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As a leader, an executive, and an aspiring board director, you are on an exciting journey – one filled with challenges and victories. In the last 12 months, throughout this series, you have learned about the road that might be ahead for you and how to be successful on your Journey to a Board Seat. 

To review, you learned about the three “lanes” on the path: 

1. You
2. Your Network
3. Your Learning. 

You. You discovered the six steps on the journey to a board seat as described by the experts on this path, The Athena Alliance, whose membership opportunities offer you a guide. Those six steps once again are:

1 – The Journey Planning Strategy
2 – Your Executive Board Package
3 – Voice and Presence
4 – Thought Leadership and Presentation
5 – Personal Positioning and PR Strategy
6 – Network Leverage and Enhancement.

Your Network. You also learned the three important ways you can maximize your network: 

• Mentoring
• Connections
• Exposure. 

Your Learning. Finally, you were introduced to Athena’s Virtual Salons – ongoing learning opportunities to help you be successful as you grow into the leader, executive, or board director you aspire to be. 

Hopefully this overview of the Journey to a Board Seat has been helpful to you, in that it has given you a way to prepare yourself for this exciting phase of your career. Whether you decide to walk this path slowly or speed your way through, The Athena Alliance is there to help. They can be found at www.TheAthenaAlliance.org. 

Whether you are interested in their Aspiring Director Accelerator Program because you’re currently on a Journey to a Board Seat – or if you’d benefit from their Rising Executive Accelerator Program for leaders stepping up in their leadership roles – either way, you will be well supported by the extensive learning and community filled with women like you. 

Next Steps: 

If you’ve enjoyed this series, The Journey to a Board Seat, be sure to connect with me for future newsletters, article series, and learning opportunities. 

To join me, go to www.JoelleKJay.com and register for my Updates & Insights.

Or let’s connect on social media: 

• Facebook: facebook.com/joellekjay
• LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/joellekjay/
• Twitter:     @JoelleKJay.

And, if I can help you in any way, as an Executive Coach I’m here to support you, so reach out anytime. You may email me directly at Info@JoelleKJay.com. 

Thank you for joining me on the journey, GOOD LUCK, and let’s stay connected!

Joelle K. Jay, Ph. D. is a Director with the Leadership Research Institute (LRI) who specializes in leadership development for senior executives in Fortune 500 companies. She is an executive coach, keynote speaker, and author. She strategizes with business leaders to enhance their performance and maximize business results. Joelle is especially known for her success in the advancement of executive women in companies like Microsoft, Accenture, and Adobe. Her books, The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership and The New Advantage: How Women in Leadership Can Create Win-Wins for Their Companies and Themselves, have been endorsed by such luminaries as Marshall Goldsmith, Jim Kouzes, and Stephen Covey. The Leadership Circles Program™, a leadership development program based on her work, has been credited for helping companies become Best Places for Women to Work. She holds a Masters Coach Certification and was named one of the Top 29 Coaches by Leadership Excellence magazine. Joelle and her husband live in Nevada with their sons, Jackson and Morgan.

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As you’ve been following along the Journey to a Board Seat, you may remember we talked about the three “lanes” on this path: 

• You
• Your Network
• Your Learning. 

We’ve spent the last several months focusing on you and your network. Today, we’re going to tackle the additional learning you can be doing along the way – the third “lane.” This is where you’ll find Athena’s Virtual Salons. 

The Virtual Salons

Envision for a moment Paris at the turn of the century. At that time, popular among the elites were what they called the salons – small gatherings in lovely rooms of intellectuals, poets and artists, where they could share ideas, get to know interesting others, and expand their horizons. 

The Athena Alliance introduces the Virtual Salon – a gathering place for those of you on a journey to a board seat where, just like in the Parisian salons, you too can expand your learning in a rich environment with a guest list and topics cultivated just for you. 

Virtual salons are group-setting video conferences, each on a topic, with an expert and a panel who talk about things relevant to women at a senior point in their career. Whether they seek a board seat or know they need to become more broadly a business steward, they can learn their way to success by joining the Virtual Salons.

