Make the board a mosaic of talent.

• Author: Francis, Cheryl
• Position: DIRECTORS TO WATCH

An excellent board brings a broad range of relevant director perspectives to address a company's issues and opportunities. That, together with the constraints that boards place on CEO availability as independent directors, requires that we expand beyond the conventional pool of sitting or retired public company CEOs.

From that reality comes the need to expand the roster of director candidates and the opportunity to recruit from more diverse backgrounds.

Some observations:

* Personal experience from 10 corporate boards confirms that good boards focus on the desired mix of relevant director attributes and experiences first, rather than screening candidates by title or executive role.

* Engagement with C-suite talent through succession planning and with top business leadership development programs, such as CEO Perspectives, demonstrates that many excellent director candidates are in the layer below the CEO, where they are less visible to, and less networked with, existing board members.

* Growing business issues, such as social media and enterprise risk, benefit from a fresh perspective, which is often contributed by a director with a background new to the board. Key areas of expertise can strengthen the board's effectiveness on technology or human capital issues, for example.

Board composition is a mosaic of talent. The best boards bring together a variety of relevant backgrounds and create a dynamic that encourages directors to collaborate with each other, with management, and with advisors to create the best outcomes for shareholders. The mix of views and talents on the board is at least as important as individual director attributes.

A barrier for women and diverse director candidates is the limited number with experience as public company CEOs. The assumption that this is the ideal background for all directors creates gaps and blind spots for companies. Once boards look beyond CEO ranks, the choice of talented, strategic, and diverse candidates expands exponentially.

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The tendency to recruit a director already known and vouched for by other board members also limits candidates to those already in the "inner circle," reducing diversity on many dimensions. And the desire to recruit directors with prior board experience produces a similar limitation. When it is the overall composition of the board that is at the forefront, it...