Qualities of the Best Board Members with Jocelyn Mangan

Intro: Welcome to The Daily Bolster. Each day, we welcome transformational executives to share their real- world experiences and practical advice about scaling yourself, your team, and your business.

Matt Blumberg: Welcome to The Daily Bolster. I'm Matt Blumberg, co- founder and CEO of Bolster, and I'm here today with my friend Jocelyn Mangan. Jocelyn is the founder and CEO of Him For Her and also illumyn, both of which are partner companies of Bolster. Jocelyn, it's great to see you.

Jocelyn Mangan: It is great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Matt Blumberg: Yeah. So you are one of the experts in the world, I think, on boards, and I wanted to ask you a question about that today. So you have been on a bunch of boards, you've helped companies build boards. In your mind, what are the top few qualities of all- star board members, MVP board members?

Jocelyn Mangan: So we host these executive round tables, and we've done a bunch of them now, but at the first tranche of them, we asked who's been your most valuable board member and why? And so we heard this question answered by thousands of board members, or hundreds of board members, I should say. And-

Matt Blumberg: That's 2,000. Thousands at this point.

Jocelyn Mangan: Yeah. I mean, actually, at this point, it is thousands, but this question was answered by hundreds. And what's interesting about it is, these are off- the- record conversations and so they're stories. And one weekend I read through the notebooks, and I was like, " Oh my gosh, through these stories, these same qualities keep coming up time and time again." So that's a little bit of background on what I'm about to share. One of the ones that bumped up to the top was asks thoughtful questions, which can sound on the surface very simple, but you're a board member too. It's not, right? That thoughtful lead into the question is really the key. So with all of the advice that we got through that answer, one of the hacks that I heard come through is the how question and what question versus the why question. It was not only thinking about really what topic, but how you're asking the question in a way that opens up a dialogue, was one of the things that came up time and time again.

Matt Blumberg: Yeah, I'm certainly seeking to learn as opposed to just being there to inform, is a good quality to look for in a director.

Jocelyn Mangan: Yeah. And maybe not causing defensiveness. I think it's pretty natural, honestly, as a board member to be like, " Well, why did they do this?" And even if that's the thought, it's the catching that thought and then restructuring it. What process did you go through to get to that decision? Would open up a much different discussion, for example.

Matt Blumberg: Okay, so asking thoughtful questions.

Jocelyn Mangan: Yeah, so asking thoughtful questions was one. Another one that I think is maybe obvious but not as hard as acts as an overseer versus an operator. And because many... especially first- time board members are still operating, and by the way, that's a very valuable thing to have in the boardroom. As someone who's still operating and experiencing the workplace of today, the role is really different. It is there more as a guide. And I grew up in product management, which is very much an operator role and very much the person who needs to have the solution or the decision or the deadline or the date, or the why. And so making that... it's really a translation into a different role, thinking at a different altitude, and knowing that the executive team is there to run the company, and that's not what you're there to do. And so I think that shows up in lots of different ways in these stories, but that was kind of the headline.

Matt Blumberg: Yeah. Someone described that to me once as noses in, fingers out.

Jocelyn Mangan: Yes.

Matt Blumberg: Okay. So we're asking thoughtful questions. We're not being an operator and pretending it's our problem to solve. What's your next one?

Jocelyn Mangan: So this is one that I really like too, which is spends time, because I think a lot of people think about board service as the structured time it takes, which is the time you can predict, right? We have four meetings a year, they're held in this city, or maybe one's remote, or we have a monthly board call. I think the stories that came up in our conversations about spends time were way deeper and very unstructured. And again, not even talking about the crises or the emergencies or the M& A deal, but really things like calling on a Saturday to check in during a hard time at the company. Taking a long international flight just to show support for an M& A deal. They were very much about showing up at the conference, but not just for the main stage events, sitting at the tables with the employees afterwards, and just having casual conversations. And so to me, that was a very telling moment because time is our most precious asset, and board service does take time, but the great board members are spending that kind of unpredictable time and support of the company and of its executives, and quite frankly, its employees.

Matt Blumberg: Yeah, that's great. It's not just being prepared for meetings, logging in the meeting and the committee time, and doing the assignments. It is those extra minutes.

Jocelyn Mangan: That's right. That's right.

Matt Blumberg: All right. Jocelyn Mangan, Him For Her, and illumyn, thank you so much.

Jocelyn Mangan: Thank you.