Topics for Discussion

One of the benefits of the Virtual Salons offered by the Athena Alliance is that they present you with the topics you need to know if you’re aspiring to a board seat. Not only are you learning, you are learning what you need to learn. 

A sampling of topics presented by the Virtual Salons include:

• Finance for the non-CFO; 
• Cybersecurity topics
• Boardroom trends
• The traits it takes that make a good director
• Leadership topics – like how to negotiate

and

• The value of your brand.

Notice that while these topics are important to aspiring board directors, they are also topics important to executive women in general. They therefore help you grow in your career currently while becoming educated about the topics you’ll need on the road ahead. Virtual Salons are hosted by experts, coaches, and experienced members of the Athena community, and they give participants the opportunity to not only learn but participate in an engaging discussion with other like-minded leaders. 

An Engaging Experience 

Alana Schmidt, a Member Success Manager with the Athena Alliance, has seen members benefit greatly from the Virtual Salons as they have grown and expanded over the years. In her words, 

“Our Virtual Salons can be a great source of value and information for members, as well as an excellent opportunity to get exposure to the community, exchange thoughts, and ask questions to other senior leaders in our network.” 

The Athena Alliance offers several tracks of content including Boardroom Insights, Modern Leadership, Finance for the Non-CFO, Investing, Current Events, and Life Transitions.  Virtual Salons are recorded and available to members at Athena’s extensive Resource Library.  Here is a sampling of specific titles:

• Boardroom Insights: When Your Network Isn’t Big Enough with Deborah Ellinger
• Boardroom Insights: Best Practices to Achieve a Board Seat with Kelly Wright
• Current Events: Coronavirus and Crisis Communication with Andrea Bonime-Blanc and Mara Brazer
• Elevating Women Leaders: Increase Your Happiness and Resilience in Life and Work with Nataly Kogan
• Finance for the Non-CFO: Cap Table Basics with Shelly Perry.

As you consider the breadth and depth of topics, tracks and offerings represented in the Athena’ Alliance’s Virtual Salons, can you start to make a list of some of the things you need to learn in the months and years ahead? 

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In the last issue of this Journey to a Board Seat series, we talked about the importance of your network. But how do you get connected with the people you need to know?

This is where the Athena Alliance comes in. Members of the Athena Alliance have access to a vast network of

• Mentors

• Board Members

• CEOs

• Investors

• Coaches

• Advisors

and

• Aspiring Board Members just like you.

The Athena Alliance can help you get connected. In fact, dedicated Member Service Managers are committed specifically to helping members of the network find each other. If you haven’t yet joined the Athena Alliance, of course you can reach out and get connected yourself. It may take a little more effort and courage, but so many leaders on this journey are ready and willing to help that you are bound to find the support you need.

However, there is a catch. Networking at this level takes on a new meaning, especially if you are actively pursuing a board seat, and even mores o if you’re doing so for the first time.

Joanna Furlong, Media and Communications Manager at Athena describes three different ways aspiring board members connect with individuals in their network:

1. Mentoring

2. Connections

And

3. Exposure.

Read on and ask yourself, which if these would be most helpful to you now?

Mentoring

In the mentoring tradition, up-and-comers learn the skills and strategies from people who have achieved what they want to achieve. Here, those are likely to be accomplished board members.

One third of Athena’s members are Pioneers – experience board directors join Athena because they need it but because they want to – as Furlong puts it – “send the elevator back down.” She describes them this way:

“Pioneers are highly advanced in their careers and have achieved either private board seats, public board seats, and sometimes multiple board seats – and now boards are knocking on their doors. They join to give advice, mentoring and support to aspiring leaders.”

For instance, if members are interviewing for a board seat and wants to learn about the industry, or they’re nervous about the interview, or if they want to learn more about the process of being on a board, mentors can help by meeting with them and sharing insights to help them succeed.

A Question for You: If you had a mentor now, what kind of qualifications would that mentor have, and how could she help?

