Board opportunities for youths

BoardroomTalk

Dr Proctor Nyemba

We would like to congratulate the young people of Zimbabwe on the National Youth Day.

Youths are the epitome of energy and hope and they are the ones who define the future for any country.

On the occasion of the National Youth Day, let us motivate and encourage our young people to be positive and happy in life. Happy National Youth Day to all.

What you need to know as an aspiring youth representative or board member is to bring your youth and vitality to the board table.

Young board members can provide new ways of thinking and working, bringing intergenerational views, voices and knowledge to the board table.

Bring your youth and vitality to a board and gain some great new skills and experience along the way. Below are a few of the key benefits you can bring to the boardroom.

A lot of the articles we write on boardroom success are about the value you can gain from being a director and tips on how to advance your board career.

But what do you do if you have not already secured a board role and do not know how to go about getting one?

The first step is getting a board to notice you in the first place, and in this article, I am going to be taking you through five ways you can go about doing just that.

1 — Target the right boards for you

There are so many boards out there that it is important that you are specific about what type of board you want to be on. Otherwise, you can easily become overwhelmed with vast numbers of avenues to follow.

Figure out which industries, sectors and company types would best suit you and work from there.

It is something that we focus on at Future Directors — encouraging budding board directors to identify what type of board they would be able to add the most value to. You are not going to be noticed by a board that does not match your skills and values.

A good place to start is to find out what your motivation is in joining a board. From there, you can narrow down the right boards for you.

2 —Volunteer your time

Volunteering for a company is a great way of getting noticed by its board.

And by volunteering, I do not mean working in a soup kitchen (although that would not hurt!).

I mean approaching the organisation, telling them about your values, strengths and skills, and offering to aid them in some way. This approach works best for cause-related organisations and boards, who tend not to have the time and money to go out and proactively look for people.

Once you are proving your value within the organisation, you are much less likely to get overlooked when a director position becomes available.

Remember, good boards have a deep structure in terms of sub-committee (with subject matter specialties) or advisory boards. These often include non-director members. Even better boards are always building lists of budding directors to contact when positions on the board come up. You want to get on those lists.

3 — Publicise your boardroom training (if you have any)

If you have been through some sort of formal board training (for instance, with Future Directors and our Board Ready Programme or the local Institute of Corporate Directors Zimbabwe and other institutes in Zimbabwe ), then you need to make sure the board you want to serve in knows about it.

Make sure that it is publicised on LinkedIn, your CV and any other public channels you have.

If you do not tell them about your experience and why you are the best person for the job, then no one will.

4 — Networking

For many people, networking events are something to be avoided at all costs, but they should not be.

They are brilliant ways of meeting the type of people who can give you a leg-up in your board career. By attending as many of these as possible, you will be positioning yourself as a director, even if you are not one yet, simply by hanging around active board members.

Remember also that networking does not have to mean mingling in a room full of strangers.

A phone call is networking; a coffee meeting is networking; using LinkedIn to connect with people is networking (just remember to use the message function!)

5 —Mentors and sponsors

I have already written an article on how a mentor can fast track your route to the boardroom, but it is important to mention it here because it is a great way of getting your name out there and be recognised.

Mentors are people who are well-connected and have a vested interest in your career and seeing you do well.

If you are extra lucky, you might find yourself with a sponsor, who is like a mentor but even more proactive. Sponsors make it their focus to see you succeeding, and will highly increase your chances of getting noticed by a great board.

Often, the hardest step to getting started in your director career is being noticed by a board. Positions can be hard to come by, particularly if you are new to the game.

However, that does not mean you should give up hope before you have started. Follow these five tips and see how much traction you can gain towards your own boardroom success.

 

Dr Proctor Nyemba is a certified professional director specialising in Governance and Strategy, Governance and Risk, Governance and People, Governance and Board Effectiveness, Governance and Resources, Governance Culture and Behaviour. For comments and feedback, please send to [email protected] or [email protected]

 Call 0772469893