As directors exit en masse, firms find themselves rebuilding boards—and rethinking onboarding. What needs to change?
Why Boards May Need a New Mentorship Model
The new board director arrived at her first meeting armed with years of corporate experience. But as the conversation around the table unfolded, she hesitated. Should she jump in right away? Stay quiet and observe? What she needed and didn’t have: someone to let her know the unwritten rules of this particular group.
As companies seek to fill these seats, they are increasingly recruiting for expertise in such areas as AI, cybersecurity, geopolitics, or supply-chain resilience—and hoping that new members can make an immediate positive impact. The result is that new directors are expected to contribute quickly, even as they learn the dynamics of a new boardroom. As Flo Falayi, senior client partner in the Advisory practice at Korn Ferry, sees it, giving new directors long periods to quietly observe before contributing may have been appropriate in a more stable environment, but “today, boards do not have that luxury, and neither do the directors joining them.”
Yet the challenge for new directors often has less to do with mastering the business itself than with learning the boardroom’s social dynamics. As Elise Schroeter, global head of organization and talent strategies for the Board and CEO practice at Korn Ferry, observes, “When you first get into a boardroom, you can see who the power brokers are—it’s still like the school playground in some ways.” And being the “new kid” means you have to read the room and figure out how to effectively join the conversation. That kind of learning curve, experts say, is rarely covered in traditional onboarding programs—even though it can shape whether a director becomes a helpful presence or struggles to gain traction.
In response, smart organizations are looking into an often-missing piece of the orientation phase: helping directors learn how the board operates. “What doesn’t necessarily happen as part of onboarding is getting an understanding of the culture dynamics in the boardroom,” says Claudia Pici Morris, senior client partner and leader of North American board and CEO succession solutions at Korn Ferry. After all, director effectiveness depends on learning how to add value within a specific board culture. Morris distinguishes between an official mentor who might help a director learn the operational aspects of the business and a more informal guide who can assist them as they “go on the journey,” as she puts it, of integrating themselves into the boardroom.
Finding this more informal adviser to help decode the personalities in the room—and assist the new director in meshing with the group—can be pivotal for success. Jane Edison Stevenson, global vice chair of board and CEO services at Korn Ferry, says new directors benefit enormously from candid advice. “Having someone who will give you unvarnished feedback is really the most important part,” she explains. “You have to develop situational self-awareness.” And if that honest assessment isn’t readily available, experts say that intentionally seeking it out can help with performance going forward. As Stevenson says, “The people around you have a perspective on whether you’re making the board better or worse—so if you have access to that, you can start to be an elevating influence.” Falayi agrees, remarking that he’d like to see more “informal conversations, candid walkthroughs of prior inflection points, or old hands sitting with a new director after a difficult vote and explaining what was really in the room.” All this, he says, is “the kind of context that cannot be transmitted in an orientation packet.”
To be sure, understanding a board’s dynamics isn’t the only hurdle to becoming an effective new member. For those serving on a board for the first time, governance itself requires a shift in mindset. “Some competencies that work as an executive have to show up very differently as a director—or maybe not at all,” Morris says. Executives are trained to align stakeholders behind the scenes and push organizations toward action. But in the boardroom, many of those instincts must shift. Directors are expected to challenge management without undermining it, and to ask difficult questions without trying to run the company. “Directors need to use their voice to probe on different issues in a smart way, because they’re not the guy making the decisions,” says Morris. “They can only ask the questions.”
The strongest onboarding programs will educate new members on the workings of both the business and the board, experts say. But they also argue that the best directors ground themselves in something deeper than boardroom politics or personal influence. Schroeter believes that directors should continually ask themselves, “Why am I doing this—why am I serving this organization?” Understanding that role of service, she says, helps directors stay “guided by purpose over personal agenda,” which can in turn make it easier to build trust and work productively within the group.