Connections

Sometimes what you need as an aspiring director is not necessarily mentoring, but just connection. Connecting to peers who are walking the journey with you is an equally important way to leverage your network.

At Athena, many members join Athena to access each other. Athena’s motivated and accomplished community of women in leadership offers endless opportunity to learn from each other and discover new opportunities. Members connect over business deals. They connect within and across industries. They lean on each other for business connections. Again, Athena’s Member Success Managers help facilitate connections by understanding what each member needs and making introductions – which not only speeds but also strengthens the process – but you can certainly expand your network simply by looking around for peers and being willing to take the first step.

A Question for You: What are some of the pressing questions you have about your career path right now? Where would it be helpful to meet someone struggling with the same challenges as you?

Exposure

The third way aspiring board members can make the most of their networks is through exposure to the right people and opportunities. In short, you need visibility.

Coco Brown, CEO of the Athena Alliance, compares their approach to facilitating visibility to being like a Hollywood agent. Athena surveys the landscape for opportunities that members can take to get that exposure, whether it’s aligning them to a speaking engagement; putting them forward for a conference presentation; and suggesting or even securing invitations to dinners and events – all to make sure aspiring members are being seen in the right places and meeting the right people.

A Question for You: If you could meet anyone you might want to meet, or be seen presenting, contributing to, or just attending a particular event, what would you choose? What would that kind of exposure do for you, and is there a step you can take to make it happen?

The Impact of a High-Powered Network

A network is only as powerful as the quality of the relationships, but having the right relationships is also critically important. Listen as one Athena Alliance member describes the impact her conversation had when she met with a connection through the community.

“Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, and for so generously sharing your thoughts and ideas, which are so thoroughly informed by your real-world experience as a board member and CEO. I’m excited about the possibilities you identified — so many of which seem possible! Thank you, too, for the role-playing and constructive feedback — I found it helpful and realistic. I look forward to following up with the many resources you suggested — and I hope very much to meet you in person at an event soon.” – Sara Ponzio, Deputy County Counsel @ City of Santa Clara

You can sense the energy and enthusiasm that came from this connection. Imagine how much momentum can come from your connections, and you’ll power up your journey, too!

As always, I send my best to you. If I can help you in any way, or if you’d like to explore Executive Coaching to support your success, please email me directly at Info@JoelleKJay.com. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

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If you’ve been on this journey from the beginning, you know that the road to a board seat has at least six stops:

1 – The Journey Planning Strategy

2 – Your Executive Board Package

3 – Voice and Presence

4 – Thought Leadership and Presentation

5 – Personal Positioning and PR Strategy

6 – Network Leverage and Enhancement.

We’ve talked about all of those steps, and you may be working on them as you move down this path. It really is a journey; it takes time, and you don’t have to do it alone. Remember the Athena Alliance is there to guide you. Their processes are uniquely designed to help you be successful. You can explore membership opportunities here: www.AthenaAlliance.org

Now, though, as you move along the journey, we need to explore your experience from a couple of new angles.

Coco Brown, CEO of the Athena Alliance, believes there are three big themes on this journey to a board seat. You might think of them as “lanes” on the path – three areas you can move into while simultaneously moving forward. Those three themes are:

1. You
2. Your Network
3. Your Learning

To date, we’ve been focused on YOU – specifically by stopping at the six points you’ve learned so far and doing the “inner work” needed to be ready for a board position. Walking this path has meant truly and deeply connecting with who you are – the stories you tell, the way you think about yourself, and the way you want to present yourself. Perhaps until now, you’ve thought of yourself as climbing a career ladder, but now it’s time to think about yourself as an overarching steward of business. You need that perspective to be successful in board service, so you can operate across an entire company. You have to think about yourself differently now and how you bring yourself to that space. You have to understand yourself differently. That is all a journey of its own.

But there are two other “lanes.”

What we need to do next is look at your network, and then we’ll look at your ongoing learning and what else will shore up your readiness for a board seat.

Ready? Let’s switch lanes.

