“Sex and the Boardroom: Is power the ultimate aphrodisiac?” screams from the tip top of the front page of today’s Financial Times in bold letters, referring to a page 10 article by Luke Johnson entitled “The sex snare set for top dog executives.” Poor guys…sounds tough!A snare…a trap!In the article itself, citing Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the writer mulls about ambition, testosterone, the temptations of power, men’s “sexual appetites,” anthropologists, biologists, “lusts,” and “nubile women.”
Sorry to bring this down from such erotic heights, but what does this have to do with the boardroom?
Where sex is concerned, it is probably more relevant to shareholders that boards be comprised of women and men with the experience, expertise, and diversity of backgrounds and perspectives to make decisions that will maximize shareholder value.That companies have policies and practices to identify, recruit, and promote the most highly qualified and talented women and men for employment, and provide an environment that motivates people to be their most productive.
How about "gender in the boardroom," not "sex and the boardroom."
Boomers and Gen Y, the largest cohorts in the workplace, both want to “contribute to society through their labor,” according to a new article in Harvard Business Review by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Laura Sherbin, and Karen Sumberg, of the Center for Work-Life Policy. Furthermore, “their workplace demands have significant practical implications for how employers should design work environments to attract and keep talent.”
“As the economy recovers…companies will return to the challenge of winning over enough highly capable professionals to drive renewal and growth,” according to the authors. The article provides examples of companies that are making the best use of their talented personnel, often reducing costs, while appealing to the interests of Baby Boomers and Gen Y’s. The companies include UBS, CVS, American Express, Time Warner, Cisco, Booz Allen, Novartis, and Ernst & Young.
According to the authors, Gen Y’s say it’s important that their work make a positive impact on the world, profess to be very ambitious, and are comfortable working with people from different ethnicities and cultures. Baby Boomers say being able to work flexibly is important, report having elder care responsibilities, and are members of external volunteer networks, with more than half volunteering their time to advance environmental, cultural, educational, or other causes.
Moreover, Boomers and Gen Y’s “rate other forms of pay as at least as important as money: a great team, challenging assignments, a range of new experiences, and explicit performance evaluation and recognition.”
This information reinforces the trends among businesses to engage employees in local and global service opportunities. Companies that encourage and support regional and international volunteerism among their Gen Y employees foster personal and professional development, while building company loyalty, improving their brand, and building stronger communities where their customers and employees live, here and around the world.
Businesses that facilitate nonprofit board involvement among their well qualified Boomers help strengthen nonprofits that improve communities, while providing productive opportunities for their experienced executives and professionals to apply their experience and expertise. Although the HBR article indicates a lower rate of interest among Gen X’s in “giving back,” my experience indicates that Gen X’s are also avid participants in service, including on nonprofit boards.
This important new study by the Center for Work-Life Policy gives further evidence that purposefully designed corporate social responsibility programs will advance the interests of businesses as well communities.
Thanks to Cone and Intangible Business for a useful study ranking nonprofit brands.As the study states, “the findings present important lessons about the role both revenue and brand play in determining an organization’s value and growth opportunities.”
My advice is the same to nonprofits as it is to for-profits: Build stronger boards and board leadership in order to build your brand to achieve your greater potential.
My recommendations are based on experience working with national and regional chapters of nonprofits listed in the The Cone Nonprofit Power Brand 100, including many in the Top Ten, and also consulting to many other boards of directors of global, national, and regional nonprofits that are not on the list – including civic and cultural arts organizations, hospitals, and universities (the Cone list is strictly social, environmental, and/or animal-related services).
Here’s my advice to nonprofit CEOs and boards of directors:
·Only with the right organizational leadership – CEO and board chair, and the right board composition, with clear roles and responsibilities, and highly focused board agendas, can organizations build their brand to achieve their greatest potential.
With a board of committed individuals, with the expertise and experience that is needed, from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, an organization can successfully increase stakeholder engagement and loyalty, while also building a more robust revenue model in order to achieve both its mission and vision.
Just read Fast Company to see how quickly new brand names emerge and succeed, while old brand names (need I mention those in Detroit and Wall Street) plummet while their boards fail.It’s all about the board.
“Companies are both the cause and the solution of the biggest problems we face, including the financial crisis and climate change.These are man-made commercial crises,” according to Devin Stewart, in a private interview this week. Stewart is the Director of Global Policy Innovations at the Carnegie Council, the “voice for ethics in international policy.”
“The only way we can generate economic growth and opportunity in people’s lives is by unleashing human potential through free markets.The challenge is to create ethical capitalism.That’s what we are trying to promote here at the Carnegie Council,” continues Stewart.
The Carnegie Council achieves its mission through Workshops for Ethics in Business, publications, online videos and podcasts, and the Carnegie New Leaders Program to develop the next generation of outstanding individuals committed to ethics and international affairs.
