The road to a seat on the board

Jane Cleeve was appointed to The Glennie Memorial School board in Toowoomba in July 2007.  This is how it happened.

“In 2005 I attended a lunch at Hudson in Sydney organised by Women on Boards.  I felt privileged to be sitting at the table with some of Australia’s well-known business leaders whom I sincerely admire.  The topic was women on boards and was facilitated by one of Sydney’s radio personalities at the time.  During her opening remarks she commented that sitting on a school board was a very rewarding experience and would highly recommend it to anyone that was considering taking up a board position.  I have kept that in the back of my mind since.

A year later I was at my hometown agricultural show in Texas, Queensland. Glennie’s Business Development Manager and Company Secretary was there and we had a good talk about where the school was going.  In passing I expressed I may be interested in joining the board one of these days. We kept in touch periodically via email.
 
It was only this year that I felt in a position, for various reasons, to apply for the school board.  I had a great time at boarding school and I wanted to give something back. With my business and governance experience both in Australia and overseas I felt I could make a meaningful contribution to the continued growth of the school.      

I attended a “Women on Boards” strategy session in Brisbane earlier this year (2007) after speaking with Claire Braund.  There were about 15 women present in the room with many of us interested in a specific board position.  When my turn came, I mentioned I was interested in the Glennie School, not only as an old girl but also in some way contributing to the continued success and confidence of future generations of women.  

I run a program, Ambassadors on Boards, as a Director of Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women.  I am continually surprised at the low confidence of women whom I consider to be highly skilled.  Twenty years on from Year 12, I am coming across many I went to school with, many of whom I have not seen since I left school.  They are so well grounded and nice to be around, I can’t help thinking that Glennie played some role in that.

At the WoB session one of the participants was a friend with the current Chair of the school.  We arranged to get in contact.  She made the introduction and I followed through within a week of our meeting.  At the same time good friends of hers had also just moved to Texas and they did not know anyone, but that is another story. Needless to say I made a couple of phone calls.  

When I spoke with the Chair she advised they had a vacancy as a week or two before one of the Directors had resigned.  I had lengthy phone conversations with members of the Board and Old Girls Association to establish if there was a mutual benefit to my involvement.  During the conversation we realised there were longstanding friendships with family connections.

I applied to the Board.  My application was reviewed and a recommendation made to the Anglican Schools Commission, Diocese of Brisbane.  I received a letter in the mail that my application was successful.  The whole process took about 4 months from the initial strategy session to my appointment.  WoB also put me in contact with the Sydney radio presenter, who has since moved on to other things.  This was invaluable in understanding how the governance of a school works.   I now have lots of reading to do with my first meeting in a couple of weeks.

Jane Cleeve BBus (Acc), MBA, ACIS, AAIM
Jane is a Principal of Process, her business process consultancy based in Brisbane.  She is a Director of The Glennie Memorial School, Director of Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women, Member of Chartered Secretaries Australia and Accredited Member of Australian Institute of Management.

The long process of applying for a board position

Victoria Sherwood
March 2007

I found applying for Board positions similar to most job application processes, however it does have its nuances. Here is a summary of the recent process I went through, hopefully you’ll find the information useful:

(1) The Initial Step / Introduction

Being part of WOB really helped in overcoming the initial hurdles of applying for a Board position. In my experience board members are often recruited by other board members directly from their personal networks or via a personal referral. I was therefore delighted to find that an application coming from WOB was also treated as a referral.

Most board position searches are managed by a recruitment company and in this instance, the fact that I was “WOB endorsed” immediately built my credibility.

Recommendation: To further enhance your personal situation, search your own network and ask the WOB team if anyone knows one of the board members (or senior execs). If you can find someone who knows a board member personally, the referral can be taken to the next level.

Remember: The first person you have to sell yourself to is the recruitment consultant / gatekeeper. Don’t underestimate the importance of “getting this person on-side”.

(2) Your Application & CV

Fortunately we all have appropriate (short) CV’s as part of our WOB profile. I would also recommend keeping your cover letter short (maximum one page including header and signature). I listened to the recruitment consultant (job advert) describe the key requirements and focused on these.

Remember: The application only needs to get you to the interview stage so focus on the facts, everything else comes later.

(3) The Process Duration

I found the process relatively slow in comparison to applying for a regular job. Boards tend to meet monthly and the nature of the role allows the process to be more considered as there is no operational pressure to fill the position. End to end, the process selection lasted 3 months.

Recommendation: Agree to keep in touch with the recruitment consultant on a regular basis. Don’t wait for them to contact you and expect them to be busy with other roles.

(4) The Interview Process

The first interview I attended was with the Chairman of the Board who assumed lead responsibility. He told me that he had short-listed (with the recruiter) 6 candidates to meet face-to-face and that he intended to reduce this to 2 people to progress to the next stage. The 2nd interview would be with 2 other Board members and then a final stage informal dinner with the entire Board would complete the process.

I found the interviews less about qualifying my capabilities and more about “building a relationship”. We had an extremely relaxed two-way discussion covering the following topics:

  • The company’s current situation and its challenges for the future.
  • The other Board members.
  • The corporate culture.
  • The operational management team.
  • Business ethics and so on.

During the course of these discussions my past experiences, personal capabilities and values came through. The Chairman advised me that the most important things for him (assuming a certain level of capability) were as follows:

  • Cultural fit – the individual must be able to “gel” with the rest of the Board.
  • Diversity – ability to bring different perspectives to the table.
  • Strength – to have enough conviction to put across personal views.
  • Flexibility – to adapt those views to include the views of others.

Recommendation: I know this sounds stupid but “be yourself”. If you don’t get on with the individual(s) or you don’t share the same values, the relationship will not work for anyone in the long run.

(5) What if I don’t get the Position?

If you are unsuccessful in securing the position make sure you get good constructive feedback. The recruitment consultant will help with this. Going through the process is an opportunity in itself. Listen to the feedback, delve for the detail and learn from these aspects for next time.