Traveling Companions – Your Network

On your board journey as in life, the road may sometimes feel long, but you don’t have to go it alone. You have traveling companions.

This is your network.

Of course, you have a professional network. You’ve cultivated it for years. You have relationships with peers within your company, function, industry and areas of expertise. But even if your network is rich, deep, and varied, it may not be the network you need on your journey to a board seat.

When you are looking for board positions, you are connecting to a different world.

Here are some of the people you may now need to add to your network.

• Mentors. Many executives discover that as they grow up in their careers, they move from being mentored to becoming a mentor. But if the journey to a board seat is new to you, it’s time to be the one getting mentoring once again. This is one area where the Athena Alliance excels – it is filled with a network of experienced board members and other leaders who are walking the journey to a board seat with you. Talking with them can give you the insider knowledge you need to find the shortcuts on the journey – or to navigate the challenges, sustain yourself as you go the distance, or keep up the pace.
• Board Members. In your network, you’ll want to get connected with more board members in general – not just for mentoring, but for connections.
• CEOs. Many leaders seeking a board seat are also seeing the need to expand their careers by taking bigger positions. Executive committee positions. C-level positions. Having CEOs in your network can help you see new opportunities and grow yourself in new ways, as well as connect you to the executives who know what’s needed on a board and can advise you on your journey.
• Investors. Especially if you are seeking a board seat in start-up companies, you will want to become versed in the world of venture capital. Adding investors to your network will help you do that.

Remember: in order to get into a board room you have to network with a different ecosystem. Give yourself the chance to get connected – stop thinking you have to take the journey to a board seat alone, and build your network along the way instead.

Taking the Next Step

Whether you are simply exploring the journey to a board seat or racing down the path, a good exercise at this point is to stop and take stock of your network.

How many people do you know who fall into the categories above?

How might you start expanding your network?

Start a collection of names and ideas. Think about different roles, companies, industries and levels of people you might want to know – and whom you want to know you. In our next edition in this series, you will learn about three specific kinds of relationships to build with your new and expanding network.

If you’d like to see our next article in this series, “Journey to a Board Seat,” click here.

As always, I send my best to you. If I can help you in any way, or if you’d like to explore Executive Coaching to support your success, please email me directly at Info@JoelleKJay.com. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

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As an accomplished business leader, you have spent a career developing relationships. So it might come as a surprise to learn that when it comes time to pursue a board seat, you may not have the network you need.

That’s because the kinds of people who will support you in getting that board position are not necessarily the ones who supported you in your career. To date, your network may be filled with executives, clients, and colleagues – but now, you’ll need to round out your network with board members, investors, governance influencers, and CEOs. And, some of your current network may include these targets, but you may need to stretch to get connected if this is a new arena for you.

Fortunately, you’re ready.

From Preparation to Outreach

Along the journey to a board seat, we have seen a progression through a number of steps.

• First, you learned the Steps on the Journey.

• Next, you built your Executive Brand Package.

• Then, you polished your Executive Presence.

• After that, you clarified the key messages in your Thought Leadership.

• Last, you considered your Personal Positioning.

Having done those things, it’s almost like you’ve completed the packaging, and now you’ve created the product that is you.

And so now it’s time to go to market.

In other words, you’ve prepared yourself to introduce yourself as a board candidate, and now you’re going to put all that good preparation to work.

What will that outreach look like? That depends on what you want. In this sixth of six steps on the journey, you need to think specifically about what kind of a board seat you want – the one that is uniquely suited to you.

Nancy Sheppard, Executive Coach and Chief Journey Advisor for Athena Member Aspiring Directors, suggests asking yourself these questions in order to build a bit of a strategic plan.

• What kind of a board do you want to be on?

• What kind of industries interest you?

• What are five companies on whose mission and boards you’d love to serve?

• What do you need to do in order to connect into those kinds of companies?

• What research might you have to do?

• Who can help you, and how can you reach out to those people?

This kind of thinking helps you orient to what you really want. You might also take some time to consider what you might be missing.

• Do you have the experience needed for the board seats you want?

• Do you have any conflicts of interest?

