Joelle K. Jay

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Network Leverage & Enhancement

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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?

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Personal Positioning and PR Strategy

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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.

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Clarifying Your Ideas

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As The Athena Alliance and I explore what it takes to be on the Journey to a Board Seat – a goal held by many leaders that is especially gaining momentum for women, as they accelerate their careers and take leadership of their companies for the future – we’ve already discussed the first three steps in a twelve-part journey:

  • Step 1 – Planning Your Journey Strategy
  • Step 2 – Creating Your Executive Brand Package
  • Step 3 – Developing Voice and Presence.

Today we examine the fourth step: 

  • Step 4 – Identifying Thought Leadership and Presentation

Almost by definition, putting yourself out there as a board candidate means standing out. The very word “candidate” evokes images of being the one who emerges from a crowd to be the leader – who is seen as worthy and compelling – and who attracts attention for their ideas. The best candidates know what to do with that attention when they get it. They use it to deliver those ideas and make an impact on others. 

What will you say when their attention falls on you? As an aspiring board candidate, you need to know what to say when others give you their attention. What are your big ideas? What do you want to be known for? 

Or, as Athena Alliance coach, communications expert founder of Lange International, Jenna Lange asks: What do you want others to be saying about you when they introduce you to their network?

Clarifying Your Ideas 

The step of identifying thought leadership means being able to clarify the ideas you want to be known for.  Imagine someone saying, “I want to introduce you to X because she has great ideas on Y”.  Y are those ideas.  Perhaps even more importantly, it means being crisp enough in your articulation of those ideas that others can talk about them even when you’re not there. 

After all, gaining a board seat – or any leadership opportunity – is not a process in which you take the stage and expound on your ideas with a stump speech. In an election year, we see political candidates jumping on stages and platforms, grabbing the mic and talking, talking, talking about their ideas hoping to attract the attention of whoever’s interested. They hope their listeners will walk away with a strong and positive association of their name with their ideas.

You may not have political aspirations, and you don’t need to jump on a stump, but as a board candidate you are participating in that same process (albeit in a much subtler way). When you’ve clarified your ideas, you will be talking about them wherever you go: 

  • Sharing what’s important to you
  • Telling stories to help others understand the point
  • Looking for audiences who care and want to support your ideas.

Everyone who gets to know you will then develop that strong and positive association of your name with your ideas.

Then when the opportunities you’re looking for become available, it will be clear that you are the best fit.

Your Thought Leadership Toolbox 

Unlike the Personal Brand package you developed earlier in your Board Journey, your thought leadership package is less concrete. It’s not a resume or LinkedIn profile; it’s a collection of ideas. Think of it as a toolbox full of ideas and stories you can pull out in a variety of settings and tailor to the audience. 

That way, you’ll be able to be consistent in your messaging whether you are:

  • Introducing yourself to executives and board members one-on-one; 
  • Speaking in small groups and networking settings to new acquaintances;
  • Sharing your ideas and explaining what you care about to others who can connect you, sponsor you, or promote you; 

Or 

  • Taking the mic to share your ideas from the stage. 

A Place to Start

The Athena Alliance advises those who wish to be board candidates to gain clarity about their thought leadership. You can do this on your own by starting with a couple of different tasks. 

First, fill in the blanks of this sentence: I want to be known for ______________________. 

Second, gather a few stories that illustrate your ability to do that thing well. 

Or, consider these questions: 

  • What impact do you have as a leader that you want others to see and appreciate?
  • What stories can you share that show you having that impact? And how can you make those stories come alive with detail so they make an impression?
  • Who do you want to know your impact, and if you were talking to them right now, what words would you choose to convey your ideas?
  • If someone else wanted to introduce you to the person who could open the door to your next big opportunity, what words would you want them to say to represent you?

These questions can make a big difference in the way others view you, and the way you view yourself. As one Athena member commented, 

“I had thought I had a good handle on it. But I learned how to have a more executive presence. To speak more deliberately. I’ve been the only woman in the room for 30 years, so I thought I could do this. But the experience with Athena was very helpful and empowering.”

—Barbara Adey, VP, Head of US Sales and Marketing Practice @ BTS Consulting

Getting Out There

Having packed your Thought Leadership Toolbox with your “starter set” of ideas and stories, now you can take that toolbox out and start sharing the word. Whether you do that through conversations, presentations, publications or the media, you will now be able to say and show yourself to be the leader you know you are – and want others to see. 

