49. Jennifer Buras: Preparing for your first board seat

Jennifer Buras advises clients, primarily senior executives, on career development, including in many instances their first board seat.  In this episode she discusses how to prepare your first board seat – and succeed.

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Quotes

Preparing a client for a first Board Seat

 "What is your personal brand? What is your board brand? How can you articulate that and infuse that in your board bio, your board resume, the way you present your value proposition.

We conduct mock interviews. We coach our clients who are actively pursuing board seats and are in live interview situations. We'll record those interviews. A board interview is very different than a corporate interview, so we want to make sure that they're prepared for that sort of questioning.

Board Bio

By presenting a board bio you're demonstrating your board savvy. A board bio is intended to be a one-page narrative where the reader can quickly ascertain what is your board brand and what is your value proposition. What is it that's unique about you and your experience that's going to be accretive to the boardroom.

The role of a board member

People need to be reminded that it's not about "telling" in the boardroom, it's really about listening and being able to ask the right questions in order to further a conversation and get to a better decision.

Networking

I think it's important for prospective board members or those seeking board seats to start with their own network.  Who do you know within your network who is a board director? Who do you know who's an influencer; accountants, lawyers, venture capitalists and really catalog that list and tier them. You're trying to get into that second and third degree of separation from yourself in order to find opportunities.

Big Ideas/Thoughts

We had a client at Essex years ago, who came from a very large, well known money management firm in Boston and he was offended that nobody had asked him yet to join a board and nobody asked.

When I asked: "Have you told anyone you want to join a board?" he said, "no."  You have to let people, your network and beyond, to know you're interested.  Pretty basic, but sometimes overlooked.

First For Profit Board Seat

I joined that board as a result of my work on the North Shore Y Board. At that time I was the treasurer of the organization. I chaired the finance committee and the CEO of Beverly Bank, the predecessor bank, was an ad hoc member of that board so he was able to see me in action in a different context than he might have seen me had he just known me in my day job. Having worked with him, when a board seat opened up on his board, he asked me if I'd like to be considered

When you sit on a not for profit board you have an opportunity for people to see you in action in a different way than they may see you in your day job, they see you in the boardroom, and also you're often with board influencers, people who are either on corporate boards themselves, CEOs, people in the community who are willing to advance and endorse you.

Time Commitment as a board member

The NACD published a survey in the last year or so which indicated that the average director spends 248 hours a year, which translates into five hours a week on their board role, and as you know it's not necessarily an evenly spread five hours a week.

Boston Club

The Boston Club is a woman's leadership organization based in Boston dedicated to advancing women not only in the boardroom, but into leadership roles.