and Achieve Your Career New Year’s Resolutions For Business & Beyond

Research suggests that if you’ve had your new year’s resolutions laid out from day one, 25% will have already given up by day seven. In fact, only 8% keep their resolutions for the entire year. So is it really worth setting new year’s resolution for your career or business? Short answer, yes.

Resolutions in the workplace are a great way to self-reflect and identify any shifts in values that have changed over the years, it’s also a good way to help unify your team and help create a more collective vision of what is important and what the year ahead could look like.

Resolutions can be executed to impact different scales; personal, team, or an entire business level. Whichever you choose, we’ve compiled the best tips that can put you in the 8% to make it happen for you in 2018.

Set SMART goals
The SMART framework used in many projects can also be applied to your New Year’s resolutions, meaning your goals should be:
Specific – the more specific you make your resolution, the more powerful your plan and execution will be, since you’ll know exactly what to accomplish.
Measurable – Clearly define how you will measure your progress in reaching your resolution. Make the criteria you use to measure quantifiable, reliable and consistent.
Attainable – this is person specific. Are the resolutions you’ve set realistically attainable by you? What hurdles can you anticipate, how much energy and time is required? Is there flexibility or urgency?
Relevant – The relevance of a resolution is deeply connected to the values and priorities of your professional and personal self. It’s a good time to look at the “why” in your resolutions and if it is inline with your values and priorities.
Time-bound – Time is not just money but it also works as a powerful tool for urgency. Create a deadline plan for everything you or your team want to achieve, from the smallest daily practices to the larger executional pieces. It’s also important to define and acknowledge the milestones you reach, as this helps give perspective.

Share your resolution and progress with friends and family
When setting out to achieve a resolution, social support is key. Find yourself an “accountability buddy”, this has shown to increase your chances of sticking to and achieving your goals substantially. Studies have found that more than 70% of the people who wrote down their goals and sent weekly updates to a friend, reported successful goal achievement. This is in contrast to the 35% who created a goal and kept it to themselves, and were either less than halfway to achieving their goal or had given up completely, which isn’t that surprising – after all, it’s a lot easier to break a promise to yourself than having to admit it to a friend.

Phrase your resolutions as if you’ve already achieved them
Phrase your goal in a way that enables your subconscious and intuition to be present. Describe the goal as already completed and use gratitude as the foundation.  Studies show that participants who keep gratitude lists are more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (professional, academic, interpersonal and health-based) over a two-month period, compared to subjects in the other experimental conditions.

Find people who have already achieved your goal and let their experience mentor you
Find someone who has been there, done that and has the T-shirt to prove it. If you want to step up in your career, learn a new skill, grow your business or implement more downward dogs in your day, align yourself with someone who has already achieved this. Endeavour, a nonprofit that supports high-impact entrepreneurs across the world, investigated some of the leading tech companies and their founders, to find out how and why they were more successful than others within the industry. Results found those most successful were those with strong personal connections and mentor-mentee relationships with the founders of other successful companies.
So it’s important to identify who has already walked the path you’re on, leverage from their mistakes or setbacks and learn how and why they chose a particular way to achieve it. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll be able to build or strengthen a relationship face-to-face or online, but you could also do some research and discover other people’s journeys by reading up on their story. These people will ultimately act as a mentor and will help you achieve your goals in less time than it would take to figure it all out on your own.

No matter your resolution, 2018 has just begun and is open to endless possibilities, here’s to joining the 8%!

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