Three TED Talks for Board Members

The career advice you probably didn’t get by Susan Colantuono

I got tingles when I listened to this talk. After years of research, Colantuono has discovered what she calls ‘the missing 33%’. And this missing 33% is what holds people (mainly women) back from gaining senior leadership positions.

Traditional leadership programs focus on developing personal greatness (your skills, abilities, and talents) and on engaging the greatness in others. Yet there is another set of skills that is relied upon twice as much as these when bosses are selecting candidates for promotions.

They are business, strategic, and financial acumen. And it’s something that we are big on developing in our members at Get on Board.

What it takes to be a great leader by Roselinde Torres

Three things set great leaders apart from good leaders. They can see around corners and anticipate change; they gain diverse thoughts and ideas from their equally diverse network; and they dare to be different by not being afraid of abandoning past behaviours (even the good ones).

Traditional development methods, according to Torres, stunt your leadership development and struggle to prepare you for today and for the unknown possibilities of tomorrow.

Profit’s not always the point by Harish Manwani

Being on a board gives you the ability to influence organisations to make more of a positive difference in the world.

Talking of his experiences of working for Unilever, Manwani shares his view of businesses needing to earn their place in the environment where they operate through growing responsibly while still working toward consistent, competitive and profitable growth. Responsible growth creates social value as well as economic value.

Small actions – such as providing a bar of soap to children in India – make big differences, and works toward answering the million-dollar question by businesses: how do we make money AND do good?

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