Configuring director talent and board capabilities

The challenges and dilemmas facing directors and board are highly contextual and continuously changing. The ability to handle complexity, politics, raise the critical question, zoom in and out, engage with evidence and leverage stakeholder networks are important. Which board and organisation is best fit for you?

What do ’fair and balanced’ accountabilities and responsibilities mean with respect to becoming and sustaining your role as a board director? What are your directorship skills and qualities? Are you making impactful and effective contributions? Are you considering a new role or going plural?

Director and board may have their back against the wall; organisation could be facing transformation, growth, competitive positioning or innovative development.

Directors need to be able to effectively handle difficulties and be able to work through a crisis – how do you build trust, work with and support board colleagues? Board is an episodic group of individuals – as director you interrogate, debate, reflect to make the right judgements, decisions and outcomes? How do you prepare and contribute at board-level?

How well do you personally handle complexities, uncertainties, ethical dilemmas, challenges and emerging risks? How do you adapt and learn to improve once at board-level? Are you able to steward and strategically navigate for the longer-term benefit and organisational interest vis-a-vis personal short-term motivations and various investor, competitor or stakeholder agendas and interests?

Understanding board-level issues

In the 21st Century board directors are the forefront of steering innovation and competitive advantage. Directors are typically the first to know the issues and the last line of defence for organisation. Do you understand organisational capabilities and strategic direction? How often do you as a director deep dive to take the pulse of management and employee sentiment? How to scan the industry and marketplace?

Integrated monitoring

How do you demonstrate and maintain honesty, integrity and resilience through monitoring and mentoring at the top of the organisation? Highly contextual issues will be unique to you as director and your board that may make it sometimes feel lonely or unclear. How do you construct, present and communicate the information and link it to strategic outcomes? What are the latest regulatory, reporting and governance characteristics?

Learning mindset

Research indicates a range of key skills, characteristics and qualities as levers required are likely similar for higher order directorship mindset. These can be adapted to private; public and third sectors; or in cases of growth from SME; to medium; and from medium to listed entity. How to frame the board issue and apply analysis for solutions? Who can mentor and guide at board level?

Market geo-politics and firm governance

The earlier phase of 20th Century business was rooted in humanity’s challenges of world wars and through economic regional instabilities. This was followed by a period of expanding liberalisation coupled with population growth – the rise of regional capitalism along with emerging legal regulatory and competitive structures underpinning corporate governance frameworks for national, and international trade.

During the latter part of 20th Century emerged the rise of access to financial services (currencies; leverage debt; investment ownership) supporting entrepreneurship (founder/family) and flourishing of corporate (equity; institutional; shareholder invested), public (state owned; PPP) and third (charities; foundations; trusts; social enterprises) sector organisations along with a widening internationalisation of retail, travel, marketing and consumerism in markets.

Navigating for sustainability challenges

These days organisations and their boards face handling of faster paced, contextual internal talent pool capabilities and firm policy changes; along with increasingly more dynamic, volatile and wider competitive or generational grand challenges such as: digitalisation (AI; cyber; machine learning; fintech); access to finite resources; health and pandemic; new industry business models; natural environment protection, natural disasters and ESG (carbon-zero; net-zero); territorial geo-political conflicts (migration; supply chain) – all impacting on organisation sustainability and its market opportunities. What does sustainability mean for your organisation context? How do you assess and report organisational and board performance?

Board composition: Chair, CEO and NED relationships

This brings into focus proactive director capability building and board engagement. The board-level issues are somewhat distinct from those of the executive (strategy monitoring vs strategy delivery).

Do you have single or dual tier board? What should be the board composition? Which committees report to board? What is a highly effective and good Chairman? How well do Chairman and CEO really get on? What is the relationship with NEDs? When and how to raise the critical question and when is best to seek wider guidance? How are the board dynamics and behaviours? What is your and the board’s reputation? Are you aware of and understand the constraints and enablers in setting of the agenda; for up-to-date information and evidence; fostering robust debate of the issues; encouraging open-discussion; having independence in judgements; supporting value-adding contributions and reaching consensus in decision-making?