Blog

In my 20th year of serving on corporate boards, I wrote a blog called “Emotional Intelligence in the Board Room.” Today, I am writing about the topic once again as the second blog in my “Elevating Your Board Effectiveness” series. If you haven’t yet, you can read the first blog in the series here: “Finding Your Voice in the Board Room.” The reason that I am reintroducing the topic of emotional intelligence is that in my decades of  board service, I have observed that emotional intelligence is one of the most important and least discussed boardroom skills. What is emotional intelligence? According to Daniel Goleman, the American psychologist who popularized the concept, emotional intelligence is “the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know what they’re feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people.” According to a Korn Ferry Institute study, “high emotional intelligence defines the most successful leaders and is at the heart of the best-run companies.” [...]

When corporate board have gender diversity, businesses see better results. For example, a Canadian study of 6,000 boards found that gender-balanced boards have more varied viewpoints and lead to higher effectiveness and decreased financial irregularities. That’s why Women Get On Board’s mandate is to connect, promote and empower women to corporate boards. I am pleased to announce that to further Women Get On Board’s mandate, I am launching a new blog series called Elevating Your Board Effectiveness. Building on my e-book “How to Get Yourself On a Board”, the Elevating Your Board Effectiveness series will provide practical insights, intelligence and tools to empower women with the skills and confidence to lead and serve on boards. Today’s blog launches the first of the Elevating Board Effectiveness series and is about Finding Your Voice in the Boardroom.  As I wrote in my 2018 blog called “Finding Your Voice at the Boardroom Table”, it can be difficult to find your voice when you are a new board member appointed to a board that has longstanding relationships or when you are the “token” woman at the table. What’s the solution? [...]

By Deborah Rosati, FCPA, FCA, ICD.D According to a Harvard Business Review article called “Research: When Women Are on Boards, Male CEOs Are Less Overconfident”, having more women on boards yields better results for shareholders because “having female board members helps temper the overall confidence of male CEOs, improving overall decision making for the company.” Women Get On Board supports the findings of this study: having more women on boards leads to better results for the businesses they represent. That is why our mandate is to connect, promote, and empower more women to corporate boards. It’s also why I am sharing my board advice in this 4-part series called “How to Get Yourself on a Board.” If you have been following the first 3 blogs in this series, you have learned how to “Master the Foundations”, “Position Your Board Offer”, and “Get Board Interviews”. The final blog in this series 4es all of these elements together by showing you how to ace your board interview. In today’s blog, I provide my top ten (10) tips from my [...]

In recent years, businesses have begun to realize that gender diversity on boards makes a big difference. For example, one study of 6,000 boards found that gender-balanced boards are less likely to have financial irregularities because having different viewpoints and opinions leads to increased effectiveness. Women Get On Board’s mandate is to connect, promote, and empower women to corporate boards. We do this through an engaged community of women and men in Canada committed to advancing gender diversity in the boardroom. However, as I wrote in my blog post called “Are You Board-Ready”, “getting yourself board-ready is a journey where you need to be realistic in your skills, experience and value you bring to a board. You also need to be mindful that it is a very competitive marketplace. There is an over-supply of qualified corporate directors for a limited supply of available corporate board seats.” That’s why I am sharing my advice in my 4-part blog series, How to Get Yourself on a Board. My previous blog posts in this series covered how to “Master the [...]

According to an Osler research report called “2019 Diversity Disclosure Practices: Women in leadership roles at TSX-listed companies”, “Women now hold over 18.1% of board seats among companies disclosing the number of women on their boards, the highest proportion yet and a 50% increase compared to 2015 (when it was 12%).” That’s why Women Get on Board’s mandate it to connect, promote, and empower women to corporate boards. To help more women on their board journey, I have launched a 4-part blog series called How to Get Yourself on Board. If you read the first post of the series, you’ve mastered board basics. With this foundation, you’re ready for the next step in your board journey. The second blog in this series is all about how to position your board offer and it will provide practical insights on how to: 1. Assess your board readiness 2. Identify the right board for you 3. Create your board value proposition 4. Build your board resume and LinkedIn profile 1. Assess your board readiness In order to prepare for your first corporate [...]

Serving on a board can be an incredibly rewarding experience—and it’s one of the best ways to advance your career. Board service has both personal and professional benefits, including opportunities to: Build your network and personal brand Give back to organizations with meaningful missions Learn different perspectives that can be applied to your existing roles Get sponsored for governance education programs (e.g., ICD.D, C.Dir or CDI.D) Develop governance leadership skills Get access to new knowledge, skills, perspectives, management styles, corporate cultures, business models, mentors, and connections As you can see, serving on a board is a meaningful way to build your career and enrich your network. However, securing a coveted board position is not an easy task. That’s why Women Get On Board’s mandate is to connect, promote, and empower women to corporate boards. It’s also why I’m launching a new 4-part blog series called How to Get Yourself on a Board. My first blog in this series is called Master the Foundations and it will provide you with practical insights on how to: Recognize there are different types of boards Identify [...]

I am celebrating my 20th year of serving on corporate boards and have learned it is not so much what you know, but rather how you say it. I have had to train my sense of emotional intelligence (EI) at the boardroom table – including paying attention to everything from verbal communication, to body language, tone of voice, and social graces. I have been around some of the best and brightest board members that have inspired me to reach higher levels in the boardroom. I have also been around other board members that lacked in their EI, with their social graces lacking and boardroom presence very uninspiring. According to Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist who popularized the concept of EI, its definition is: “the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know what they're feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people.” Goleman also organized Emotional Intelligence into five key elements: 1. Self-awareness 2. Self-regulation 3. [...]