Preparing for Board Service: Best Practices to Secure a Board Seat

Securing a board seat, especially for the first time, requires more than expertise: it demands strategic preparation, leadership support, and a clear understanding of corporate governance. Preparing for board service requires individuals to understand the broader landscape of business and how to influence long-term impact at a company.

Learning from colleagues who already serve on boards and participating in opportunities that provide insight into what board service entails will enhance an individual’s qualifications and help refine their focus on what type of board opportunity they want to pursue. Below are a few best practices for aspiring board members to achieve optimal support from leaders when preparing for their first board seat.

Be intentional and vocal about board goals. It may sound obvious, but the more leadership knows about the kind of board, or boards, an aspiring director wants to serve on and why, the better they can help find one that aligns with the person’s values.

Aspiring board members should be as strategic about their board goals as they are about their overall career goals. For example, I have a “10-year vision” document of both my personal and professional goals that I refresh annually. I have shared it with my CEO a few times throughout my almost nine years at e.l.f. Beauty, so he knows that I want to be on at least five boards by the time I reach a certain age. My vision document also notes that I want to pursue board opportunities at companies with unique growth trajectories that align with my values, and where I know that I can have a real impact on helping the business achieve the best outcome.

By detailing these specifics to my CEO and chief financial officer (both of whom have served on boards) along with other members of leadership, their feedback has helped me gain a better sense of the type of boards I should be aiming for, and I can be more intentional in my focus. My CEO nominated me for the NACD Accelerate™ program because I was so vocal about my desire to gain a board seat. Being in the program has helped me further lean into my strengths—or as we say at e.l.f., my superpowers—versus trying to be exceptional at everything. I have learned that the ideal board candidate brings unique strengths to the table and understand how to leverage these to best contribute to a company’s success. Letting go of the notion that a person needs to excel at everything and instead honing my specific strengths to enhance the unique qualities that I can bring to a board is something that the NACD Accelerate™ emphasizes.

Learn the roots of corporate strategy and oversight. To become a desirable board candidate, it’s important for aspiring directors to broaden their understanding of governance, risk management, and long-term strategy, as these will be the primary focus of any boards they join. Individuals seeking board service should actively seek out opportunities within their own organizations to participate in cross-functional projects that will help them learn more about these three key areas of the business.

Ask to sit in on company board meetings—and on the prep work that goes into them. Board service is a lot of work. It's not just attending four meetings a year; directors change the trajectory of a company, so they must be prepared for an ongoing commitment.

A typical board meeting may have as many as 150 prep slides to study beforehand, some of which may be an individual director’s responsibility to prepare. When a new director joins the board, there is an extensive orientation process that can span weeks, or even months, and involves every current board member. Aspiring board members should ask the people on their leadership teams who serve on boards to share their experiences, including everything that is required outside of the actual board meetings, to understand the full scope of the commitment.

In addition, they should ask to attend their companies’ board meetings. I have been fortunate enough to attend e.l.f. Beauty’s board meetings, and it has allowed me to put myself in the directors’ shoes. I have also learned how each member’s priorities fit into the bigger picture of shaping the company’s trajectory. This helps me refine my story and determine how best to present my goals and values to the board I would want to join.

Become well-versed in the language of boards. Even if someone is involved in high-level decision-making in their current position, understand that a boardroom operates differently. The primary tasks of a board are debating, deliberating, and voting. This may sound easy, but the style and language used in the boardroom are different than in the broader organization.

Aspiring directors should work with the leaders at their companies who currently serve on boards to learn how to present themselves and the assets they bring to the table in a manner that will sound credible to a board. A board will want to understand how they make decisions and draw from their experiences when doing so. This requires a fair amount of reflection and learning the right language to craft their stories.

Keep the dialogue open. Individuals should continually discuss their board goals with their leadership teams to stay aligned with emerging trends in boardroom dynamics. What boards seek in a candidate continually evolves, so they should adjust to these trends to best present themselves to prospective boards. 

Ultimately, being a great board member is as much about what a person does today and tomorrow as it is about everything they have done up until this point.

e.l.f Beauty is a NACD partner, providing directors with critical and timely information, and perspectives. e.l.f. Beauty is a financial supporter of the NACD.

Ekta Chopra is the chief digital officer at e.l.f. Beauty.