A poorly executed board recruitment strategy can be the silent saboteur of a board’s success. Quality board recruitment processes are the cornerstone that ensures the right mix of expertise, experience and vision exists to govern with confidence. Unlike executive recruitment, it’s also a process that most boards only engage in occasionally, so boards need a robust and repeatable process embedded in their culture.  This episode features a recent conversation between Paul and Tom Mutch,...

What type or style of board member are you? Are you the Stakeholder Champion, Data Chaser, Status Hound, Unprepared, or even the Narcissist? These are the types identified in a recent article from Harvard Business Review, and in another bite-sized episode from Paul, he gives you a few more to play with. Then, Paul asks how can we harmonise so many different people into an effective team or board? Have a listen and see what you think.  Podcast links Join Future Directors for FREE Follow...

Yes, 100 episodes!  Wow. Almost 70 hours worth of conversation about boards, directors, technology, diversity, education, careers, challenges and more. It's been a blast.  To welcome us into the next century, you have a new host, Matt Fullbrook. Amongst his claims to fame he's the single most repeated guest on Paul's podcast and one of the few others governance podcasts to hit 100 episodes. In this episode, the tables are turned and Matt interviews Paul about his journey. And, it gets...

As we near our ONE-HUNDREDTH episode, Paul shares his favourite episode of all time. It also happens to be one of the most downloaded episodes in the podcast's history.  Featuring repeat offender Matt Fullbrook, alongside younger directors Nurain Janah and Hannah Stenning, this replay of Ep57 dives into why we need intergenerational diversity in the boardroom. This is the first part of an eventual two-parter, so feel free to drop back to Ep58 straight afterwards. See you next time for...

Hello, fellow governance geeks, director dorks and boardroom boffins! This special technological episode features your host Paul Smith - founder of Future Directors - chatting with the hugely popular Generative AI tool, ChatGPT 4.0. Having crowdsourced some questions from his network, Paul ask Chat questions, follow-up questions, agrees to disagree and more with a voice-enabled version of the revolutionary tech.  Learn what ChatGPT says about governance, diversity, decision-making and more...

In this episode, Paul takes a backseat to his colleague Aisling Blackmore who recorded this webinar with William Rae and Elaine Crichton from Inspiring Scotland in late 2023.  (Please note, there were some sound issues during this recording) Inspiring Scotland is a UK-based charity that identifies and solves problems on a national scale, working together for a Scotland without poverty or disadvantage. The episode brings together lived experience leadership, models for inclusive...

Can you believe we are four episodes away from the Magic 100?!? This is a wonderful in-depth chat between two people obsessed with board governance.  Jess Bulger is a proud Wiradjuri woman from Tumut in NSW, Australia. She is the CEO of the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute and Co-Chair at Outward Bound Australia. She cares deeply about indigenous leadership, capacity building and seeing communities thrive.  In this wide-ranging conversation between two governance geeks, Paul...

Are you looking to build a board of directors from scratch or enhance your existing board composition? If so, then this episode is the one for you.  This ep features a recent conversation between Paul and special guests, Rosie and Lucy Thomas from Project Rockit. A few years ago, these two sisters worked with Paul to enhance the board composition of their social enterprise.  The chat dives deep into their thinking, their blindspots, the Future Director's process and how it all came...

As we see big brand companies like Qantas and OpenAI go through what we can safely say from the outside is a bit of a ‘governance crisis’, it has brought up the need to be very clear about what is board leadership and why is it different to other leadership roles. In another bite-sized episode of Paul by himself (guests are back soon), he will give you a twist on the usual elephantish analogy. SPOILER ALERT. Elephants are excellent swimmers.  But, what has this got to do with the Modern...

In a world of ever-evolving organisational governance, where boards serve as the nerve centre of decision-making and strategy, it is surprising how often the simple question of PURPOSE remains unanswered. Boards of directors, entrusted with steering companies through complex waters, frequently grapple with their roles, often searching for their true north. In this short episode, Paul is back to help deconstruct why boards need a unifying force that guides them, in alignment with the...