Follow Carnegie Council’s blog on “Fairer Globalization” for thoughtful and unique perspectives in their postings on President Obama’s public diplomacy with Iran, US trade policy with China and Japan, green mapping in Harlem, and advertising in the age of the recessionista.
“We are excited to invest in COOPEN, a new business enterprise in Cap Haitien that will sell biodigesters to the 1,500 members of COOPEN’s agricultural co-op.Families will benefit from this low cost fuel for heating, cooking, and waste management.COOPEN will then buy back the effluent - the by-product of biogas production, and vermicompost the effluent to produce a higher quality product that they can sell on the agricultural market.”
AIDG is providing COOPEN with its first grant and low interest loan, along with business and engineering training and technical assistance at this earliest and most challenging stage of COOPEN’s start-up.Haas explains that “through business incubation, education, and outreach, AIDG helps people get access to electricity, sanitation, and clean water to better their health and improve their lives.”
AIDG incubates small businesses in Haiti and Guatemala that adopt new technologies developed at MIT, Stanford, and the University of Michigan.AIDG’s first successful investment was XelaTeco, established in Guatemala in 2005, and now providing electricity to families in their homes.In addition to micro-hydroelectric products, XelaTeco produces biodigesters, windmills, high efficiency stoves, pumps, water filters, and solar LED lighting systems.
Following COOPEN’s recent win in Haiti, AIDG’s next business competition will be held in Guatemala.
Using strong business models and renewable energy technologies, AIDG effectively fights poverty through economic development and environmental sustainability.
I have the good fortune to visit many nonprofits – global, national, and regional organizations of all sizes, in all fields, including education, the environment, health and human services, culture and arts, and economic development. I frequently fall in love with wonderful organizations and the powerful work that dedicated people do to serve our communities.
Recently, I visited an extraordinary nonprofit - My Sisters’ Place in Westchester, New York, a multi-million dollar organization that addresses domestic violence through advocacy, outreach, emergency shelters, and education services. Here’s what made My Sisters’ Place a standout:
Evidence of excellence based on preliminary information:
A review of MSP on Guidestar, a database with the financial information of 1.8 million IRS-recognized nonprofits, that shows that more than a quarter of their funding is philanthropic, and the rest from government.For a social services organization, this percentage of philanthropy is a massive achievement. First of all, it means that the board and staff work hard and effectively at fundraising.Secondly, it means that MSP can better ensure that mission-oriented programs are sustainable and of a high quality even through the normal ebbs and flows of government funding.
Further evidence of excellence based on meetings and conversations with Executive Director(ED) Karen Cheeks-Lomax, and several board members, staff, and volunteers:
Passion and commitment for the mission, teamwork, focus, high energy, and high regard for the ED and her leadership
A deeply engaged board of directors – visionary, strategic, and financially supportive, continuously seeking to strengthen itself and build for the future
The ED’s determination to overcome obstacles to generate support to serve all victims of domestic violence – see example in this NYT article
The ED’s effectiveness in establishing relationships with public officials, donors, and board members, mentoring her staff, and also being present among clients, so that she understands their needs and interests on the ground level
The purposefulness of MSP’s strategy in creating a spectrum of integrated services to help women, families, and children advance their lives
Commitment to measurement and program evaluation
Role modeling and mentoring by successful graduates
And evidence from last week’s graduation:
The testimony of the graduates of MSP’s Life Skills program - women from 6 countries on 4 continents
The participation in last week’s graduation by board members, funders, public officials, staff, and volunteers
The economic cost of domestic violence in the U.S. is 8 million work days a year.With safe shelter, caring support, and innovative programs throughout Westchester County, the staff and clients of MSP create strategies that offer protection from abuse and suffering, as well as a path to a safe and peaceful future.MSP changes lives and improves the community, today and for the next generation.
It’s not simply a worthy mission.It’s a matter of excellence in how they do it.
Fast Company has been recognizing and listing the Most Creative People in Business and various other categories.Spending my career with social entrepreneurs, I’d like to describe these magical people who are doing so much for our world:
Visionary: They imagine remarkable solutions to awful problems.
Utterly relentless…unstoppable.
Impatient. Often frustrated. (They can’t wait to get where they are going, because they can see what’s possible as clear as day.)
Full of purpose.
Love leading a team.
Evangelists!
If you know any, help them, or by gosh, move out of the way!
“People will work harder for a cause than for cash,” according to behavioral economist Dan Ariely in Predictably Irrational.
That was loud and clear during last week’s broadcasts of The Colbert Report from Baghdad.The dedication and exuberance of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines - far from home, risking their lives to serve their country – were palpable and inspiring.