When you do, you will stop being overlooked or misunderstood, which is what can happen when you haven’t clarified your ideas. Instead, you will be standing out and stepping up. You will be creating a positive impression in eyes of those whose attention you want to attract and showing up as the best version of yourself.  

Sign up to receive the next article in the Journey to a Board Seat series instantly in your inbox. 

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Personal Leadership During A Crisis: How to Stay Clear, Confident and Calm in the COVID-19 Pandemic

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I’ve spoken about personal leadership – or the leadership of the self – many times in the past, but what does personal leadership mean during a crisis, like COVID-19?

If you’re like many leaders, on a day-to-day basis you often find yourself swept away by the busyness – away from the sound principles of effective leadership, away from some of the essential things you want to do (but never have time for), and even away from yourself. But now, faced with the pandemic, we find ourselves confronting a new issue entirely – leading yourself during a crisis, when in addition to all of those priorities, you’re trying to manage the intense emotions – your own and of those you lead.

During times like these, if you’re able to lift yourself out of panic mode and leverage an optimistic mindset, you have an opportunity to productively move forward and stay clear, confident, and calm despite the crisis.

Start by asking yourself:

  • What am I learning now, and how can I effectively address it?
  • What do I want from myself, for the people I lead, and for my life and business, no matter what uncertainty the future (and the present!) may hold?
  • How can I carve out time for reflection and detox so I can continue to stay focused on what matters most for myself, my family, and my career?

By the way, if you are (as so many of us are) now working and leading from home, you face a whole new level of change and challenge that can also derail your progress. Or, with the right mindset, it might improve your process. Take advantage of the time saved in this work-from-home world. The time you would usually commute, hang out chatting in the halls, or putter about your office might be repurposed now for some much-needed rest and planning.

I encourage you to give yourself permission to use your time in quarantine to think about what projects you want to pursue Decide what can you do with this opportunity, and you won’t emerge from this period three months later and find yourself in any kind of career setback. You’ll emerge stronger and more resilient than ever before – ready to succeed with the challenges ahead.

There’s no question that we find ourselves in unprecedented times It can be a time of confusion and uncertainty. For leaders who take the opportunity, though, it can also be a chance to create the kind of leadership that’s built from a stronger, more sustainable foundation.

For more practical exercises and advice on personal leadership, see Joelle’s book: The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership.

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Developing Voice and Presence

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What does your voice say about you?

Many of us put time, effort, energy, and expense into every aspect of our presence:

  • Our dress
  • Our stance
  • Our messaging.

But all of that can be sabotaged in an instant when you say your first word, if your first word isn’t delivered with the strength of a confident voice.

Just Listen

Here’s an exercise. For the rest of the day, every time someone speaks, close your eyes briefly and ask yourself: what does this person’s voice say about them?

A thin, high voice can be perceived as weak and ineffectual.
A low, slow voice can be perceived as thoughtful.
A booming voice can be perceived as either commanding or overbearing.

What does your voice say about you?

In our last Journey to a Board Seat article, we discussed Personal Brand – the packaging of “you” to share with the world using the four pieces of your Executive Board Package. But many people actually won’t get to know you through those documents.

They’ll get to know you when they meet you and hear you present yourself.

Meet Your Voice Coach

At the Athena Alliance, the journey to a board seat includes a stop with Voice and Presence Coach, Hillary Wicht. Working with Hillary can make you feel like a movie star or a celebrity politician ~ she refines the Elevator Pitches of leaders and helps them speak with authority. Once you’ve mastered the art of delivering your Elevator Pitch with confidence and clarity, including with a strong voice and presence, you will engender confidence in others every time they meet you.

And Your Voice Coach May Be You

As with all of the coaches on the Athena Alliance journey, Hillary has endless resources for leaders wanting to improve their voice and presence.

Just listen to the impact this experience had on Athena Member and CFO of SurveyMonkey, Debbie Clifford:

“I give 95% of the credit for securing a board seat to Athena. Athena is an organization that has changed my life for the better. Athena helped me find my voice. I started speaking softly and without conviction. Through the aid of Athena, I learned how to be more confident in telling my story. I found a louder, more compelling voice.”
Debbie Clifford
CFO of SurveyMonkey

But what if on your path you’re just exploring? You don’t have to be an Athena member to find your voice.

