You Can Be a Great Board Member

Whether you are an experienced professional, early in your career, or even still in school, you are likely already serving on what I would call a board – or you will be soon. Board service can range from the Honor Court all the way up to the board of directors of a national non-profit or a Fortune 500 company…and everything in between. Youth sports, church groups, local charities, startup companies, family businesses, foundations, hospitals…the list of organizations that have boards and need great board members is rich and long. I tried to count the number of boards on which I’ve served in some capacity beginning in high school and lost track in the 20s.

When I left Microsoft in 2010, one of my goals was to find ways to serve the community differently – what I now call civic engineering. As part of this work, I currently serve on three national non-profit boards, two local non-profit boards, a private company board, and two startup advisory boards. In spite of all of this time spent serving on and chairing several boards, I still feel like I learn something new about best practices in almost every meeting. So while I’m no expert, I thought I would share my current state of thinking on how you can make your board service more valuable to the organization and to yourself as a member.

Before I get to the meat of the topic, I have to discuss a basic issue. I serve on a number of boards where people make herculean efforts to ensure that they attend every board meeting, every committee gathering, and every conference call. And yet, there are a number of boards I’m on where 60% attendance is a good result. If you are going to join a board, do it for the right reasons. Do it because you are passionate about the cause, about the products, or about the services provided. You can only help the organization if you are at the meetings, actively participating, and engaging with the staff and team. Board service cannot be about having something on your resume or getting your name on a letterhead.

With that fundamental requirement clear, here are five important concepts for great board service:

1.   Know Your Constituents: It is remarkably easy for a board to become disconnected from the actual people they serve. As a board member, you must constantly find ways to engage with your constituents, hear their issues and ideas, and experience their challenges. I serve on the national Board of Governors for Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Our constituents are kids and teens – as well as the staff that serve them in over 4,000 local clubhouses around the country. I have to find ways to visit those clubs, meet with the staff, and talk to the kids. Without that regular influx of ideas, issues, and needs, I can’t be an effective board member. As we make decisions, I constantly have to ask myself, “what would be best for the kids and the staff?” And the same is true for boards that serve employees, shareholders, and other members.

2.    Say What Must Be Said: As you serve on a board, you build relationships – with other board members, with the staff, and with the leader of the organization. Boards also develop a rhythm, a culture for how issues are discussed and topics evaluated. And all of that is as it should be. But there will be times when you have to say that the CEO is wrong, when you have to disagree with someone important on the board, when you have to put your foot down and force a difficult discussion that people would rather avoid or smooth over. Boards add value by tackling these types of conversations fully, completely, and productively. But to do that, members must have the courage to challenge others, both on the merits of the topic and on their openness to other ideas. This doesn’t have to be a board room brawl – in fact, a good board member will find appropriate forums to push on these issues – but no matter what, your job is to make sure the difficult topics are aired when necessary.

3.    Transparency Wins: Boards exist to provide both advice and oversight for the executives and staff of an organization, and to represent the constituents discussed above. This work can’t be done in an opaque environment. Board members must seek out (and demand when necessary) “the full and complete story” from the executives and staff on key issues. When mistakes are made, they must be discussed openly and objectively. When challenges arise – and they will – they can’t be glossed over. A good board member projects that they are part of the team trying to solve problems, encouraging others to share their concerns. Of course, this works both ways. Board members need to be transparent about their biases, conflicts of interest, and preconceived notions so that others can take that into account. And if you have a real conflict, you have to recuse yourself from the conversation as completely as is necessary to make others feel comfortable.

4.    Anticipate for the Long-term: It is very easy for an organization’s leadership and staff to get focused on the immediate challenges in front of them. The day-to-day trees easily crowd out the view of the whole forest. So great boards have members who focus on anticipating challenges that are lurking around the corner – hidden from view but ready to trap a well-meaning organization. Board members should spend a meaningful portion of their committee and board work thinking about the longer-term prospects and issues for the organization. Often this requires challenging the conventional wisdom and forcing people to look at the situation from a different perspective, and that will likely create some friction as short-term needs must be traded off against long-term risks. And that is precisely the role of the board – to force those trade-offs to the surface so that the organization can sustain itself successfully over the long haul.

5.    Committees Matter: The irony of many boards, in particular those for larger organizations, is that much of the “work” is not actually done in the main board meeting. When you join a board, discuss on which committees you will serve so that your particular areas of expertise are well utilized. Many important issues can only be debated and discussed productively in a smaller committee setting where difficult topics can be analyzed in more detail with the help of experts. Issues like governance, audit, human resources, and ethics also require this type of committee setting to complete the important functions they encompass. Whether you speak up in the “big board meeting” is an important topic – but it is critical that you are involved actively in the committee work that shapes and forms most topics and decisions.

Good board work takes passion, engagement, and energy, and it requires a willingness to express your opinions and points of view openly. Ironically, it also takes the ability to listen carefully to others…both your fellow board members as well as the organization executives and staff. Those who have served with me on boards are probably laughing their asses off right now – as this “listening thing” is clearly something where I’m still “learning.” Which brings me back to the very nature of board work. A great board is one where you can contribute your expertise, help others do their work more effectively, serve the board’s constituents, AND learn something about yourself along the way. The gift of good board service becomes its own reward.