While the sacrifices of military service are uniquely profound, volunteers and nonprofit staff members devote themselves in other ways to a variety of causes here at home in the U.S. and abroad, including in developing countries.A board member whom I interviewed today told me that his job is to help support the executive team – by contributing funds, raising money, and assisting with strategy – because the staff sees every hour spent fundraising as an hour that they could spend saving lives in the desperately needy places where they work.
I think this is the appeal of volunteering and nonprofit service – to be part of a mission bigger than ourselves.We admire the courage, bravery, and sacrifice of those who serve our country.At the same time, there are opportunities for each of us to commit to something that is meaningful.
Imagine tens of thousands of talented business executives and professionals from diverse backgrounds and perspectives being thoughtfully and purposefully matched to nonprofit boards – globally, nationally, and regionally.Matched person-by-person, board-by-board, based on each individual’s interests and qualifications to add value, and each nonprofit organization’s board-building needs and interests.
The opportunity is for employers, large and small, and their talented people to provide high impact volunteer service through effective nonprofit board participation.There are candidates who are ready to be matched to boards to challenge poverty and hunger, and to advance the environment, justice, education, healthcare, culture and the arts, and economic development.
Having worked with major U.S. cities from coast-to-coast in establishing board training and placement programs since 1993, and training and placing hundreds of board candidates myself, I have seen what works and what doesn’t.Additionally, from my perspective as a board consultant, I have seen the damage caused to boards when candidates were mismatched, and the disappointments among well intentioned volunteers when they wound up where they shouldn’t have been.
If you are establishing a board-matching program, here are the six keys to success to ensure successful matches:
Conduct needs assessments with each nonprofit where you might refer candidates.
Work with each board candidate face-to- face, one-on-one to understand their qualifications and interests; coach each candidate to help find the board that will fit his or her interests and where he or she can add value.
Facilitate the introduction and communication between the candidate and the board, all the while respecting the candidate’s interests as well as the board’s process and interests.
Coach candidates for success once they join boards.When they are properly matched, they are likely to ascend into leadership roles, so your continued guidance will be valuable.
Staff your board-matching program with highly qualified professionals who have diverse backgrounds and perspectives, including in the nonprofit and business sectors.
How do you measure success? Through follow up with board candidates and nonprofits.Be sure to include the rate at which the people you have placed ascend to positions of board leadership.
Board-matching programs that are designed for the win-win-win for candidates, nonprofits, and the community will be transformative in elevating the governance and leadership of the world’s nonprofit sector. It is time for businesses and funders to invest in this worthwhile effort, and to do it right.
As I listened this morning to board members of the world’s largest companies discuss their greatest concerns, it was striking to hear how similar their challenges are to board members of nonprofit organizations.
The key topics of the morning discussion at the highly attended National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Directorship2009 Global Forum were: Global Strategy & Boards, Litigation and Liability, Crisis Communications, Compensation & Shareholder Communication, and Risk Management & Product Recall Readiness.Simply translate a few words to nonprofit terms, and I could have been sitting among board members of global, national, and regional nonprofits.If you recall a few headlines (scandals) of the past few months, the similarities will resonate with you as well.
Board-building, as the centerpiece of discussions on “Global Strategy & Boards,” drew particular attention.Since this has been the focus of my work with nonprofit boards for over a decade, it was high on my agenda. George Davis of Egon Zehnder International shared his firm’s 2008 Global Board Index, showing a stunning talent gap in corporate board rooms.Among S & P 500 companies, although international revenues represent almost 37% of total revenues, increasing at almost twice the rate of overall revenue, foreign nationals represent only 6.6% of S & P directors. Only 9.1% of S & P directors have international education/degrees.And only 26.9% have had any international work experience.
Conclusion by Egon Zehnder: “A significant gap exists between the global capabilities of S & P boards and the increasing importance of the global marketplace.”
So, you say, transition boards…update them… to include directors with valuable backgrounds and qualifications to help ensure that global companies have the most robust, ambitious, and successful global strategies.Not so easy. The average board size in the for-profit sector is 11.And according to the 10th Annual Corporate Board Effectiveness Study by Heidrick & Struggles, 78% out of the 2,000 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S. do not have term limits, so once people are on boards, there is actually no easy way to rotate them off to make room for new talent. Furthermore,only 65% of boards have age limits, and that’s dropped from 75% in 2000.
Shareholders entrust the for-profit board to envision and build the enterprise for the greatest profit and return on investment.Similarly, communities entrust nonprofit boards to direct nonprofit organizations for the greatest benefit to the community.
Boards are only effective to the extent that they comprise people with the skills, experience, expertise, and diversity of perspectives and backgrounds to be able to imagine the company’s or the nonprofit’s greater potential and ensure that there is an ambitious and effective strategy to achieve success.This can only happen when boards are accessing talent from among men and women of a variety of backgrounds, and when board development and succession planning are rigorous and dynamic.
.jpg)
