034 - Why We Need More Women On Boards

My guest is Michele Ashby, founder of ACE LLC Consulting. 

Michele has made it her mission to get more women qualified to sit on Corporate Boards.  She believes that the more women we have with a seat at the powerful tables, the more effective, efficient and empowering corporations can be for all of their stakeholders.   She helps women gain confidence in their skills, and take action to get on their dream boards. 

Michele is offering a very special CALL TO ACTION during the quarantine period.

To take advantage of her limited offer, visit her website at www.https://www.acellc.consulting/

Free Download…
https://www.acellc.consulting/board-resume-tips

In this episode we will cover:

• What Are Boards?
• The Purpose Of Boards
• Number Of Board Members
• Qualifications
• Board Resume
• Compensation
• Time In Boards
• The Value Of Women In Boards
• The Legs Of The Stool
• Limited Time Offer

Thanks so much for tuning in again this week. I appreciate you 🙂

Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the Feedback section.

Special thanks to Michele Ashby for being on the show.

So long for now and remember to keep moving forward!

Also, don’t forget to Subscribe for FREE: Apple Podcasts | Android | Support the show (https://liveblissedout.com/resources/)

Audible: www.audibletrial.com/liveblissedout

Today’s episode is sponsored by Audible, where you can find audio books and exclusive audible originals.

Just click on the link to receive your 30 day free trial, a free audio book of your choice and a commitment free guarantee.

Free membership for 30 days with your choice of 1 audiobook + select Audible Originals.

✓  After trial, get 1 audiobook and free Audible Originals each month from a rotating selection.

✓  Exclusive guided wellness programs.

✓  You will get an email reminder 7 days before your trial ends.

Commitment-free guarantee

✓  You won’t be charged until after 30 days.

✓  Don’t like an audiobook? Swap it for free.

✓  Cancel anytime, no questions asked.

Check out Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by: Simon Sinek

Thanks to Audible for sponsoring this episode and allowing me to share this great offer with my listeners!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

• www.liveblissedout.com

Transcript

Marisa:   0:00
This is Episode 34 on the Live Blissed Out podcast. Did you know that the current percentage of women on Fortune 500 boards in the U. S. is approximately 22.5% ? In 2019 every Fortune 500 company had at least one woman on their board.  Hello, Action Takers! Welcome to Live Blissed Out. A podcast where I have authentic conversations with business owners and subject matter experts to help us get the scoop, the 411, and the low down on a variety of topics. Tired of hesitating or making decisions without having the big picture? Wanna be in the know?  Then this is the place to go. I'm your host, Marisa Huston. Helping achieve bliss through awareness and action. Thanks for joining me. The information, opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at your own risk. This podcast should not be considered professional advice. I received a nice surprise this week!  Sending a coffee mug shot shout out to Heather B in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Thanks for filling my coffee cup and being such a cool bean! If you'd like to help keep me fueled, head over to www.live blissedout.com and click on the Caffeinate Me tab to give me a boost and redeem your bonus as a thank you for supporting the show. My guest is Michele Ashby, founder of ACE LLC Consulting. Michele has made it her mission to get more women qualified to sit on corporate boards. She believes that the more women we have with a seat at the powerful tables, the more effective, efficient and empowering corporations can be for all of their stakeholders. She helps women gain confidence in their skills and take action to get on their dream boards. Michele is offering a very special call to action during the quarantine period. To take advantage of her limited offer visit her website at www.acellc.consulting. Today's episode is sponsored by Audible, where you can find audiobooks and exclusive audible originals. Just head over to my personal link at www.audibletrial.com/liveblissedout to receive your 30 day free trial,  a free audio book of your choice and a commitment free guarantee. Check out Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek. You can also click on the link in the show notes to let  Audible know I sent you and help support the show. Thanks to Audible for sponsoring this episode and allowing me to share this great offer with my listeners.  Hey, Michele.  It's really great to have you on the show today.

Michele:   2:38
Hi, Marisa. Thank you. I'm so grateful to have this time to share with you and your listeners on the podcast. This is really exciting!

Marisa:   2:49
Me, too. I'm excited to talk to you. Our topic today is going to be about boards and why we need more women in boards. And so I'd like to start the conversation first by asking you what exactly is a board?

