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Board diary

Leading with intent

Tamsin Stirling takes an international perspective looking at recently published reports from the USA, Australia and Singapore.

January 2015

Leading with Intent from BoardSource (1) sets out the results of the most recent biennial survey of chairs and chief executives of non-profit organisations in the USA. A number of the headline findings feel familiar to current debates about governance within the housing sector in Wales. For example:

–       Boards demonstrate room for improvement. As part of the survey, chairs and chief executives were asked to rate their boards – the resultant score for the sector was a B minus. Boards were identified as generally being better at technical tasks such as financial oversight and compliance than at adaptive work such as strategy and community outreach/advocacy

–       Average board size is decreasing and diversity is increasing but gaps persist     

–       The best boards pay attention to culture and dynamics. Strengthening the culture requires what the authors of the report call ‘leading with intent’ 

–       Achieving financial stability amid constant change requires strategic leadership

Indeed, when reading articles and reports on governance in the corporate and non-profit sectors and based on experience in different countries, many of the themes, debates and ‘tricky issues’ are similar.

February 2015

Cultivating greatness in the boardroom (2) asks what makes an exceptional non-executive director in Australasia. Research into boards concludes that they bring a number of behavioural attributes to the board table as well as skills and competencies that meet the needs of the board. Core characteristics of such individuals were identified as:

–       big-picture thinkers who can focus on opportunities and risks in the details

–       working collectively rather than individually

–       independent thinkers with the courage to speak their mind

–       asks deep questions without being confrontational

–       has a breadth of experience.

A further set of characteristics were identified as being increasingly important:

–       deeper understanding of risk

–       a global outlook

–       flexible and responsive to change

–       familiar with new technologies and social media 

–       taking a long-term view.

Moving from consideration of the individual to the team that is the board, the report notes ‘the key is building a complementary and diverse team within the boardroom’. It also highlights that becoming an exceptional non-executive director is not the sole responsibility of that individual:

            ‘Complementary skill sets on the board, an effective chair, good administration and efficient information pathways are just some of the factors that impact on whether NEDs reach their potential.’ 

March 2015

The Diversity Dividend looks at board diversity within Singapore Exchange-listed companies and provides substantive evidence of the benefit of diversity at board level. The overall finding of the analysis undertaken is that:

‘Board diversity of Singapore Exchange listed firms in terms of gender diversity, ethnic diversity and age diversity are all associated with significantly better company performance, yet less than 50 per cent of boards display them. Only 7.7 per cent of the companies researched display diversity in all three categories, and those companies enjoy the highest performance levels – nearly five times higher than those without diversity.’ 

Diversity ‘in all three categories’ means that boards comprise both men and women, and there are board members from at least two ethnic groups and at least two generations. In relation to gender diversity, there are currently 8.3 per cent women on the boards of the Singapore Exchange-listed companies. This compares to 16.9 per cent female representation in corporate boardrooms in the USA, 20.7 per cent in the UK and 40.5 per cent in Norway (the highest in the world).   

The months since the publication of the last issue of WHQ have seen the publication by Community Housing Cymru of ots Code of Governance for the housing association sector in Wales (4). The code emphasises the need for skilled and diverse boards and is supported by the Come On Board scheme to encourage people from all walks of life to become board members. The code and Come on Board are welcome contributions to the work of improving and refining housing association governance to meet the challenges of what seems as if it will be an increasingly complex future.   

Tamsin Stirling can be contacted at tamsin.stirling@dial.pipex.com and is on Twitter @TamsinStirling1

(1)  leadingwithintent.org/

(2)  kornferryinstitute.com/reports-insights/cultivating-greatness-boardroom-what-makes-exceptional-non-executive-director

(3)  bschool.nus.edu/Portals/0/images/CGIO/Report/diversity-report-2014.pdf

(4)  chcymru.org.uk/en/board-members/code-of-governance/

(5)  chcymru.org.uk/en/board-members/come-on-board


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