Board Shorts Podcast

Are you ready to unlock your board career potential? The time is now. Too often, aspiring board members get stuck in the 'getting started' phase. In this episode, I'm breaking down the barriers and providing actionable steps to launch your board journey. Three steps to starting your Board career: Understand the Commitment: Before joining a board, be clear about the responsibilities, time commitmen...

Are you tired of falling short in your Board applications? If you're aspiring to join a Board but struggling to stand out in the competitive landscape, this episode is for you. In this episode, I dive deep into the art of crafting a Board Resume that truly impresses. Discover simple yet effective strategies to make your application shine among a sea of candidates. What I cover: Three questions to...

Delve into some of the proposed changes to the ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations. With a focus on gender balance, diversity, and material ESG risks, I offer a comprehensive analysis of the evolving landscape of corporate governance in Australia. Key Takeaways: Gender Balance and Diversity: The proposed fifth edition introduces measurable objectives for gender diversity on boa...

Today we're diving into the world of artificial intelligence and its potential impact on board secretaries. Joining me is Suzanne Rowe, the founder of Board Support Services, a company that provides governance support to organisations across Australia. With her many years of experience in corporate governance, Suzanne offers a unique perspective on the role of AI in the boardroom. In this episode,...

Do you leave writing your board resume to the last minute, rushing to produce something that you're not quite happy with? GenAI may seem like a helpful solution. But, is it? I used Google's Gemini to write my Board Resume and in this episode I share what happened. Key Takeaways: GenAI is not a silver bullet: While it can assist in writing board resumes, it cannot fully replace human judgment and e...

Giselle McLachlan is someone I have met through my relationship with BoardPro (a Board management software provider). Giselle is an experienced Board Member from New Zealand, having started on Boards as part of her leadership role. From there, she has built a Board portfolio while leading Grounded Governance, a governance training, advice, and education organisation. Her and I share a similar huma...

Wellbeing in the workplace is a topic that has been around for a while. But with new positive duties for company directors in Australia, psychosocial safety in the workplace is the latest evolution in workplace health and safety obligations. Board Members are well-aware of their responsibilities to the physical safety of their work force. However, directors now must proactively manage hazards that...

Creating and sustaining an engaged and motivated group of individuals is critical in any business context. The boardroom is no different. What is often the case, though and I've experienced this first-hand, is we expect board members to show up, but what we get are human beings. Human beings that are very smart, used to being in charge, and leading other humans. But, when placed in the context of...

My guest for this instalment of the Boardroom Insider of the Month series is Anna Hurley, Project Manager of the Hurley Hotel Group and Publican of the Marion Hotel. Anna's day job includes oversight of the Marion Hotel, the construction of the new Hotel Panorama, and overseeing various capital projects and investments across the 9 hotels and various property interests of the Hurley Hotel Group, f...

The CEO-Board relationship often persists despite mutual frustration; each doing or not doing things that inevitably get up each other's noses. This normalisation of Board-CEO tension is helpful to a point; however, it can lead to negative outcomes for the board, organisation, customers, and stakeholders if left unchecked. Issues between the Board and CEO frequently stem from a handful of easily m...

Investing in governance education is something that all board members and boards will consider multiple times during their Board career. There are so many options available: for individual board members and for boards; and so many other considerations to make: in-person or online, free or paid, formal or informal. In this episode, I hope to equip you with some tools and considerations that you can...

Most aspiring and emerging board members would describe themselves as a high performer. If you're listening to this podcast, I would suspect that you would lean more towards high performing than not. All this to say, this episode is for you if you're an aspiring board member (whether you want to join your first board, or you're looking to take the step up to larger organisations, more sophisticate...

Where do I find the right people for my NFP Board? How do I build a Board that is generous? Why can't I find any good Board Members? I often hear these questions from exasperated not-for-profit leaders, Chairs, and Board Members. It turns out that there is a better way to define, find, and recruit non-profit Board Members and Sabrina Walker Hernandez is an expert on this topic. She has previously...

Emotional intelligence encompasses a set of skills that enable individuals to recognize, understand, and manage their own emotions and the emotions of others. Current thinking points to emotional intelligence (or, EQ) as being more important for leaders than raw intelligence (or, IQ) alone. In the Boardroom, the soft skills or EQ skills that the individual Board Members bring are critical to Board...

You're listening to episode 81 part two of the a-z of corporate governance, covering N-Z. Hopefully you caught episode 80 where I covered A-M. This is the second part of the list. As I mentioned in episode 80, the idea for this series came about because of the frequent questions I am asked about various aspects of boards and corporate governance. To many people, the world of boards and governance...

A recent conversation with an aspiring board member inspired me to capture my thoughts on this topic on the podcast. The focus of the conversation is a common situation that I see aspiring board members confront. Recording this episode will enable me to help more people work through this stage of their board career than I could get to by having a series of one-to-one conversations. Aspiring board...

'Tis the season to be attending many functions. But how do you choose which events, functions, and parties to show up to? And how do you get the most out of the events you are attending (i.e. to support your board ambitions)? I share three questions to ask yourself so that you can use your board goals as a guide to choose which events you attend so that you're not over-exerting yourself by going t...

This episode was inspired by a recent conversation I had with a friend about her board career and the goals she has for it. We quickly got onto the topic of governance-centred courses, which is a common consideration for aspiring board members. We also got onto the topic of board recruitment and the commonly desired and required attribute of candidates is that they can demonstrate that they have c...

Jasleen Kaur and I dig into diversity and inclusion, what the state of the nation is regards to the work done so far, how organisations can make meaningful progress and impact, how to avoid tokenism, where to find diverse candidates (for your board or organisation), and how individual accountability and consequences are key in achieving desired inclusion outcomes. I didn't want this to be another...

I recently asked the members of my Board Talk Community what they felt is the most challenging part of STARTING their board journey. The majority of people responded that not knowing where to find board opportunities was their biggest challenge. So, I thought I would respond to that challenge in this episode because you may be feeling or experiencing the same challenge. To that end, I cover three...

Strategy and strategic planning are things that I see many boards struggle with. I feel like strategy is one of those things that you understand when you see it, but defining it is difficult. You know a good strategy when you see one, but getting to that point feels difficult, unclear, and challenging. Once you've gone through a strategic planning process, and have a strategy, the next thing to co...

Every board needs a solid connection with their CEO. And every CEO needs a solid connection with their board. The Board-CEO relationship is dynamic and, done well, enables an organisation to be successful, sound, and solid. Done poorly, the organisation can reel from crisis to crisis; under-performing and drawing criticism from people inside and outside the organisation. It's a tough place for a B...

There's a quick, inexpensive, and easy tool that can help your Board to build its bench strength. That tool is a Board Skills Matrix. But before you tune out before you tune in, what I share in this episode is how to take this simple tool that many boards are using and beef it up to make it do double or even triple duty for your board and your organisation. Board skills matrices are underutilised....

I started my board career in 2009 at a local sport club. Thirteen years later I am on the board of a national charity and have a business education aspiring and current board members on governance and thriving in the boardroom. In this episode I share my board story: my board career journey, what I have achieved along the way, and what I've learned over this journey. The three lessons I share at t...

Georgia Henry is the founder and CEO of Henry Reed, a specialist culture and leadership consultancy and advisory business that partners with organisations and people leaders to drive positive culture change for meaningful and measurable impact. Georgia is on the Board Shorts Podcast to share her perspectives and expertise on organisational culture and, particularly, the Board's role in changing, s...