Expand your horizons - serve on a board

I suggest considering serving on boards of other companies, associations, and nonprofits. You learn not only from the other board members and their respective organizations, but also the organization in which you are serving. Not only do these experiences build your awareness and familiarity of other industries, but they also help you develop relationships and connections with other senior leaders. Furthermore, by serving as a board member for other organizations, you gain insights as to how to engage your own board members more effectively.

Following the pandemic, many boards are considering a wider range of board members. They recognize that having members of different ages, genders, professional expertise, and experience levels provide a variety of important insights and skills that are essential in today’s business and nonprofit environments.

With the above in mind, I offer three (3) areas to stimulate your thinking as you consider whether seeking to be a member of a board of directors makes sense for you.

Pros of Board Membership

Board service can be a rewarding career experience: You have the opportunity to learn how another organization operates to fulfill its purpose, vision, and strategy, as well as to work with–and learn from–accomplished, articulate, and intelligent people. Benefits:

Offers the opportunity to showcase your professional knowledge and expertise.

You can expand your senior leadership skills and abilities (like earning a mini-MBA from the experience).

Gain knowledge and perspective. Examining the several strategic, tactical, technical, legal, and sustainability issues that come before the board will enhance understanding of their organization’s decision making, strategic objectives, and strategy.

Offers significant learning opportunities through dialog, collaboration, and decision making with other board members. Your board colleagues and organizational executives will bring their own views, biases, expectations, insights, and experience—often expressing differing perspectives from your own. They can provide wide-ranging insights into your own corporate or nonprofit challenges and career decisions.

Extends your network by living, working, and building relationships with accomplished senior leaders and executives from various backgrounds. Furthermore, your fellow board members have skills, expertise, and connections that may be useful to you in your own organization, as well as your future career.

Joining a board often provides financial benefits.

Serving on a board enhances your readiness for more senior-level responsibilities, including being the CEO.

If you are retired and desire meaningful work, serving on a nonprofit board serving a cause you deem important can provide fulfillment with a flexible schedule.

Cons of Board Membership

Being a board member requires significant amount of time. Not only for the scheduled meetings, but in preparation for meetings, doing research and leg work for committee work or governance requirements. It requires you to become knowledgeable about the organization and its competitive environment. Some potential cons are:

On most corporate boards, as a director, you have legal and fiduciary accountability.

If the board selecting you believes your primary interest is to build your own reputation and experience, i.e., only in it for yourself, you will not get the job. You must be fully engaged and be focused on serving the board and the organization.

Potential con is your current experience and expertise. Today, boards, especially corporate boards, are looking for members who not only have skills and abilities with P&L, but also have expertise in supply-change management, sustainability, risk mitigations, regulation, cybersecurity, digital transformation, turn-around (if organization is performing poorly), and/or social media. If you have expertise in one or more of these areas, it is a pro, if not, it’s a con.

First-Time Board Member

Make sure you clearly understand your motivation in seeking board membership. Ensure you plan how to integrate board service with your current leadership roles and responsibilities. Always keep in mind to contribute, but also learn and grow from the experience.

Make sure you have a clear understanding as to how boards work at the nonprofit, association, or corporate entity, e.g., the rules and regulations governing board work. If possible, prior to your first board meeting, attempt to get to know the board chair and chairs of the various committees, i.e., see if you can meet with them.

Ask if you can be assigned a mentor. Having a mentor will greatly facilitate your learning curve, e.g., the culture, how management and the board operate together, and history of the organization and the board.

Do your due diligence. Read relevant industry publications. Learn who the board members are and their specific qualifications and backgrounds. Read the board’s previous minutes.

If you’re joining a nonprofit board, review its IRS 990s and its many schedules to evaluate ongoing performance. If available, evaluate its advocacy strategy. Review the board’s previous minutes and the number and scope of their recent decisions. Review the bylaws, volunteer management plan, and recent financial audits. Identify the key stakeholders and ascertain how the nonprofit obtains its funding, e.g., primarily donor-centered or fundraising.

Consider taking a Board Director’s course offered at many colleges and universities.

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