Michele:   3:03
That's a really big question. I work with people on corporate boards, so we have lots of different types of boards. There's nonprofit, there's trade association boards, there's community boards and there's corporate boards. And I focus on the corporate board side and that's usually where people are more curious now and sometimes don't understand kind of what a corporate board is.  So a corporate board can be either a private company board or a public company board and the public companies are obviously traded on the exchanges, The New York Stock Exchange, and the private boards are private. There's no market that you can actually get a price of what their shares are worth individually, so they function a lot a like in business, but they do have differences in how they're regulated. So it gets a little bit more complicated as we go deeper.

Marisa:   3:55
Wow, I had no idea there were even different types of boards because the only one I was familiar with are the corporate boards, so that's really good information. So then my next question for you would be Why do they exist? Why do boards matter? What are they needed for? What is their purpose?

Michele:   4:10
The boards are really, where the power and the money lie. So somebody has to be at the top to make those big decisions. Like once we have revenues and we've got money, we've got to manage, we have to create budgets, and we have to decide where those budgets go and we have to decide who our executives are gonna be that are gonna be the best people to run our businesses. So really, it's about governance and oversight, and they're really called directors for a reason.

Marisa:   4:37
Is there a specific set of members that are on the board? I mean, is there number per se or does that very depending on the corporation?

Michele:   4:45
So I'm gonna just answer your questions as if we're talking about a public board and in a public board, that means you are regulated by the exchanges that the company is listed on, and so you have to adhere to those so they might vary. But let's say very generally you're probably gonna want to have at least five board members because the requirements of the markets state that the board of directors needs to have three committees at a minimum. You need an audit committee to look over the financials and approve those, you need a compensation committee, which is in charge of compensation for the executive team management and also the board of directors themselves, and you need to have a nomination and governance committee because they're then in charge of making sure that things are run properly, so most likely you're going to see a minimum of five members on a public board and it can go up to quite a large number, but I would say very unusual to see a board above 15 members. But you know, as companies get larger and they do acquisitions and mergers, so imagine if Facebook and Amazon were to emerge, they would probably merge those two boards, and you would end up with directors from both boards coming together. Now they may not keep all of them, but let's say they both had seven people on their boards and they merged, they might come out at the other end and end up with having 11 or something like that. So there's different ways that you can justify why the boards have grown into the larger size.

Marisa:   6:22
So you're saying there's a range and, of course, their guidelines that are followed. It depends on the specific situation of that company, and in the case that you described, it was a merger. And so in that situation it might be dealt with differently than a brand new company.  

Michele:   6:36
Correct.  

Marisa:   6:36
Let's say you are in a company and you want to be on a board.  Say you want to join a board or want to be considered. How do you know if you even qualify for that position?

Michele:   6:47
So if you're working for the company, you're not going to get on that board. You could be the board as a CEO, you'll be considered a board member, but you're a non- independent. You can't vote. So the board also has to be independent of the company. So the board of directors come from other businesses. You want to have a matrix of diversity so that you have the right backgrounds and subject matter experts that are sitting around the table that can help you grow and drive and oversee the company in the most efficient way.

Marisa:   7:19
So let's say you are being considered to be a member of the board. What are the qualifications that are required for that position?

Michele:   7:26
When a company comes to me and says we're looking for a candidate and here are the guidelines, we'd like to see a diversity, which is code for woman. It can mean a minority, but most of the time it's for a woman. I need somebody who has been a CFO of a public company. I'm also interested in the fact that they might be an expert in sustainability, so they'll give me a guideline with certain criteria that they're looking for. And then I would go to my database of ACE graduates and see if I have any candidates that would match those guidelines and then make that recommendation and send that contact to the company so that they can start that process of vetting them and interviewing them. So if it's a company that seeking specific characteristics, that starts with that like a recruitment and then it goes into is it a good fit. So the fit part is extremely important in a corporate board because these people are making very critical decisions that affect everyone in the company and the shareholders and the customers. So having the right people in the group and sitting around the table is very critical. So it's a process, and there is no one answer. Let me just also say that I have a rule that I call the Michelle Ashby rule, and there's no science to back it, it's strictly on my research that I've done myself and my intuition and my guts pretty good about these things. I call it the 90/10 rule. So what I tell women that I train is 90% of you will get on a board because of who you know, and what you know, and who knows you, and who they know. OK, so it's an introduction network kind of thing. 10% of you will get on a board because of a recruiter or someone finds you on Linkedin. These positions are driven by relationship primarily. That's why it's weighs so heavily on the side of 90% of people who know you and people that you know and people beyond that. So it might be a second or third person removed like the Kevin Bacon just six degrees of separation. You're probably looking at two or three degrees of separation not farther than that, because as the number of degrees go up, the lower the level of trust is of knowing who the people are that are recommending. So that's how it happens. It's really within the circle. I've never gone out, looked for a board, necessarily. I've been invited to my board, so people have recognized or people I've worked with said wow, you know, you'd be great on my board. Would you be interested?

