Tuesday 17 April 2012

Leading for Diversity in the Boardroom

At The Boardroom Consulting Group I engage in regular, self-funded independent research on issues I believe will be challenging boards in the near future.

For the past 18 months I have researched the topic of Leading for Diversity in the Boardroom. I chose this topic in the wake of new gender diversity guidelines introduced by the ASX Corporate Governance Council as part of its Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations in 2010.

Rather than focus on women in the boardroom, I chose to investigate what it would mean to introduce one or more dimensions of diversity into a board which has traditionally been composed homgeneously.

My key findings are:
1. chairmen need a specific set of skills over and above the traditional skills of chairmanship in order to lead a diversely-composed board;
2. the board culture needs to be one which embraces diversity, with each and every member exhibiting skills that engender openness to a wide range of ideas;
3. the new member must accommodate the incumbent culture while at the same time acknowledging that their inclusion in the group will mean that the group dynamic will change.

I'll discuss each of these findings more fully in later Leading for Diversity in the Boardroom posts.

The work has been published in three parts in the peer-reviewed journal, Keeping Good Companies, which is published by Chartered Secretaries Australia. I have already addressed CEDA on the topic and I am receiving requests to make board presentations and to speak to private lunches of directors.


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