  • If you’re not yet ready for a voice coach, you can easily work on your voice on your own.
  • Try recording your voice on your smartphone and listening to yourself speak. Are you pleased with what you hear?
  • Try practicing your Elevator Pitch or self-introduction on video or with a friend, mentor, coach or colleague. What impression do they get?
  • Try searching Voice and Presence online. What programs, books, audios or resources can help you develop a compelling voice with which to present yourself as a leader?

Your Voice: A Secret Weapon

The fact that, of the six steps on the Journey to a Board Seat, one of them is Voice and Presence should tell you how very important it is to attend to this aspect of your image. From what I know of executive leaders, especially women, it may also be the most neglected. People think their voice “is what it is” – but nothing could be further from the truth. You can strengthen your voice and strengthen your reputation if you think about not just what you say, but how you say it.

Next Steps for You

Before you go back to your day, set a next step for yourself related to your voice. What assignment would you like to give yourself to develop this essential element of your executive presence?

Coming Soon

Join me next time when we continue pursuing the way you present yourself to others we move to the next step on the journey: Identifying Thought Leadership and Presentation.

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Your Executive Brand Package: The Four Must-Haves of Your Personal Brand

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There are millions of leaders looking for board seats. Fortunately, you’re one in a million.

In our Journey to a Board Seat Series, so far you’ve learned:

  1. What the Athena Alliance is and how they can help you develop into an attractive board candidate;
  2. How to plan a strategy for your journey to a board seat.

Today, you’re going to learn about Step 2 of the journey: Creating Your Executive Brand Package: The Four Must-Haves of Your Personal Brand.

Why do you need an Executive Brand Package?

As a successful business leader, chances are you are well-known in your organization. You have experience, a reputation, and perhaps even a collection of interviews, press releases and articles showing people who you are and what you offer. Even if you don’t, you probably have a website, or at least a photo and a bio.

In other words, you have a brand.

However, your brand – built over many years of your career – is likely more a historical picture of where you’ve been.

What you need now is a branded package of who you are and what you want. This is the essence of an Executive Brand Package.

What is in an Executive Brand Package?

There are four pieces of your Executive Brand Package:

  1. A Resume or CV
  2. An Executive Bio
  3. An Elevator Pitch
  4. A Linked-In Profile.

You may have variations of these already, or you may be starting from scratch, but either way, the intentional step in this part of the journey is to craft versions of these messages that specifically paint a picture of you as the qualified board member you are and want to be.

How do you create your Executive Brand Package?

There are two distinct phases to developing a winning Executive Brand Package.

First, you must know yourself.

Second, you must capture your compelling qualities in writing.

Neither of those things are easy, and they both benefit from working with a coach.

Fortunately, The Athena Alliance offers coaching and produces an Executive Brand Package for its members, taking out much of the stress and time needed to “brand yourself.” I was fortunate to work with Executive Writer, Adriana Azuri, who masterfully pulled together my Executive Brand Package and led me through this step.

  • We started by gathering my existing materials.
  • We then discussed everything I’d learned from planning my Journey Strategy.
  • She drafted each of the four elements of my Executive Brand Package.
  • Together, we wordsmithed and refined the final copy.
  • And in the end, I had four complete, written documents that I could feel confidently presented me in the best light for the board seat I wanted.

As Adriana says,

“Through this process of learning about a member’s career, I can tell you who they are and what value they deliver or have delivered. I then outline a member’s overall career achievements to bring out the best of the best. It’s crystal clear to me who they are and what their strengths are.”

Adriana Azuri
Athena Alliance
Journey Advisor & Executive Writer

Whether you’re pursuing a board seat now or think you may wish to sometime in the future, it’s never too late to pull these materials together for yourself.

How can I create my own Executive Brand Package?

If you know you need to spruce up your public image and put together an Executive Brand Package that presents the best version of you to the world, the place to start is defining your Personal Brand.

Admittedly, working through the details of creating a Personal Brand can be painful and difficult to do on one’s own. It requires self-knowledge, reflection, self-awareness, vulnerability, and confidence. This is definitely a process that is served by working with a competent communications expert, a personal branding consultant, or a coach.

I work with many of my executive coaching clients on building their Personal Brand, and I’d be happy to share that process with you – just email me directly at Info@JoelleKJay.com.