Marisa:   9:57
So it's like any position. You're looking to fill certain qualifications and then you definitely want to be considered. And usually you're considered by people that already know you like you, that sort of thing. But at the same time, you still need to officially let them know that you are wanting to apply for the position. Which leads me to, I assume there's some sort of a resume that needs to be submitted. What does that look like?

Michele:   10:19
A board resume is quite different than a professional resume, and it is something that focuses on what kind of board skills you have, what boards you've been on in the past and also what kind of executive experience you have. It's hard to describe in a call like this, but I do have, we use this in our training, and I have it in my online courses. Well, as far as what are those things that are specific that you would want to have in your board resume versus your professional resume? I'll give you one thing. Most people say they're professional resume has to be two pages. Board resume is not. It can be longer than that. And the reason is, let's say you put your board experience on the first page. That's what you want to do is you want to put the board experience up front, don't bury it in the back, and then your professional experience then is listed later on. So when the reader is looking at the board experience on the front and it says, oh, from 2015 to 2018 Michele was on the Lithium-X board. Wonder what she was doing professionally during that time frame? They can flip back and see. Oh, I see that she was a consultant with X Y Z company during that time frame, so they need both. They do wanna see your professional stuff. And the other thing, too, is unlike your professional resume, for those of us who had careers that have lasted 10 or 20 or 30 years, it's actually a benefit to show those decades because boards are looking for people that have experienced life, experience, business experience, ups and downs, they need people who are calm, who've had successes and failures, and those are the things that are so valuable to the directors when you're sitting around the table. When the question comes up with, Hey, Joe, how did you guys deal with that when your company had a personal issue or that kind of thing? So it's a benefit to show that you've worked a long time and you've worked in a number of different places if that's the case.

Marisa:   12:17
Are these positions paid positions?

Michele:   12:20
So I definitely work with women to help them to get in to board positions that are compensated. So compensation in a director's position of a public company typically is going to be a combination of cash or what they call a director fee, plus stock options or some kind of a stock benefit that would also be given to the directors like everybody's independent. But yes, you would have compensation and if you're getting on the board of a startup, though, and they don't have a lot of cash. Typically, what'll happen is they will issue you stock options as opposed to giving you the cash until the company gets up and running and has revenues and gets profitable, and then the compensation package would shift. And that's why it's important to have these compensation committees because they meet a couple of times a year to look at these kinds of things as the company is growing and changing. Going up or down, basically.

Marisa:   13:16
Is this similar to a normal position in a company where you work until you don't want to work anymore? Or are there time limits to being a member of a board?

Michele:   13:28
Term limits for directors are optional. There's no mandatory term limit at this point in time. And frankly, it's a good gig if you can get it, and they can be extremely lucrative. So that's why we see the majority of our boards are white males who are average 64 years old. But a lot of them are older than that because they've been on the board for a long time and they don't wanna retire. So they've retired from their career maybe a couple of decades ago. But the board work is really good, So let me give you an example. In my career, I've been in finance and mining my entire career. My male mentors, I watched them climb the corporate ladder, get on three or four boards, retire out, work part time, cause when you're on a board, you're not working full time and go play golf or go skiing or whatever they like to do recreational wise and they're making six figures. They could be making even half a 1,000,000 a year plus their stock options to their set. And that's basically the path that I was on when I discovered that we didn't have enough women on boards and that it was important for somebody to help some other women learn how to do this.

Marisa:   14:36
Why do you feel there aren't enough women in boards and what can women contribute that you feel is going to benefit being on a board?