• Do you have the time and your management support necessary to serve?

• If you were really honest about the board you’d secretly love to be on…whether or not you’re sure it’s possible…what would it be?

With the answers to these questions, you may find yourself adding or subtracting some names from your list. And now it’s time to start some outreach.

• Who do you know?

• Who do you need to know?

• How can you connect with the boards and companies that are your targets?

These questions, she notes, are an ongoing process.  You’ll keep building out your “allies” as you progress in identifying new targets.  She encourages member to “get started” and  to go out and share your interest so that you can be on the top of minds of those who can consider you for, or refer to you, opportunities.

This is where all the good work you’ve done to this point pays off.

You’ll use the “Value Proposition” developed for your new Bio and Resume from your Executive Brand Package to introduce yourself to board members you’ve not yet met.

You’ll use your refined skills in Executive Presence so you’re making a strong impression.

You might look for opportunities to deliver presentations or submit publications to share your thought leadership. Think TED Talks, LinkedIn Groups, and networking events.

You might tailor your personal positioning to each new connection so it’s relevant to the person before you, whether they are someone who can help you get on a board, make an introduction for you, or simply give you some guidance.

In all of these ways, you will be building allies for your board search.

From Outreach to Opportunity

As you know from the other newsletters in this series, the Athena Alliance has specifically designed a process for getting to the board seat you seek, and they know that you will be even more successful if you don’t have to do this alone. If this step seems intimidating at all, it’s definitely worth bringing in a coach who can ask the right questions and even advise you or share their knowledge from working with other leaders. Not only will you feel more confident that you’re doing the right things, but you will also save time and be sure the time you do invest will be time well-spent.

For instance, Nancy Sheppard coaches leaders in thinking about the deeper questions and helping them articulate what they really want with a specific opportunity such as:

• What kind of due diligence do you have to do?

• Why do you want to be on this board?

• What’s important to you about being on a board?

• How can you help this company, and how can you be of value to them?

• Are you a good fit for the board culturally? Is it a good fit for your personality? How should you look at companies or their board to be sure they’re the right fit for you?

• And what kind of research do you need to do to find out?

She also prepares them for the interview process and answers questions like,

• What are the most important things to remember in any board interview?

• What scenarios might I encounter in the interview process?

• How is a board different than the process for an executive position?

• What tips will help ensure the interview goes well?

She even role plays mock interviews with board candidates so they go into the interview feeling calm, competent and confident – and so they get the board seat they want.

Success Story

To understand the impact of Nancy’s coaching, listen to how Nancy Vitale, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Partners for Wellbeing, and former CHRO for Genentech, describes her experience.

“Nancy helped me re-frame my approach to networking for both my business as well as for board opportunities. Nancy helped me to be more targeted in how I leverage my network thoughtfully for these two distinct needs. I am now approaching my reach outs to potential clients with a different mindset of providing valuable support and solutions to problems they have vs. “selling” my services.  I am also more confident in leveraging the executives in my network for potential board opportunities as I continue to grow my visibility through speaking engagements and other external contributions.”

How about you? Is it time you leveraged your network and expanded your opportunities?

As always, I send my best to you. If I can help you in any way, or if you’d like to explore Executive Coaching to support your success, please email me directly at Info@JoelleKJay.com. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

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Today it’s time for a self-assessment.

• Do you believe others perceive you as the leader you want to be?
• Do they see you leading at the level you want to lead?
• For that matter, do they see you…at all?

When you are focused on advancing yourself as a leader, including when you’re interested in elevating yourself to a board position, it’s not just who you are that matters. It’s how others see you. We want to be sure those two things are aligned.

It’s time to become visible as a leader.

Personal Positioning

This part of the journey is to help you get more visible as a potential board member. What is it you want to do? Who are you trying to reach?

In the prior steps on this journey, you got clarity on the messaging – your pitch and your stories – that will help represent you. In this step, we take those messages on the road.