Once you know your Personal Brand, the rest is easy. All four of the elements of the Executive Brand Package –

  • Your Resume or CV
  • Your Bio
  • Your Elevator Pitch
  • Your Linked-in Profile

– are all really just different formats for presenting that Personal Brand to the world.

Next Steps for You

Having been fortunate enough to work with an Athena Alliance Executive Writer, I know the value of having someone create my Executive Brand Package for me – and having tried to create the four documents involved on my own in other phases of my career, I also know how excruciatingly difficult it can be to do this alone. There’s something about writing about oneself that is just simply hard.

Give yourself the benefit of support.

If you’re walking yourself through the journey to a board seat on your own, do gather drafts of the Executive Brand Package and see if it presents you the way you want to be presented.

But if you have any reticence at all, feel uncertain of your Personal Brand, are intimidated by the writing or the process, or don’t have a clear sense of what a successful Executive Brand Package might look like, stop struggling. We can do this piece together. Again, shoot me a note at Info@JoelleKJay.com, and we’ll work through this phase of the journey.

Coming Soon

In the next article in our Journey to a Board Seat Series, I will share with you how to deliver the Personal Brand in living color as we move to the next step on the journey: Developing Voice and Presence.

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Planning Your Journey

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They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but if you’re planning a long and successful journey, you should also have a strategy.

That’s definitely true if you are on the journey to a board seat.

As you know from our introductory articles, women who are pursuing a seat on a corporate board are often at a disadvantage.

Board seats tend to go to men and to those on the “inner circle” – a situation that tends to leave women out. That’s why The Athena Alliance was created. CEO Coco Brown and her team present women with a path to a board seat, and it is a journey that begins not just with a single step, but a strategy.

They call it the Journey Planning Strategy. In today’s issue of the Journey to a Board Seat Series, I want to share with you my personal experience with the Journey Planning Strategy – a benefit offered by The Athena Alliance that instantly gives women on the journey a great start.

Orientation

Starting the journey to a board seat can be daunting.

  • You’ve never done it before.

  • You don’t know what’s involved.

  • You have no idea whether you’re qualified.

  • You don’t know what gaps you need to fill to be qualified.

  • You wonder if you can be successful either way.

How much easier it is to start a journey if you have a guide.

At the Athena Alliance, your guide is your Member Success Manager. Member Success Managers serve as a “Personal Chief of Staff.” Athena Alliance Members are encouraged leverage these partners to access the full value that Athena can offer, from coaching and events to meaningful connections to other members, and it all starts at the beginning of the journey.

When I was first introduced to my Member Success Manager, she did two things for me.

First, she gave me an overview of the stages of the journey I’d be taking. To review these from our last article, the six steps on the journey are these:

  • Step 1 – Planning Your Journey Strategy

  • Step 2 – Creating Your Executive Brand Package

  • Step 3 – Developing Voice and Presence

  • Step 4 – Identifying Thought Leadership and Presentation

  • Step 5 – Personal Positioning and PR Strategy

  • Step 6 – Network Leverage and Enhancement

She introduced me to The Athena Alliance website, www.AthenaAlliance.org, and shared with me their considerable resources, including a library of relevant articles and dozens of other women on the journey, many of whom were open to conversations with me and some of whom were seasoned board members willing to help me on my way.

Having given me the map and assuring me I could get in touch anytime, my Member Success Manger launched me on Step One – Planning My Journey Strategy.

The Strategy Sessions

Planning my Journey Strategy again sounded worrisome. How could I plan a strategy for a journey I’d never taken? Where would I even begin?

Again, The Athena Alliance is designed specifically to guide women down the path with experienced experts virtually leading the way. My Member Success Manager handed me directly into the care of my first coach: Chief Journey Advisor Nancy Sheppard.

A seasoned board member herself, as well as an Athena veteran and executive coach, Nancy had the skills and the system for helping me discover what it would take for me to get a board seat.

In our first meeting, Nancy got to know me and asked a series of questions.

  • Why do you want to be on a board?

  • What kind of a board interests you?

  • What qualifications do you have, and what do you need?

She read my bio, explored my social media profiles, and asked about my references and connections.

In our second meeting, Nancy presented me with a Plan for my Journey Strategy. By the time our conversation was over, I had her honest assessment about what assets I had that would make me successful in obtaining a board seat and where I needed to fill in some blanks.