Michele:   14:44
I don't think there are as many women on boards because of what I mentioned earlier. It's a good gig, if you can get it. It's at the very top. This is where the power in the money lie and these are the big decision makers and we want to be in control, right? So the way that it set up now with mostly men and we're talking about across the board 80% male and 20% women, that is kind of like equal pay. It's taking time for us to get access to the boardroom and at the same time this is not a blaming comment. It isn't againstness for the men because the fact is, too, that women didn't know that a board was a thing. And based on all the people I've talked to feel that I've learned that I've kind of been the exception to the rule of being included and being groomed to get on a board myself. I'm an anomaly. So another key is that women have to learn how to do this. You can't just raise your hand and say, I want to get on a board and get on one. That is not the way it works. This is a process and it does take grooming. You do have to know what you're talking about. You do have to have training and you will have success if you do all those pieces. And I've proven it because I've been doing this for a couple of years now and it's really working.

Marisa:   15:58
So it sounds to me like education is a big piece of this. Like if more women understood what is required, what opportunities are available and how to go about the process, which is exactly what you're providing then that will open some doors and opportunities for them to go after it.

Michele:   16:14
Exactly. So there's three legs of the stool board governance, you have to understand financial acumen. You need to know what financial statements are, what audit committees do what red flags are, and you need to understand how to get on a board and as a woman, how to behave in the boardroom with the majority of men there. This is an inter sanctum, and there's lots of written rules, but there's lots of unwritten rules, and that's where the grooming and the mentorship comes in on top of the education part.

Marisa:   16:42
What you're providing to these women is information that will give them the tools that they need to go after a board position, if that's something that they want to do.

Michele:   16:50
Exactly.  

Marisa:   16:51
I know that there is a free download that you want to provide to our listeners, so I will include that in the show notes, and it's a download to get five tips for your board resume so that they understand how to prepare a board resume. Correct?

Michele:   17:07
Exactly. So it's just like the highlights. It comes straight out of my class. The content is what I teach. And really, I think the foundation is really understanding your board resume and how to make it look like you're qualified for a board.

Marisa:   17:22
If a listener is listening right now and saying, oh, I'm very interested in this and I'd like to get more information, how do they reach you?

Michele:   17:29
The best way is to go to our website, and that is at www.acellc.consulting, and that has the information about my online course as well as our certification course. We have the only certification that qualifies people as board candidates in the United States as of now. And so we have both of those offered that are going on and the online course, I just want to bring up because at the time that we're doing this recording its during the Coronavirus. What's happening here. And I am getting ready to launch a decree. We need more women now than ever to be ready to get on boards. This is a huge reset everywhere in the world, but in particular in the corporate world and an opportunity for more leadership to show up at the top and I just think that men and women working together at the top of these companies will be the future. We don't have a lot of time to get a lot of people ready. So I'm gonna be offering my call to action offering of my online course and it's gonna be a huge discount to what the regular prices while we're in the Coronavirus time and in quarantine. So I'm getting ready to launch that.

Marisa:   18:51
That's wonderful and so they can get all that information directly from your website.

Michele:   18:55
Exactly. Just go on there. They can click on the online they'll be able to go through. It covers the board governance, how to get on boards, how to prepare for your board interview, and I have a bonus video on how to behave in the boardroom that is an interview with one of my peers, is a male CEO and director talks about the tips for women. For example, what your body language is saying in the room that you may not be aware of. It's very good.

Marisa:   19:23
What you're doing is wonderful because again you're educating women on options that they probably never even considered or didn't even know existed. I'm grateful to have you on the show today to share this with us, Michele, I really appreciate having you as a guest on my show.

Michele:   19:37
Well, thank you, Marisa. And thank you for what you're doing in educating all of us on all these different topics because it's delightful to be able to tune in and learn so many different things. And you do such a great job of kind of asking the questions and helping us to learn along with you.

Marisa:   19:56
It's a great platform to be able to do that. And it's my pleasure to do it. So thank you so much for being here. That's all for this episode of Live blissed Out. Thanks for listening and thanks to Michele Ashby for being my guest. If you find value in our show, please visit www.liveblissedout.com to reach out, subscribe and share on social media. This show is made possible through listeners like you. Thank you. So long for now and remember to keep moving forward.