Harvard Business Review Board Member's Handbook - (HBR Handbooks) by Dennis Carey & Michael Useem & Maggie Wilderotter (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Become the best board member you can be--and build a high-performing board around you.

Boards have become increasingly vital in an era of uncertainty, transformation, and investor activism--and you feel the calling to serve. You're ready to share your expertise and judgment with the executive team, work with the rest of the board, and lead your organization to sustained success. But the skills and approaches that you exercised so well in your career may not be the most effective ones now. High performance in the boardroom is a different challenge--and serving, building, and leading a governing board are skills you must develop.

The Harvard Business Review Board Member's Handbook is your road map for effectively leading and governing a range of enterprises. This book shares insider accounts of boardroom excellence--and boardroom drama--from companies worldwide, and it provides director checklists, practical guidelines, and step-by step tools that can be applied to strategy development, risk assessment, and the toughest decisions.

You'll learn to:

• Raise your board worthiness and be invited to serve on the right boards--whether it's your first seat or you're a veteran
• Get your voice heard, build your influence, and make your presence valued
• Create the right architecture and structure for a high-performing boardroom
• Recruit high-quality board and executive talent

Keep this comprehensive guide as a personal adviser and professional companion as you establish your board legacy and lead your organization into the future.

HBR Handbooks provide ambitious professionals with the frameworks, advice, and tools they need to excel in their careers. With step-by-step guidance, time-honed best practices, and real-life stories, each comprehensive volume helps you to stand out from the pack--whatever your role.

About the Author

Dennis Carey is the vice chair of Korn Ferry, where he recruits board directors and chief executives and their direct reports. He has assessed and placed CEOs and directors for more than 75 companies in the Fortune 500. He has founded forums for board chairs, CEOs, and C-suite executives, including the Prium, the CEO Academy, and programs for CFOs and CHROs of America's largest enterprises. Dennis has published seven books, his three most recent being Talent, Strategy, Risk; Boards That Lead; and Talent Wins (all from Harvard Business Review Press). He has also published more than 50 refereed journal articles. Dennis teaches in a program on corporate governance at the Wharton School, and he has served on two public company boards and three private boards in technology, health care, and materials science. He also served on the board of the International Swimming Hall of Fame and he became the 31st American to swim the English Channel.

Michael Useem is the faculty director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management and McNulty Leadership Program, as well as the William and Jacalyn Egan Professor Emeritus of Management, at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He works on leadership development, general management, and corporate governance with companies and organizations in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, and he has served on the boards of for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Mike is the author of The Leader's Checklist; The Leadership Moment; Executive Defense; Investor Capitalism; Leading Up; The Go Point; and The Edge. He is also the coauthor and coeditor of Learning from Catastrophes and the coauthor of The India Way; Leadership Dispatches; Boards That Lead; The Strategic Leader's Roadmap; Fortune Makers; and Mastering Catastrophic Risk.

Maggie Wilderotter is the former executive chair of Frontier Communications, one of the nation's largest broadband, video, and voice companies. She served as chair and CEO from 2006 to 2015 and as executive chairman in 2015-2016. She previously served as senior vice president of business strategy and oversaw the worldwide public sector at Microsoft. She has also served in executive roles with Wink Communications, AT&T, and McCaw Cellular Communications. Maggie has been on more than 10 private company boards and 30 public boards, including Costco Wholesale Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Juno Therapeutics, and Cadence Design Systems. She has been senior adviser to Blackstone and Atairos. She is a trustee of The Conference Board and served on former President Obama's Commission on Enhancing National Security. She is a member of the executive committee of Catalyst, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding opportunities for women in business, and she has served on the boards of Women in America, the Business Council, and the Committee of 200.