In other words, she answered all of those questions I had at the start of my journey. I knew now that even though I’d never been on this journey, I was in good hands. I understood what was involved; I knew where I was and wasn’t qualified; and I had confidence that by taking the Athena Alliance Journey to a Board Seat, I could be successful.

You can hear how other members experienced this thorough launch of their journey by listening to them describe their experience in this phase:

“I had a wonderfully motivating journey planning call. I am grateful to have been paired with someone in an active leadership position in [my specific] sector. She tailored the journey overview to focus on helpful tips for me to get the most out of my journey. I wasn’t sure what to expect out of the first call, but our time certainly surpassed anything I envisioned. She injected such well-crafted role-playing exercises to more deeply explain the goals and purpose of my network and visibility session. I left feeling energized and ready to take full advantage of what the Athena program has to offer.”

Erin DeCesare
CTO of ezCater

Next Steps for You

If you haven’t already visited the Athena Alliance website, take a moment to explore: www.AthenaAlliance.org. There you’ll get a sense of the resources they offer, from research to services and events. Even if joining a board is a distant dream of yours or a new interest, you will begin to discover what’s ahead on this journey – and what’s ahead may be an exciting adventure in your career.

And an expert tip: you may not yet have a Chief Journey Advisor like Nancy to build your plan, but by comparing Member Profiles and reading through The Athena Alliance website, you can ask yourself the same kinds of questions Nancy asked me and start sketching a plan for your journey to a board seat. You already have a lot of the pieces – just take some time to put them together, and you’ll be able to lead yourself down this path.

Coming Soon

Watch for our next article in the Journey to a Board Seat Series, in which I will share with you how to package yourself as a potential board member with your Executive Board Package: The Four Must-Haves of Your Personal Brand.

P.S. Here again is the website for The Athena Alliance: www.AthenaAlliance.org

As always, I send my best to you. If I can help you in any way, or if you’d like to network your way into success, please reach out anytime! I’d be delighted to hear from you.

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An Interview with Coco Brown, CEO, The Athena Alliance

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Today we are launching our Journey to a Board Seat – a 12-part article series to show leaders how to become a board member. If you want to advance your career as a business executive, improve your skills in your leadership role, or find a way to transition from a corporate career into an interesting semi-retirement, this journey is for you.

Subscribe Now to the Journey to a Board Seat Series

We are guided on our Journey by The Athena Alliance, an organization that prepares women to succeed in finding a board seat – and for corporate boards to find them. Today, we are introduced to our journey in an interview with the CEO of the Athena Alliance, Coco Brown. Coco will be sharing with us why having women on boards is so important for companies and compelling for women, as well as what challenges and opportunities are available for leaders who want to take this road.

In our Journey to a Board Seat, we will mostly be helping leaders understand what they need to do to find the board seat they want. But companies also have to want the women to have those seats. Why is it important for companies to focus on getting women on boards?

Coco: An overwhelming amount of evidence says that having more women on boards leads to better performance for companies. Women are a huge economic force. If businesses want to thrive, they need to be able to market to and sell to women. Women make over 80% of health, financial, and buying decisions. In addition, women fill 23% of top senior leadership and are 46.5 % of breadwinners. Companies that want to succeed financially must be able to win with women – and having women on their boards can help them to do that. 

What is unique about women getting board positions compared to men?

Unfortunately, it is uncommon for women to be highly visible at this level of corporate leadership. 

Think of this. Only 2.2% of venture funding goes to women, so almost all of the companies that have potential to scale quickly are run by men. The investors in those companies are over 85% men, and the investors are the ones who often take the board seats. So in early stage companies, where the founders are men and the board members are men, the executives they recruit also tend to be men. Humans are tribal, and at this level of business, women are not in the tribe. In order to get a seat on a corporate board, one has to be a part of the network, and the biggest problem women have is that they’re not. 

Why do women/executives want a board position?

In my opinion, the number one reason business leaders should become board members is because it makes them better executives. It also broadens their impact beyond the immediate role they hold as their main job. Serving on a board allows leaders to share their capacity and skill with more than one company, without having to leave or compete with their primary employer. Finally, for leaders moving toward retirement, serving on a board is a great way to extend your career. This may be new to women, but men have been doing it forever! Now women have access to the economic and lifestyle benefits of extending their careers by becoming the member of a board. 

