However your path to the boardroom looks, landing a seat usually takes time. Relationships, in particular, are key. The Board Diversity Network (BDN), a program of the HBS Race, Gender & Equity and Initiative, recently hosted “The Future of the Board Room” with BDN steering committee members Nisha Kumar (MBA 1995) and Kris Pederson (MBA 1991), who shared insights and recommendations for BDN members navigating their board journey. Read on for advice from Kumar, Pederson, and other alumni experts on what to consider in order to land your first board seat.
Bring your expertise squarely where it’s needed
- The board skill set is changing. While director hopefuls should possess a baseline of core financial skills, Kumar and Pederson say, directors should show that they can navigate timely challenges such as economic uncertainty, capital allocation, cybersecurity, digital transformation, and talent.
- While most board leadership opportunities still come through relationships, a critical step in building those relationships is demonstrating how your expertise will fill a gap on the company’s current board.
- With so many industries undergoing massive change, potential directors should be clear on how they can help companies solve new and different business problems. For example, if you have deep experience in digital transformation, companies seeking strategies to leverage AI are primed for your contributions.
- As companies continue to evolve post-pandemic talent strategies, expertise in human capital management has become a higher priority for many boards. This need can provide new openings for leaders who hail from HR or similar functions, as boards place new emphasis on concerns like employee retention and engagement.
Choose companies that value diversity and understand how to leverage it
- Nisha Kumar and Kris Pederson agree that most corporate boards aren’t slowing down their diversity efforts. Scholar Stephanie Creary, who studies board diversity, notes that boards are increasingly concerned about representing the wants and needs of their full consumer base. You may find yourself on a board where most, or all, of your fellow directors are of a different race or gender (or both) from you. Yet, simply being on a board doesn’t guarantee influence; research into board dynamics has found that women and people of color tend to be less likely to sit in key roles like lead director, and sometimes find that their perspectives are undervalued.
- Director hopefuls should try to assess whether stated commitments to diversity are serious and meaningful. One way to do so is to pay attention to how the board talks about diversity–do current members speak about different perspectives as important and useful in concrete, specific ways, or fall back on vague generalizations? Do they link diversity to the company’s core values and overall effectiveness, or characterize it as a non-essential “extra” or compliance- or media-driven external mandate?
For further practical insights on joining modern boards, read more distilled takeaways from alumnae on attaining a director seat and the future of board service.