Pros and Cons of Board Members

Being invited to join a Board is an exciting experience for a lot of people. It can boost your credibility, expand your network, and create more opportunities for your professional or personal career.

However, if you’re not sure whether being on a board is worth the effort of meetings, settling disagreements, and reading financial reports, take note that money isn’t always the major motive for board members. There’s a variety of professional abilities that strengthen as a result of your board experience and these could be extremely beneficial to your career progression.

If you are on a board of a startup company in its beginning stages you could have a say in the direction of the company in ways that you would not be able of in your current position. The same is true for boards that are based in disciplines like my review here insurance/managed care, medicine law, finance/banking, marketing, real estate, public policy, among others.

A board member has the opportunity to learn from leaders and executives in completely different industries. As a result, working with them together to tackle complicated issues can result in strong bonds that reach the personal level.

Of course there are many other factors that go into the decision to become a member of the board such as compensation and benefits that can range from use of the corporate jet to access to company-owned products for testing. It is important to ensure that you are fully informed about what you can expect from the company in terms of expectations around time commitment and clear communication as well as the capacity to contribute.