Future Directors Podcast

How easy is it to up the impact and influence in your board role?  In this episode, Paul is joined by upcoming Future Directors Faculty Member, former-NACD President, award-winning documentary filmmaker, and talented human of other governance things Erin Essenmacher. Together we look at how positive psychology can help you navigate common but tricky human dynamics in the boardroom. We explore how...

Many people think you have to be an accountant or finance professional to sit on a board. Nope! But, you do need to know how to navigate financial statements AND, more importantly, ask all the right questions of the numbers...often with a bit of skeptisicm. In this episode, Paul is joined by new Future Directors Faculty Member and sports nut, Dr David Bond. He also teaches this finance stuff to un...

What a coup! Famed author Bob Burg joins Paul for a rare podcast interview.  Bob Burg is a world-renowned author who has sold over 2 million books. In this episode, Bob shared the timeless principles behind this influential work, The Go-Giver (co-authored with John David Mann) and explained why shifting your focus from GETTING to GIVING can transform your business (and your board) and also your li...

We love a good crossover episode! In late 2024, your host Paul Smith featured on The Jasper Blueprint podcast with Bessi Graham. It was so relevant for Future Directors' listener...that we decided to add it to our episode list. In this episode, Bessi and I explore governance as a competitive edge in small to medium-sized businesses. Focusing on future-fit boards that manage responsibilities across...

NEW SEASON TIME! I hope you all enjoyed the Future Boards Forum 2024 episode. That essentially acts as a break in my mercurial podcast. Now, I mix things up again. I can be like a magpie and shiny objects! This season will be ALL interviews with cool people talking about corporate (and board) governance topics that don't get as much air time.  First up, the founder and MD of The Governance Collect...

What are the Governance Trends for year ahead? In this special episode, we bring you the highlights from the Future Boards Forum (held in December 2024), where I was joined by a panel of governance geeks to explore the biggest trends shaping board governance for the next 12 months. It's a bit of a longer episode (and sorry about the sound quality), but stick with it and you'll hear insights on eme...

In my last episode before a brand new (very special) season kicks off, I literally sit down and riff with my Governance Geek friend Matt Fullbrook to chat about good people and good governance. This short episode was totally unplanned. We were working in his Brisbane AirBnB during our recent "Experimental Mindsets Tour" of Australia in October 2024. More on that next year. For now...judge for your...

Much of board education likes to zero in on technical knowledge—keeping up with regulatory updates, sharpening financial skills, risk management, and staying on top of industry trends.  These are crucial, no doubt. But they're only one part of the picture. The often overlooked part is the necessary human skills...and for me, the real heart of what makes a board effective. So, here's another little...

Commentary on corporate governance commonly focuses on what is wrong or missing. The mistakes, the downfalls, the 'bad stuff'. Admittedly, I'm not immune to this.  With the world seemingly in increasing turmoil - divisive politics, endless wars, clashing ideologies… and just trying to keep up with the cost of living - it would be easy to keep focusing on the negative. So, here's a little short pod...

Diving into the heart of what makes or breaks the boardroom is not just a pastime for me—it's a mission. Some time ago, a few of my fellow future-focused enthusiasts and I went down a rabbit hole to talk about the most unpopular governance opinions. I thought I would reflect on and summarise the themes in the podcast. Please note. Not all of these are mine, but I fully support how unpopular they m...

A poorly executed board recruitment strategy can be the silent saboteur of a board's success. Quality board recruitment processes are the cornerstone that ensures the right mix of expertise, experience and vision exists to govern with confidence. Unlike executive recruitment, it's also a process that most boards only engage in occasionally, so boards need a robust and repeatable process embedded i...

What type or style of board member are you? Are you the Stakeholder Champion, Data Chaser, Status Hound, Unprepared, or even the Narcissist? These are the types identified in a recent article from Harvard Business Review, and in another bite-sized episode from Paul, he gives you a few more to play with. Then, Paul asks how can we harmonise so many different people into an effective team or board?...

