Fountain of youth

I’m waiting in the Xero building in Wellington. I’m early because I’m nervous. I know I’m supposed to wait here, but I’m alone. Should I try to get up to the third floor? What if the lift is only operated by a staff fob and I look stupid? What if the meeting started at 12, not 1? What if it’s tomorrow?

I’m just about to check the introductory email for the fifth time that morning, when in walk Guy, Aaron, Kim, Mary, Cal, Andrew and Arizona. Kim has a sparkly gold helmet under one arm, Arizona’s popping her headphones back in their case, and Mary is trundling a stylish wheelie bag behind her.

“. . . and I’ve just heard about the new plans for lower Cuba Street, it looks like a – oh, kia ora, you must be Jemma?”

Andrew sticks out his hand without waiting for a response.

“Welcome to the board of Inspiring Stories. It’s wonderful to have you here.”

It’s long been accepted that homogeneity around a board table compromises the effectiveness and foresight of directors. Although the word “diversity” may be so overused, it feels banal and insipid (rather like “community” or “pivot”), there is a reason you’re hearing it talked and written about so much.

Simply put, the more different the skillsets, backgrounds and experiences of your directors or trustees, the more resilient your organisation. Leading the charge within diversity efforts seems to be gender and ethnicity, but boards are now commonly seeking and welcoming neurodivergence, a variety of gender expressions, those who are disabled, those in the LGBTQIA+ community, and those who live rurally.

In the spring issue of Boardroom, it said the average age of board members in October 2022 at Russell 1000 companies in the US was 61. This data is not collected in Aotearoa, but the average age for an IoD member in 2022 was 53. Though it is a small sample size, IoD members appointed to NZX Top 50 company boards between October 2020 and September 2021 had an average age of 61.

As a 31-year-old trustee, I regularly find myself at board meetings and governance events with people more than twice my age. I understand why this is – a higher age often has a strong correlation with more varied and relevant experiences that benefit a business or charity. While no generation is perfect, with experience can come complacency and an aversion to change. That’s a dangerous combination.

The community of directors and trustees in Aotearoa is coming to understand the importance of having younger voices, where the value of our whakaaro is not in spite of but centred in our naivete – our willingness to ask questions, challenge why things are a certain way, and ensure the long-term impact of current decisions remains top of mind.

In acknowledgement of this, and wanting to support people early in their governance career, the IoD offers a First Steps in Governance Award in Ōtautahi, a stepping stone for traditionally younger professionals to join an established not- for-profit boardroom. Having seen eight of these award winners onto the Ronald McDonald House South Island (RMHSI) Trust Board, Jock Muir MInstD has seen the benefits first-hand.

Muir says younger people have a different attitude to problem solving. Just by being at the table, they challenge old dynamics between established board members, and the homogeneity of thought that can come with that. He says they changed more seasoned directors’ thought processes and decisions, and as a board wanting to do the best for the families staying with them, that was just brilliant.

The experience of being one of those young trustees has a positive ripple effect. Maddy Sinclair was a First Steps award winner in 2017 and her experience with RMHSI changed how she governed the charityx Forward Foundation.

Sinclair says the award was a game- changer. Being on the RMHSI board opened her eyes to best practice, and helped her chart the path for the Forward Foundation to grow from the informal committee that they started out as to becoming a proper board, focused on strategy and risk.

Others eschewed the need for a structured programme where younger members were introduced to governance as observers by simply putting together a skills matrix that included ‘youth’ as a desired trait and going to market.

One of those was Inspiring Stories. I was one of four new trustees recruited onto the board in 2020. We were all under the age of 40. When I asked former board chair Andrew Weaver about this decision, he says it was intentional.

Weaver says there is a phrase in DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) mahi that he had heard quite often: ‘Nothing about us, without us’. He says they were a not-for-profit focused on young people, and it was painfully clear they needed that perspective on their board, from multiple angles.

There are differing opinions in governance about whether having interns on the board is a necessary step.

Weaver says if they were going to authentically include those who didn’t necessarily have governance experience but brought all kinds of other lived experience, they didn’t want them to just be observers. They were very clear – ‘at this board table, no matter your age or experience, you have an equal seat, an equal voice, and an equal vote’.

Threaded throughout conversations about this topic with directors, young and old, around the country, was the principle of ako – that beautiful, reciprocal idea of teaching and learning occurring simultaneously.

Erin Black, who is on the board of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, found that to be the case when she started mentoring an Aboriginal leader in the forum who was in her early 20s. 

She says she wanted to provide young people with the ability to step into themselves. It turned out the leader was the one mentoring Black and she learned “so much”.

High-performing boards understand where they have got room to grow, and whose perspective they are missing. Whether you bring young people on in a more structured way through the IoD’s programmes or choose to prioritise this when you are next recruiting, those who have undertaken this mahi know the benefits will outweigh the concerns.

Sinclair says young people have such a natural disposition towards governance because they are, by nature, long-term thinkers. Thirty years into the future is when they will be in their fifties and sixties – where most directors are at now. Actions taken in the present have consequences these rangatahi will have to live with. They want to make that future as positive, equitable, and fertile as possible, Sinclair adds.

And as I think back to the nerves and excitement heading to the Xero lift with my security pass and a babble of introductions going on around me, and then walking into my first ever board meeting as an Inspiring Stories trustee, I knew that to be true, even then.

Want to be come a board member?

On finding roles

1. Never forget your age is an asset.
2. All of your experience can be relevant – if you know how to frame it. How can you come to understand your experiences as points of difference?
3. What do you have to lose by applying? As Seth Godin says, “‘Will I get in?’ is not nearly as good a question as, ‘Is it worth trying?’”
4. Don’t take ‘no’ personally. That’s the fuel to try again.

Once you have joined

1. Be proud of the mana you bring. You have now been chosen so you have a responsibility.
2. Make an effort to find common ground with other board members.
3. Seek out a mentor, either on your board or someone else with governance experience who can talk you through your experiences and offer their perspective.
4. Keep asking questions.
5. It will be hard. You learn governance by doing it.
6. Recognise when you’re not ‘young’ anymore. Hold the door open for those coming after you.

Suggestions for boards/management

In preparation

1. Bringing on a young person may be a part of your diversity, equity and inclusion strategy. Remember, one young person does not speak for all young people. We have all seen tokenism at play at board tables; this is known as “hiring for diversity, managing for assimilation”. Ask yourself, as a board, are you ready to listen to what young people will want to share? Are you prepared to act on it?
2. Regardless of their age, preparing for a new board member requires time from the chair and management. Factor in spending more time answering their questions and giving them personal experience of your organisation – site visits, 1:1s with specific staff, or explanations about your specific industry or kaupapa.

Once they have joined

1. Create the space for young people to speak up. This may mean changing how meetings are chaired, or how people are called on to contribute.
2. Be patient. You’re seeing us work through the learning and growth curve in real time.
3. Encouragement goes a long way. We all remember the feeling of being out of our depth, or being an imposter. Ensure young people on your board understand that their perspective matters and their contribution has the power to change things.
4. Expect new perspectives to shift your own thinking. Expect to be challenged. Expect to start doing things in a new way. Expect to learn a lot. Expect change.