Board attributes
Competence
A cluster of related knowledge, skills and attitudes that affect a major part of one's job (a role or responsibility) that correlates with performance on the job, that can be measured against well-accepted standards and that can be improved via training and development
Specific board role competence
This area of role competence asks directors 'do you have specific board role competence?' and is very much linked to the role that each individual director plays on the board
General leadership competence
This section looks at the leadership competencies that are required of board directors, providing some context to the question asked of them 'do you have general leadership competence?'
Emotional intelligence
If intelligent quotient, or IQ, gets you hired, it is said that emotional quotient or EQ gets you promoted
Daniel Goleman defines emotional intelligence as 'the ability to identify and manage one's own emotions as well as the emotions of others'
Emotional intelligence is a collection of various competencies that arise from Goleman's two dimensions of identifying/managing and self/others
Emotional intelligence is viewed as something that anyone can improve over time with appropriate perspective and practice
In organisations, emotional intelligence seems to peak at around managerial level and then gradually declines in inverse proportion as one climbs the organisational greasy pole through director and senior executive levels
The emotional intelligence characteristic of empathy, also known as social sensitivity has been found to be key to high performing teams
Leadership style
A competent board director will also be defined by their chosen leadership style
The best leadership styles for sustained strategic leadership, based on the large and growing evidence base are those that are the least ego based
21st century leadership competence
Resilience
The requirement for greater levels of individual resilience is related to the need for increasing levels of director commitment and the significant uplift in broad scrutiny
The process of adapting well in the face of...threats or significant sources of stress. It means bouncing back from difficult experiences
It enables us to cope with the increasing demands that organisational life throws at us, the psychological threats that we perceive as part of these demands and also the negative emotional, cognitive or behavioural symptoms that may result as part of our stress and coping response
Resilience is a competency that can be built over time through a focus on positive lifestyle factors such as appropriate exercise, nutrtion and sleep, cognitive techniques such as gratitude and mindfulness and by having access to appropriate social support networks
Organisations are increasingly providing resilience training as part of their broader development initiatives or well being strategy but these have yet to be systematically implemented to support board directors in any significant way in the majority of organisations
Learning agility
As the external political, economic, social, regulatory and technological environment changes and increasingly so, during the COVID-19 crisis, there is a requirement for senior organisational leaders to be able to adapt at pace
The ability of an organisation to pivot its strategy to changing conditions is hugely important and it is the competence of learning agility that predicts one's ability to deliver this
A mindset and corresponding collection of practices that allow leaders to continually develop, grow and utilise new strategies that will equip them for the increasingly complex problems they face in their organisations.
Research has identified four behaviours that enable and one that derails learning agility. The enabling behaviours are
Innvoating
Questioning the status quo, challenging assumptions and seeing things from multiple perspectives
Performing
Immersing yourself in the experience, observing, listening and quickly processing data
Reflecting
Gaining feedback and raising self-awareness (in studies this factor best predicted high-performing leadership)
Risking
Taking progressive rather than thrill seeking risk that stretches and where success is not guaranteed
The derailing behaviour is that of defending which involves being closed and defensive to critical feedback and is a predictor of lower leadership performance
Cultural Intelligence
As organisations and stakeholder groups become increasingly globalised, there is a requirement for all leaders to become more culturally intelligent
Cultural intelligence measures one's ability to empathise not just with other people per se, but with broad groups of others who are part of different national or corporate cultures
Cultural intelligence has been defined as an outsider's seemingly natural ability to interpret someone's unfamiliar and ambiguous gestures the way that person's compatriots would'
Digital intelligence
The pace of digital transformation is increasing so that digital intelligence becomes a leadership requirement of all senior leaders, including board directors
Digital intelligence and digital approaches to leadership are defined by an ability to keep up to date with trends in technology, cyber-risk and AI and are less of a technical capacity than one might think. Instead digital intelligence is viewed in the research and best practice as more akin to emotional intelligence.
A leader's ability to be curious and have a mindset that is open to the changes that digital offers, to be fast paced, to apply an agog fast-fail mentality, to be open and collaborative, to be experimental, to be well networked and to use social working practices
Commitment and personal disposition
Asking the question to directors 'Do you have the right disposition and motivation'?
Personality styles
Our personality is defined as the characteristic set of behaviours, cognitions and emotional patterns that evolve from our biology and our environment
Personality styles are classically broken down into what is known as the Big 5 personality traits. These five traits have been defined as
Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness and neuroticism
Mindset
Can describe one's attitude to many things, but is especially informative in describing one's attitude towards intelligence. If somebody has a fixed mindset around intelligence - that is, they see intelligence as a static trait - this will lead to a desire to look intelligent and therefore a tendency to behave in certain ways. These behaviours will include the tendency to avoid challenges; to give up easily when faced with obstacles, to reduce effort as effort is seen as fruitless; to ignore useful negative feedback as this would be perceived as criticism and to feel threatened by the success of others.
A growth mindset, that is having the belief that intelligence can be developed leads to a desire to learn and therefore a tendency to reach a variety of more positive outcomes. These will include: the likelihood of embracing challenges when they occur; persisting in the face of setbacks; seeing effort as the path to mastery; learning from criticism rather than ignoring it and finding lessons and inspiration in the success of others, rather than feeling threatened by it. These outcomes create a virtuous circle and even higher levels of achievement, ultimately reinforcing the person's free will agency to improve their skills and standing
Motivation
Even the best directors are prone to dips in commitment and social loafing (exerting less effort when part of a team than when alone)
This means that sustainable self-motivation is a key attribute of successful, committed board directors
It is not the quantity of your motivation that predicts your performance but more the quality
The quality of your motivation is, using thought leading self determination theory language, either more intrinsic (driven by your own values, beliefs and enjoyment) or extrinsic (that is driven by what others would want or are coercing you to do)
When people are driven by a more intrinsic motivation because they either enjoy the process of doing something for itself, or because it is aligned with their values, better outcomes will ensue
We are all motivated by 4 basic fundamental human needs
Autonomy
The need to feel that you have personal control of your destiny
Belonging
The need to feel a connection with others
Competence
The need to feel that you are improving and playing to your strengths
Meaning
The need to feel a broader purpose for the behaviours that you are performing
Derailers
One useful test to assess for narcissistic personality disorder is the acronym SPECIAL
Special (believes he or she is special and unique)
Preoccupied with fantasies (of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty or ideal love)
Entitlement
Conceited
Interpersonal explotiation
Arrogant
Lacks empathy
Character
The 11Cs model asks directors 'Do you have sufficient ethical character?'
Even furnished with all the competencies and commitment, evidence suggets that directors cannot deliver effective governance if they do not have a clear moral purpose and cannot model core ethical values