I love the boardroom. There is something magical that happens when a group of diverse people with a common aim and shared responsibility apply their different insights and ideas to make a business succeed. There are, as with any magic, some basic principles and skills that directors need to learn. I have been fortunate that, while I was waiting for my board portfolio to grow into a full-time occupation, friends who knew of my interest in governance asked me to run workshops for their boards. I was delighted! With each workshop I found I had to study more and also that I was learning from the participants as much as they were learning from me. Over time my hobby developed into a small consulting business that focused on boards and directors with practical advice on issues they faced in their boardrooms. As it employs only me the business can choose to do work that I find exciting and avoid anything else. Now I spend half my time consulting and the rest working as a professional director on a portfolio of boards.It is, for me, the perfect balance. About five years ago I was helping (or trying to help, if I am honest) a board that had a difficult problem caused by relationships between board members. I had very little idea of how to advise them. As most directors do, I turned to my friends for advice. The responses I got differed widely and I was so amazed at the range of possible responses suggested from a group of experts that I cut and pasted them together and emailed them back to everyone. The "Director's Dilemma" newsletter was born as a result; everyone enjoyed reading the different responses and a few people suggested problems of their own that we could address next. Now the newsletter is professionally published, read all around the world, and has generated two books of practical real life case studies that are enjoyed by boards and their advisers from Australia to Zimbabwee. I thoroughly enjoy writing about boards and have been fortunate that others seem to enjoy reading what I write. The best reward of all is when a total stranger writes to say that something in a book or newsletter has helped them to face an issue and develop a unique but sound solution. That is, after all, what boards and directors are supposed to do. Oh - for those readers who like to see academic credentials I have - an Executive MBA from Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, an Advanced Diploma and a Diploma of Company Directorship from the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an honours degree n Civil Engineering from City University in London.