Mara Brazer is a communications coach and media strategist with the Athena Alliance who has been advising CEOs, executives and business leaders for 30 years. As a corporate and advisory board member herself, she has the inside view as to how women need to position themselves to gain their objectives.

At this stage, it’s worth revisiting that question for yourself.

• What are your objectives right now in your professional life?

• Are trying to get on a corporate board, advance in your career, or both?

Whatever your professional objectives at this moment, you will want to position yourself to achieve them and put together the strategy for being seen.

Choosing the Path

If preparing yourself to be ready for a board seat is a journey, today you are choosing the path you will take to get there.

Unlike prior steps on the journey where you were collecting ideas and packing your toolkit with pitches and stories to introduce yourself, today you’ll be thinking about how to hit the road and finding the people with whom you want to share your message.

To find your path, Mara suggests some more questions to guide the way.

• Who will help you meet your objectives? In other words, who is your target audience?

• What messages do they want to hear? This is a different angle than what messages you want to deliver – it’s knowing how to answer your target audience’s unspoken question, “What’s it in for me?”

• What do you want from them? This is where you clarify your ask, so you can put it out there. Do you want a board seat? An executive position? Some other opportunity?

Envisioning First Steps

This part of the journey becomes quite personal, as the way you approach personal positioning depends on what you’re trying to achieve.

Imagine that you are indeed looking for a board seat now. You’ve identified that as a future step in your career, and you’re doing everything you can to be ready for the opportunity. That’s your objective.

So, you think about who might be able to help you get on a board. CEOs, investors, colleagues, former colleagues already on corporate boards – these are now your target audiences. They are the ones who need to hear your messages and understand why they should care about having you on their team. They should understand what you can bring to their company, and how your expertise aligns to their own vision and objectives.

Then, you would think about what you want. If a board position is what you want, this means clarifying how you want to serve, who you want to serve, and the impact you want to make.

• A CFO I once coached decided after a career in finance, what she really wanted to do was promote a healthier world; she joined boards related to sustainable living.
• A Silicon Valley executive with highly technical expertise decided to pursue a board seat in an industry she loved but knew little about: fashion.
• Other women have chosen boards that gave them opportunities to travel to Paris, Tokyo and Sydney; or they chose board positions specifically in their home city so they could stop traveling for work and enjoy making an impact closer to home.

The reasons you love what you love and want to do what you want to do are all about you and your personal choices. They come up here, because once you know what you want, now you can position yourself to get it.

Stops Along the Path

Once you have thought through your personal positioning, now it’s time to take your ideas and share them. If pursuing a board seat is a campaign, and you are a candidate, these are the stops on your tour.

Where will you share your messages?

Think about social media. What’s your platform? LinkedIn? Twitter? YouTube? Where will you share your messages? For most board candidates, LinkedIn is usually the most relevant choice; how can you leverage LinkedIn to advance your goals?

Consider speaking engagements. Where might you appear as a guest speaker, panelist, or expert?

TED Talks? Meetings and Conferences? Ideas Festivals?

Identify your media strategy. Can you establish yourself as an expert source with reporters who reach your target audiences? Can you submit articles with your byline espousing your special viewpoints, to business publications?

On Your Way

So much of your journey to a board seat involves the internal processes you need to be ready. Designing your strategy; building an executive brand package, strengthening your voice and presence, and collecting ideas for your thought leadership have been the focus so far. But now, it’s time to share all of that with the people who need to know you.

Here’s how it may sound when you do.

“I really appreciated the help [I received from Athena]. The turnaround was quick, and I had several “ah-has” from our conversation about how to position myself better. And, I loved [my coach’s] approach to getting to my value. Plus, her personal way of “being” is just all-around enjoyable. This help alone is worth my membership in Athena.” — Michelle Lewis, Principal @ CapStreet Group

Position yourself in the right way, make choices about what’s in your PR strategy, and you’ll be moving down the path that leads you to the opportunity you want.

As always, I send my best to you. If I can help you in any way, or if you’d like to explore Executive Coaching to support your success, please email me directly at Info@JoelleKJay.com. I’d be delighted to hear from you.