Yes, 100 episodes!  Wow. Almost 70 hours worth of conversation about boards, directors, technology, diversity, education, careers, challenges and more. It's been a blast.  To welcome us into the next century, you have a new host, Matt Fullbrook. Amongst his claims to fame he's the single most repeated guest on Paul's podcast and one of the few others governance podcasts to hit 100 episodes. In thi...

As we near our ONE-HUNDREDTH episode, Paul shares his favourite episode of all time. It also happens to be one of the most downloaded episodes in the podcast's history.  Featuring repeat offender Matt Fullbrook, alongside younger directors Nurain Janah and Hannah Stenning, this replay of Ep57 dives into why we need intergenerational diversity in the boardroom. This is the first part of an eventual...

Hello, fellow governance geeks, director dorks and boardroom boffins! This special technological episode features your host Paul Smith - founder of Future Directors - chatting with the hugely popular Generative AI tool, ChatGPT 4.0. Having crowdsourced some questions from his network, Paul ask Chat questions, follow-up questions, agrees to disagree and more with a voice-enabled version of the revo...

In this episode, Paul takes a backseat to his colleague Aisling Blackmore who recorded this webinar with William Rae and Elaine Crichton from Inspiring Scotland in late 2023.  (Please note, there were some sound issues during this recording) Inspiring Scotland is a UK-based charity that identifies and solves problems on a national scale, working together for a Scotland without poverty or disadvant...

Can you believe we are four episodes away from the Magic 100?!? This is a wonderful in-depth chat between two people obsessed with board governance.  Jess Bulger is a proud Wiradjuri woman from Tumut in NSW, Australia. She is the CEO of the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute and Co-Chair at Outward Bound Australia. She cares deeply about indigenous leadership, capacity building and seeing...

Are you looking to build a board of directors from scratch or enhance your existing board composition? If so, then this episode is the one for you.  This ep features a recent conversation between Paul and special guests, Rosie and Lucy Thomas from Project Rockit. A few years ago, these two sisters worked with Paul to enhance the board composition of their social enterprise.  The chat dives deep in...

As we see big brand companies like Qantas and OpenAI go through what we can safely say from the outside is a bit of a 'governance crisis', it has brought up the need to be very clear about what is board leadership and why is it different to other leadership roles. In another bite-sized episode of Paul by himself (guests are back soon), he will give you a twist on the usual elephantish analogy. SPO...

In a world of ever-evolving organisational governance, where boards serve as the nerve centre of decision-making and strategy, it is surprising how often the simple question of PURPOSE remains unanswered. Boards of directors, entrusted with steering companies through complex waters, frequently grapple with their roles, often searching for their true north. In this short episode, Paul is back to he...

In this special episode, we share a recent recording of Paul hosting a live webinar on the subject of AI, its impact on boardrooms, policies, governing and the role of board directors themselves.  Is it a risk, an opportunity, or (spoiler alert) both? In this episode, Paul discusses: What is AI, Generative AI and what stage are we at?* How to develop an AI Governance Policy for your company or org...

On the back of episode 89, we've been looking at another study. This time by Monash University in Australia, which delved deep into board diversity and inclusion. They interviewed remarkable women from diverse backgrounds, and what they unearthed is a wake-up call for every boardroom across the world. In this episode, Paul is back to quickly distill the main points of this latest study and what it...

Another year, another survey of board directors. Does this one show us anything new? Earlier this year, the Global Network of Director Institutes released their "The Future of Board Governance" report. The GNDI is a collection of 24 national governance institutes from North and South America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, with combined memberships of 150,000. In this episode, P...

This episode is a bit special and serves two purposes. For our Australian listeners, it continues on the discussion about navigating the Voice to Parliament discussion with your board. Paul hosted a webinar recently and this is a snippet from a special panel discussion with guests Jessica Bulger (from the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute) and Kate Hillman (from Ernst & Young).   For our...

In a special episode of the podcast, we take a look at how to navigate the 'Voice to Parliament' Referendum in your boardroom. For our non-Australian listeners, this won't mean much unless you keep up to date with First Nations affairs globally.  In this webinar (converted to podcast), Paul was joined by author, Uluru Statement from the Heart signatory and Yes23 Spokesperson, Thomas Mayo, and CEO...