The Savvy Director Blog

by Alice Sayant, ICD.D

It seems that, everywhere I go, someone is talking about imposter syndrome.

First it was an online discussion about 'Cultivating Your Influence in the Boardroom'.

Then a conversation with board directors at the inaugural Women Get On Board Summit. (Hold the date for WGOB's next Summit in their 10th Anniversary year - May 11, 2026.)

And then, just the other day, a chat with a friend during a brisk walk in the park.

You see where this is going, of course. At DirectorP...

“The paradox of board leadership is that, while you might earn a seat on a board of directors thanks to your abilities, knowledge, or popularity, serving well as a board member means leaving your ego behind.” – Susan Mogensen, Brown Dog Consulting

It’s not a surprise that, as a general rule, board directors have healthy egos. After all, they’re most often selected from among the ranks of successful business people, entrepreneurs, professionals, and academics. Each one brings their own exp...

If you sit on a board today, you’ve seen the flood of “must-have” topics: artificial intelligence, AI ethics, cybersecurity/resilience, ESG disclosures, climate risk, DEI, modern slavery, biodiversity, geopolitical risk, digital transformation, gender and age diversity, talent strategy, supply chain vulnerabilities, shareholder activism – the list grows every month.

Sometimes, the governance buzz is deafening. For directors, it’s easy to feel torn between the urgent and the important.

Consu...

Have you ever served on a board with a director you’d consider ideal? Someone you can’t wait to have in the boardroom, to engage in conversation that’s forward thinking, inspiring, and infused with values and goals aligned with the organization you both serve?

If you haven’t experienced that yet, I sincerely hope you do at some point, because there’s nothing like it. No matter your colleague’s background, they come prepared - ready to participate in the board discussion. Maybe not for every t...

You may think hackers only go after banks, tech giants, and multinational corporations. But the truth is non-profits and charities are prime targets for cybercrime, and the risks are growing.

Even though non-profits and charities hold valuable assets like donor data, beneficiary information, payment details, and possibly health records, they usually don’t have a team of cybersecurity specialists guarding the gates.

Savvy directors know that that cybersecurity and cyber resilience aren’t just...

Remember that feeling just before walking into your first board meeting? That combination of excitement and trepidation? You were wondering what you had got yourself into. But you couldn’t wait to make your mark.

But maybe that feeling has changed. Let's say you’ve been sitting on the board for a while. But now, instead of feeling excited and energized, eager to add value and make a difference, maybe you have a sinking feeling before your board meeting. Maybe you are not looking forward to it...

 “Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes
and feel with their own hearts.” – Albert Einstein

In today’s fast-moving digital world, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how we work, learn, and make decisions. For board directors, AI tools like ChatGPT and other generative platforms offer unprecedented convenience – summarizing lengthy reports, generating questions, and even drafting board materials.

But as these tools become more embedded in boardroom routines, a c...

Does it sometimes feel as though you hear from the same few directors at every board meeting? What about all the others? Why do they stay silent? And more importantly, what can be done about it?

These days, many boards are consciously pursuing more diversity around the board table. The benefits include exposure to a variety of viewpoints, a range of experiences to draw on, and greater insight into stakeholders’ concerns and perspectives. But board diversity won’t deliver on its promise unles...

Sometimes I hear from board directors who are struggling to find their voice in the boardroom. They don’t feel comfortable speaking up, or they can’t seem to make themselves heard.

It can be a particular challenge for newcomers to the board, or for those who feel outnumbered by virtue of their gender, age, race, etc.

If you don’t feel comfortable speaking up in the boardroom, you’ll end up feeling less engaged – maybe frustrated and resentful. Not only is that hard on you, but that kind of s...

In our recent Savvy Director blog post, Focus on What Matters, I wrote about the importance of boards staying focused on mission-critical issues. With the flood of board materials, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. Board meetings are filled with reports, updates, and discussions. As directors we have to be able to distinguish what’s truly important (the signal) from the massive volume of less strategic information (the noise).

A simple framework that we call The Director’s Focus can help cu...