The Athena Alliance helps women get the board seats they want. How do you prepare women to be successful in securing a board position?

The two biggest thing any woman can do for herself are these: 

  1. Know your story.
  2. Have a plan. 

Women need to be able to articulate the value they bring to the table and to develop a plan in which they identify where and how they would like to serve on a board; what skills and talents they bring; what they need to do to become prepared; and how to find the right match. We help them do that by bringing them along a journey to their board seat. 

It’s not a passive process. Taking the journey requires time, attention and learning, but it will lead them to the board seat they want.

What is the process you use at the Athena Alliance to help them do that? What is the journey? 

We have a process that includes coaching, getting involved in a network, and gaining access and visibility into the world of board membership. 

The coaching component includes a series of opportunities to shore up your ability to know and tell your story – in other words, to show yourself to be the board member you want to be. Those opportunities include: 

  • Step 1 – Planning Your Journey Strategy
  • Step 2 – Creating Your Executive Brand Package
  • Step 3 – Developing Voice and Presence
  • Step 4 – Identifying Thought Leadership and Presentation
  • Step 5 – Personal Positioning and PR Strategy
  • Step 6 – Network Leverage and Enhancement.

That’s a process in which leaders work on themselves and ensure they’re prepared for the board seat they want. It can take six to nine months to complete the coaching and get prepared – but once they do, they are ready to start seeking those board positions. 

Beyond the coaching, there are a number of other components to the journey, including: 

  • Mentoring – working with seasoned board members who help women with the nuances of board membership. 
  • Connections – getting connected with companies that are seeking women to serve on their boards.
  • Exposure  – gaining insight into the process of getting a board seat and being able to see their own progress.
  • Virtual Salons – our ongoing series of virtual educational opportunities to expand their knowledge about how to be successful in this world of board membership. 

Best of all, we take a highly customized, personal approach to this process, providing white glove service to our members to ensure they’re getting the information, learning and opportunities specifically curated for them.

Sounds amazing! How can women get involved? 

The first step would be to visit our website, AthenaAlliance.org. This article series, Journey to a Board Seat, that you will be sending out all year will also give leaders a chance to experience the steps of the journey and start becoming acquainted with what’s ahead for them if they are interested in this path. 

Subscribe Now to the Journey to a Board Seat Series

Secondly, if they wanted to explore membership, they can request an invitation to join. That will give them the opportunity to have a conversation with a Membership Consultant who will take them through the experience.

Thank you for taking the time to introduce us to The Athena Alliance. As you know, we will have the entire year to explore the stages of the journey, but for today, can you share with us what makes you most proud as you look at what The Athena Alliance is achieving?

I’m proud of the way we are building something of so much value to other people. It’s a privilege to lead this endeavor, seeing how many women – and men – we’ve helped in an area that is so vital to the success of companies and their leaders. 

You can hear it in the way members talk about their experience: 

“Athena Alliance is powerful and game-changing organization at many levels. Athena opened doors and created the network trust I needed to have access to public board opportunities that otherwise would have remained hidden. Athena encouraged, (sometimes pushed when required) and supported me to go after those opportunities with the knowledge and mentorship of the broader Athena community.”

Yvonne Wassenaar
CEO of Puppet
Board Director at Forrester

Congratulations to you and The Athena Alliance for all of your successes, and those yet to come! I look forward to sharing your good work through this series. Thank you!

And for those of you reading this article, get ready for next month’s article in which we take your first step on the journey!

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Journey To A Board Seat

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The problem many women leaders face is that their career path at some point hits a dead end. Either they want a senior executive position and can’t seem to get it; or they have that position and know they need to expand their skills to succeed; or they have had it and are ready to ease off – they want to move into a new phase of their professional lives without giving up their professional identities.

Becoming a member of a corporate board solves each of those problems. It is the best kind of professional development for senior executive leaders, and it’s also a way to transition out of the workaday world into a less intense but more fulfilling phase of contribution and meaning.

Nevertheless, few women actually find their way to a board seat. Why? Perhaps they don’t know how valuable that role could be for them, or perhaps they don’t know how to get there. Perhaps they simply don’t believe it’s possible, given that most board’s seats are filled by men.

Enter The Athena Alliance, an organization that prepares women to succeed in finding a board seat – and for corporate boards to find them. The Athena Alliance offers Membership options for individual leaders. Even better, companies often cover the costs of Membership for their employees as a benefit, knowing that the journey to a board seat will actually make them better leaders.

