It is brilliant that so many women undertake so much work of a voluntary nature for community boards, school councils and other not-for-profit boards. Some women choose to do this because they have time on their hands or have a personal reason to commit to an organisation, eg. their child attends the school, a family member died of cancer or they are a former netballer. Increasingly women are pursuing unpaid Board positions because they have been sold the myth that it’s the path to a portfolio career as a paid director on Boards.
I can tell you from experience that it isn’t true. I have been an independent director on a number of different boards for almost 10 years. The organisations have been diverse: charity, sport, education, retail. Only one of those directorships paid more than a nominal amount to cover expenses.
I obtained the paid position directly as the result of networking. I had met the chairman at his company’s event. We got talking about the industry, I offered him my views on where I thought he should be taking his brand. He invited me to present some ideas to him formally a few weeks later. By the end of the month he’d offered me a position on his Board.
The charity and education board opportunities were also obtained via networking. Both times it was a man who approached me for the role. The sporting directorship was the only time my Board CV was considered.
I have been a director of Netball Australia for five years and during this time I have been approached by two other national sports bodies who were looking to appoint a female. But the paid enterprise Boards don’t know of me. The top tier Board recruiters are still primarily recommending the super-connector females who are already on ASX200 Boards. And my Women On Boards newsletter is still almost entirely full of unpaid opportunities.
While we are busying ourselves “skilling up” on unpaid boards, believing we’re positioning ourselves for the Holy Grail of Boards: the ASX200, well-connected women are jumping the queue, albeit very slowly.
It’s better to be a skilled director than not so. I value my five years on the Netball Australia board where I have served on The Audit &Risk committee for five years. I have learned so much about governance, risk and opportunity. It’s been like an on-the-job AICD directors course, which of course I also completed before taking on my first directorship.
I would love to hear from directors on paid Boards who truly believe they were offered the opportunity due to their not-for-profit experience.
Do you believe NFPs are the path to a Board career?