We ask a prominent director to share three important lessons from three different professional experiences.
Geraldine Chin Moody GAICD is a non-executive director, chair, board adviser and executive coach. She has held senior executive positions in ASX- listed companies and professional services firms, including Baker McKenzie, Virgin Australia Group and the Australian Stock Exchange.
Over the past 15 years, she has also held board director and advisory positions with UN Women Australia, Relationships Australia (Queensland) and Future Group. She is chair of the ANU Centre for Asian-Australian Leadership advisory board and chair of the people and remuneration committee at Future Group.
The Board: ANU Centre for Asian-Australian Leadership
The Lesson: Add value on an advisory board by being clear on your role.
It is often the case that a person is invited to join an advisory board because of what they’ve done. They may have been CEO of an ASX-listed company or held another senior position. However, it’s important to remember you’re there as an adviser. You want to be supporting management by being a sounding board, rather than using up their time on things outside the advisory board’s terms of reference.
The Centre for Asian-Australian Leadership was established by the Australian National University to address significant under-representation of Asian- Australians in leadership positions. It’s a culturally diverse board with a diversity of backgrounds, including businesspeople, academics, philanthropists, politicians and a High Commissioner. I took over the chair’s role from the former foreign minister, Gareth Evans AC KC. He was the founding chair and remains on the advisory board.
We are all there to contribute our diverse perspectives and expertise, but our role is advisory. We are there to champion the vision, to provide independent guidance and support the translation of research. We’re not there to provide governance or make decisions, meddle in the affairs of the university or tell academics how to do their research. My role as chair is to set the agenda and facilitate a discussion that draws out the expertise of our diverse members so we can be an effective sounding board.
The Board: Future Group
The Lesson: Open conversations through regular peer feedback.
The Future Group board is diverse, with different ages, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, genders and professional qualifications. There’s a genuine embracing of diverse perspectives. We are not afraid to express different viewpoints and have robust but respectful discussions.
I’ve worked with other boards where there has been grandstanding and sometimes an individual focus on getting a predetermined outcome. Board members weren’t actually coming to meetings to listen and build on each other’s ideas.
The best approach for boards is to engage in generative dialogue, to listen curiously and try to understand each other’s perspectives to achieve a better outcome.
Future Group’s ability to have open, respectful conversations is helped through regular peer feedback sessions where we give each other direct, honest feedback in one-on-one meetings. We work off a specific template. The goal is to understand the strengths we bring to the board and the areas other directors would like to see us do more — or less — of.
These sessions have helped me to lean into my strengths, the people and culture perspective. I’m a Chinese-Australian and grew up in Darwin and Canberra. I certainly didn’t grow up around boards and CEOs. The approach at Future Group helps me
to feel valued for my strengths while continuously improving my contribution around the board table.
The Board: Future Group
The Lesson: Right board, wrong time? Don’t join.
Companies need different directors at different stages of their lifecycle. It is important to join them at the right time. When I’m looking to join a board, I ask myself not whether it’s a “yes”, but to coin an expression from [management consultant] Jim Collins, if it’s a “hell yeah!”.
Future Group asked me if I was interested in serving on their board several years ago. I didn’t join, but not because I didn’t want to serve on the board or support the company. At that time, Future Group was a startup, whereas I had just left a large ASX-listed company with extensive governance structures and processes in place. I was concerned my approach to a directorship and expectations of the company would be unrealistic for the stage Future Group was at. Therefore, there would be a mismatch.
The CEO came back to me a few years later, after I’d spent more time working with smaller companies, and after Future Group had advanced their governance structures and processes. It was a much better fit in terms of what the organisation needed and what I was able to give.
Remember, even though you love a company, it’s important to think carefully about whether the timing is right. When you’re starting out in your board career, it’s tempting to say yes to almost every opportunity. For me, it’s getting beyond “yes” to “hell yeah!” — where your skills and the needs of the board are in sync.
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