Serving in a board advisory role is an increasingly important experience along the career trajectory of the modern CIO. It can expand your exposure to different businesses and a diverse set of leaders and give you an opportunity to expand your critical-thinking skills.
“The personal and professional networking from joining a board is tremendous. It allows you to get your name out there and be associated with other organizations outside of the company you work for,” says Josh Drew, regional director at Robert Half. “And second, and most importantly, many of these opportunities allow CIOs to make an impact on their community.”
And organizations of all types are eager to have CIOs help guide them, as IT leaders bring great value to corporate and nonprofit boards at a time when technology is a key success factor.
“Every company is now a technology company in some way, shape, or form, which brings technology front of mind at a board level. If they’re looking at systems implementation, data productization, or any sort of digital transformation, they will welcome a CIO or possibly a CTO,” says Sam Wallace, managing director at executive recruiter Sheffield Haworth. In fact, 79% of high-performing organizations had at least one board member with tech experience, according to Deloitte’s 2020 Global Technology Leadership Study.
Yet, as H. Michael Burgett, founder and executive chairman for CIO Partners, points out, “actively seeking such an opportunity can be a challenge.” While some CIOs may be recruited for board roles, the majority of assignments come from within the professional networks of existing board leaders, Burgett says.
Following are 10 tips for IT leaders seeking to increase their chances of connecting with board opportunities and landing the right board roles.
“Board appointments don’t happen by accident, and it shouldn’t be a fortuitous meeting that lands the board seat,” says Wallace, “although that happens often enough.”
Larry Quinlan had already been serving on nonprofit boards for two decades when his retirement from the CIO post at Deloitte in October opened up the possibility of bringing value to public boards, which he had been prohibited from doing under his previous employment.
Quinlan reflected on where he wanted to direct his attention post-retirement and laid out a few clear goals: to serve on the board of a public company, where he might learn from business leaders and new business models; to join a private company board, where he would have a more intimate relationship with those running the business; to work with private equity and venture capital, to remain current with technology trends; and to continue nonprofit work, which remains his passion.
“There are a number of different opportunities available to technology leaders and it’s important to think about what makes sense for you,” Quinlan says.
Active CIOs can start by defining what type of board they’d like to join — public, private, nonprofit — and why. “If you really want to get on a board, you must put the work in,” Wallace says. “You need a board resume. You need to know what value you bring to the business. You need to know why you’re selecting the industry, company, or association.”
In seeking board positions, Quinlan stresses the importance of relationships.
“My bio is a reasonable high-quality bio. My story is a reasonable high-quality story. Yet I believe the thing that made the difference was relationships,” says Quinlan. “Not one of [my board positions] came about from submitting my bio somewhere. I did that two or three times, and never heard back.”
The problem is that operating CIOs can be so heads down in the service of their employer, they may forget to look up and around and develop their network of relationships.
“Not every interaction is distracting you from your day job, and I wish I’d understood that more,” Quinlan says. “The best relationships come out of shared experienes.
