Steve Mader and Shawn Oglesbee are partners in the Board Services practice at executive search firm ON Partners.
In this article published in the Board Leadership Journal, they discuss some of the
challenges and nuances of recruiting new board members.
Published in Board Leadership Journal Nov – Dec 2020 Issue
While boards continue to invest more time in the effectiveness of the body, a positive development to be sure, often one of the best investments they can make is paying more thoughtful attention to the selection process for new appointments. The average director serves more than a decade, and boards have a natural resistance to identifying and addressing personal under-performance. In a peer group with shared responsibilities, working around pockets of mediocrity can seem more efficient than trying to confront it.
The ultimate answer is more sure-footedness in recruiting and selection, but that can be tricky. A board is a collection of established leaders based on tangible experience and apparent achievement. But we know leadership success derives not from one thing or one collection of qualities, it is situational. Personal contribution within organization achievement can be hard to unwrap. But it is important for understanding an individual as a potential board appointment.
Read the full Board Leadership Journal Nov – Dec Issue here.
About ON Partners
ON Partners propels an organization’s mission by building C-level and board leadership teams. Founded in 2006 by like-minded consultants as a values-driven alternative to the multi-service global firms they were leaving behind, ON delivers a better executive search experience. Named by Forbes as one of America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms and to the Inc. 500/5000 Lists seven times, the firm is consistently ranked among the top 20 retained executive search firms in the U.S.
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