I became acquainted with The Athena Alliance when I was promoting my book The New Advantage: How Women in Leadership Can Create Win-Wins for their Companies – and Themselves. The Athena Alliance helps women to be successful in finding a board seat by preparing them, educating them, and connecting them to a network, until they find the board seat they want.

In my coaching, I have seen women take this journey with remarkable results.

  • Laura was an Executive Vice President who tried for years to break into a C-level role. Only when she joined The Athena Alliance and took the journey to a board seat did she get the visibility, credibility and opportunity she needed to finally gain the title of CEO.
  • Nancy had been a CFO in a Fortune 500 company for years and was ready to retire ~ but at 52 felt she had much life ahead of her. Taking the journey to a board seat led her to explore many new interests and gave her the opportunity to support companies she believed in and help them succeed.
  • Lillian had led a company as the CEO before it sold. After a year’s rest and retirement, she started to get restless. She loved her work and felt she had a lot to offer. Her journey to a board seat gave her a way to exercise her mind and share her skills while maintaining an easy, peaceful quality of life – and get paid well to do it

Whether you are a business leader who wants to succeed as an executive, or an executive who wants to transition to a board member, you will benefit from understanding what The Athena Alliance has to share with women about how to succeed.

Join me for this 12-part series as we explore your Journey to a Board Seat – up next: An Interview with the leader of The Athena Alliance, CEO Coco Brown. As a sneak peek, here are a few words from an Athena member:

 “Athena Alliance is tireless in its mission to bring valuable opportunities and indispensable resources to its membership. There are only actions and results—from matching me to stimulating board roles, promoting my company and my profile among industry leaders, to helping me make the most important business connections. When I think of any organization that is a must to be a part of, I first think of Athena Alliance.”– Caroline Tsay
CEO & Co-founder of Compute Software, Board Director @ Coca-Cola Company and Morningstar

Sign up to receive the next installment of Journey to a Board Seat!

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How To Organize Your Life, Do Less and Have More Time

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Many of us have an action plan, or to-do list, to keep ourselves organized – at the beginning of the day we write down everything that we have to do, and then the day is filled with the victorious crossing off of items from the list. But what happens when you get to the end of the day, and too often there are lot of things left?

We’re left with a feeling like the work is never done, but perhaps the problem isn’t so much that there’s so much that needs to get done, but the fact that we’re putting everything on one long to-do list.

You can actually organize your thinking, and organize your time, just by changing your to-do list.

Having a detailed daily action plan can help you stay focused – it’s called the catalyst. In science, a catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process. For you, your catalyst is an action that dramatically increases the rate at which you achieve your vision without it consuming you.

The CATA-list action plan is divided into 4 categories:

  • Catalysts
  • Achievements
  • Tasks
  • Avoidances

The catalyst: To find your catalyst, ask yourself: What is the one thing I can do that will have the greatest impact on my vision? The guiding principle for your catalyst is that you know this one item would do the most to get you to your goal. For example, let’s say you’re trying to lose 50 pounds. A catalyst might be to go running, or give up sugar. Your catalyst is that one thing that’s most important for you to do to manifest your desired outcome.

Achievements: These are the actions you classify as highly important. They might not have the transformational effect of your one catalyst, but they’re the achievements that matter on a day-to-day basis. It’s your daily actions, priorities, projects and deadlines.

Tasks: This category is for the actions you like to take, but can’t justify as truly critical, at least not in terms of your priorities and goals. Tasks are typically big time consumers. These are the long meetings that need to be scheduled, networking events, or maybe they’re things you like to do only after the more valuable action items are taken care of.

Avoidances: These are the actions that have actually very little return. Often times, scrolling through social media feeds falls into this category. Surfing through our emails, unuseful conversations are avoidances that actually take up the time we need for more important priorities in our lives. By creating a catalyst you have organized now your to-do list in an efficient way in an organized order of value for your time.

By creating a catalyst you have an organized your list of action items in an efficient way, and in an organized order of value for your time. When you see your catalyst through, you free yourself of the daily to-do list, and organize your list of action items according to your priorities – and, ultimately, achieve your vision.

For more resources on time management, work-life balance and other leadership coaching materials, see Joelle’s recent books and articles, and resources for women leaders.