How to get a board seat? The 4 ways they happen

Typically, there are four ways to get a board seat, some formal and others informal. The four processes or pathways are:

1. Directly through your personal or professional connections;
2. By directly approaching a board or organization;
3. By responding to an advertisement or
4. Through an executive search firm, recruiter or headhunter.

Some of these pathways are more effective than others, and success may depend on individual circumstances at the time. However, if you are serious about building a board career, you need to know how to navigate each of them and evaluate where best to spend your time and effort.

How to get a board seat -the statistics 

I regularly conduct surveys asking current board directors how they were appointed to their most recent board. The findings are always much the same:

• 65% of people are directly appointed to a board through a personal or professional connection;
• 15% were appointed directly after approaching the company or board that they wanted to sit on;
• 10% via a recruiter and
• 10% in response to an advertisement.

These statics are open to some variation as it is possible that a director found out about the role via a personal connection but still had to work with a recruiter to obtain the board seat. It is also often the case that those appointed via a recruiter initially saw the role advertised online or on LinkedIn.

The one thing you need to take away from these statistics is that your personal and professional connections matter if you want to get a board seat. Whilst 65% of respondents said that their appointment was a direct result of a personal or professional connection, the right connections have a pivotal role in the other three pathways to a board seat.

Most successful independent directors tell me that their success in gaining board seats results from their reputation and the people they know.  

Supporting the statistics

Mark Granovetter’s book called Getting a Job, looked at how almost 300 executives in the USA found their executive roles. In this separate study, we see that the statistics remain reasonably constant regardless of time and the impact of social media.

He found that :

• 56% of executives found current jobs via personal connections
• 19% by directly approaching companies
• and 17% through adverts and/or recruiters

This classic study again proved it’s not what you know but who you know; it also demonstrated how social activity influences labour markets.

These studies and statistics are compelling. They give insight on how to get a board seat and how you should best be allocating your time and effort to do so.

How you should best spend your time to get a board seat

If you are one of the many who are disheartened by responding to advertised board roles, submitting application after application and not even making an interview, it may be time to do things differently. Not only do the statistics show that this is not the best way to get a board seat, but the process is far more competitive.

The studies above are not perfect; they clearly show that those board directors who focused on developing their networks were more likely to get a board seat. Personal & professional connections have a place in all four pathways to a board seat.

Right now, I know that many of you are cringing because you think you do not have the proper connection or feel you are a poor networker. Let me put some of those fears to rest. Firstly, you should focus on your informal connections or weak ties to get a board seat. It is often the 2nd or 3rd-level connections that count. The person with whom you have a relaxed conversation is also having discussions with decision-makers or stakeholders. Developing and maintaining the right weak connections is not difficult, and it is something that I teach in the Board Appointment Coaching Program.