opinion: which boardroom stereotype are they?

OPINION: Which boardroom stereotype are you?
(BTN article)

Tuesday, 29 September 2009

BOARDROOM personalities are a major influence on company strategy and performance. So Allan Trench asks which stereotypical board member you resemble – the useful old hand, the great debater, the really useless or perhaps even the seether?

Long haul flights this week gave your scribe ample opportunity to catch up on a substantial backlog of reading. Subject matter spanned a couple of books on economics and the global outlook, one on gold and other precious metals trading and two management texts pertaining to the boardroom.

Now for those readers that struggle to sleep on planes, Audit Committee Essentials could just be the thing for you; it saw me off twice before exiting the first chapter!

But rather than focus on the dry and dull, this week’s column is dedicated to one of the more entertaining of these reads, namely Running Board Meetings* by Patrick Dunne.

Dunne’s book is in its third edition and among many entertaining anecdotes, includes some generic profiling of typical boardroom stereotypes. The descriptions certainly had this reader chuckling. So which one are you? Here they are in edited and abridged form.

The silent seether. Clever, shrewd people who lack either the confidence or arrogance to get heard. Instead, they sit quietly while others make the wrong decisions. Attempts at interjecting are too late and the momentum of the debate too great to take their view on board. Later, via email or offline conversations, they pour forth with alternative views. They often threaten to resign but seldom do, preferring to sit and seethe – until they snap!

The seether. A close relation to the silent seether but neither as bright nor as quiet. Seethers generally have a chip on their shoulder or something unnecessary to prove. By getting them to give an extreme version of what they want, the chair can quell the seether with “That a bit strong, Nigel” or “I don’t think we should quite go that far Julie”. More often than not though, seethers just turn out to be a pain.

The key influencer. Not necessarily the chair or managing director, perhaps a powerful non-executive, founding family member, heir apparent, key shareholder representative or adviser.

Mr or Ms Wonderful. They do exist. Ideal board member material: holds strong views but will listen to others; has questions rather than fait accompli but you know very well where they are coming from; motivated by what is best for the board as a whole rather than their own personal position; never a slave to political correctness or to the convenient, expedient but flawed compromise; and shares responsibility for a problem even when they counselled against the course of action causing all the trouble.

The quiet floater. A diplomat who never does much so has never done much wrong. A master at letting others do all the fighting and emerging the winner by making a small compromising contribution at the end, thus providing the chair’s summary and the company secretary’s minute.

The dangerous director. with no more to offer than a silken tongue A source of irritation in life who has the capacity to sound good but isn’t. When they speak it sounds convincing, but trying to convert their words to action reveals their eloquent dialogue as utter claptrap.

The really useful old hand. Always handy to have around. Has been through many swings of the economic and industry cycle, survived numerous crises and had the joy of many triumphs. Possesses an innate sense of when to be optimistic and when to be cautious. Fierce loyalty to the successful values of the business matched by a keen sense of when it’s time for change. Someone you would love to have as an uncle or aunt.

The really useless or dead hand. Sad cases. Hail from the school of decision avoidance and fearful of change. Tolerated because of their shareholding or some other accident of history. Tend not to be the brightest people and so in their desire to procrastinate, they love having more explanatory information and papers to hand. Someone once said that as we get older our eccentricities become exaggerated. This lot start with a full set to begin with.

The great debater. Some people just like to talk. This group approaches every issue with an open mouth.

The young pretender or heir apparent. A difficult position to occupy. Many an heir apparent has come to grief on the rocks of arrogance and jealousy. Any heir apparent needs a mentor and constructive critic to keep them balanced.

The pulse. This is the person that, whatever is going on, has an innate sense of what people think both inside and outside the company and how they feel. Tremendously helpful at calibrating company presentations – and pretty useful at dealing with the seethers too.

And finally, let’s not forget Rosey. No matter what the issue, Rosey finds a positive interpretation. While they may be helpful in cheering up all the rest, they are typically an over-promoted sales type unsuited to a board role.

Recognise yourself or your boardroom colleagues?

Allan Trench is Adjunct Professor of Mine Management & Mineral Economics, Western Australian School of Mines, and a non-executive director of several resource sector companies. He is the Perth representative for CRU Strategies, the consulting division of independent metals and mining advisory CRU Group ([email protected]).

*Running Board Meetings by Patrick Dunne (third edition), Kogan Page Publishing, London, 164pp.

**Strictly Boardroom is a weekly column on BTN’s sister publication MiningNews.net.

http://www.biotechnologynews.net/StoryView.asp?StoryID=1036990

The author forgot about that other category, the sociopath... or was that covered under the "dangerous director"? Oh, hello sir, nice bowtie.