Leveraging Board Experience for Career Growth: How to Stand Out for Healthcare Management Roles

Leveraging board experience for career growth is an underutilized strategy to navigate the conundrum of needing leadership experience to obtain a leadership role in healthcare. Serving on a board of directors provides the opportunity to gain valuable portable skills to augment leadership trajectory, including skills in setting strategic direction, influencing corporate governance and managing risk. For early careerists, board membership also provides a competitive advantage unique to their age group. The average age of an S&P 500 board member is 63 years old, and 84% of nonprofit board members are 40 years old and above. Chairing board committees as an early careerist provides an advantage and sub-communicates how early careerists are able to be credible leaders of teams where other members may have a comparatively longer tenure.

This session will benefit attendees ranging from students, entry-level healthcare professionals and mid-senior leaders with direct reports. Attendees will learn a three-step system devised from the speakers’ lived experiences. First, learn how to identify boards where the areas of focus align with personal branding. For example, to demonstrate financial acumen, identify a board where the financial committee has members rolling off the board. Second, learn how to partner with an employer’s compliance officer to identify and assess conflict of interest. This is a critical step to uphold ethics and compliance standards. Third, attendees will learn how to position themselves optimally for a board nomination process. Additionally, attendees currently serving on a board will learn how to incorporate their experience into optimal personal branding and avoid priority dilution. One of the unintentional results of joining a board is balancing an additional set of duties along with a busy healthcare career. Learning effective time-management skills ensure that being on the board enhances, not detracts, from personal branding to stand out for healthcare management roles. Attendees will leave with actionable tools to enhance their professional credibility and create a lasting impact on their leadership trajectory.