In this special episode, we share a recent recording of Paul hosting a live webinar on the subject of AI, its impact on boardrooms, policies, governing and the role of board directors themselves.  Is it a risk, an opportunity, or (spoiler alert) both? In this episode, Paul discusses: What is AI, Generative AI and what stage are we at?* How to develop an AI Governance Policy for your company or organisation...that will keep pace the rapid changes in AI How you should (and shouldn't) use AI...

On the back of episode 89, we've been looking at another study. This time by Monash University in Australia, which delved deep into board diversity and inclusion. They interviewed remarkable women from diverse backgrounds, and what they unearthed is a wake-up call for every boardroom across the world. In this episode, Paul is back to quickly distill the main points of this latest study and what it means for you, your board and for the wider industry. Warning, he has some strong opinions on...

Another year, another survey of board directors. Does this one show us anything new? Earlier this year, the Global Network of Director Institutes released their “The Future of Board Governance” report. The GNDI is a collection of 24 national governance institutes from North and South America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, with combined memberships of 150,000. In this episode, Paul briefly covers the main findings of the report and the implications for boards and companies. 

This episode is a bit special and serves two purposes. For our Australian listeners, it continues on the discussion about navigating the Voice to Parliament discussion with your board. Paul hosted a webinar recently and this is a snippet from a special panel discussion with guests Jessica Bulger (from the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute) and Kate Hillman (from Ernst & Young).   For our overseas listeners, there is still some great stuff here for you if you are interested in...

In a special episode of the podcast, we take a look at how to navigate the 'Voice to Parliament' Referendum in your boardroom. For our non-Australian listeners, this won't mean much unless you keep up to date with First Nations affairs globally.  In this webinar (converted to podcast), Paul was joined by author, Uluru Statement from the Heart signatory and Yes23 Spokesperson, Thomas Mayo, and CEO of the Australian Indigenous Governance Insitute, Jessica Bulger.  They explored this crucial...

This is part 2 of Paul's fascinating (we think) conversation with technologist and all round nice guy, Josh Klein.  If this is your first listen to the podcast, we recommend you go back to Part 1 a few episodes ago.  Josh is a truly fascinating guest. He specialises in translating technological insights into actionable strategies. He's a sought-after speaker, writer and consultant even though he now lives on the island country of Iceland.  This was a meeting of the minds. Josh and Paul...

High-performance teams, from the pitch to the boardroom, need to build up rapport together. This takes time. But, one of the major problems in most boardrooms is the lack of time together. Whatever time a board has is usually spent on the business instead of getting to know one another. Compound this with the infrequency of meetings and you have a recipe for a less effective team. In this episode, Paul discusses why there is always time to build rapport in the boardroom. From informal small...

Paul's back chatting to with the best and brightest in his latest episode of the Future Directors Podcast. This week is Part 1 of a two-parter with technologist, Josh Klein. Josh is a truly fascinating guest. He specialises in translating technological insights into actionable strategies. He's a sought-after speaker, writer and consultant even though he now lives on the island country of Iceland.  This was a meeting of the minds. Josh and Paul vibing on so many levels that we had to keep...

Did you know that fewer than 1% of board directors worldwide have a formal qualification? Should this worry us? Do qualifications indicate competency? Do we miss out on better candidates when we seek assurance from a qualification? In this short episode, Paul ruminates on a recent conversation between scholars Scott Galloway and Byron Auguste on The Prof G Pod, and seeks to connect it to the boardroom. For some background, here's that conversation between Scott and Byron.

We’re always working toward inclusivity and intersectionality at Future Directors. And, today, it’s particularly important that I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Paul recorded this episode – the Whadjuk Noongar people. So, can we learn anything about governance from the oldest living civilisation in the world? In this week's episode, Paul shares his thoughts having spent the last few years talking with and listening deeply to First Nations Indigenous people around...

Our most provocative episode (title) ever. The week Paul - in just a few minutes - discusses the power of systems, language and stakeholders. How do these things play out in and around boardrooms? Paul investigates some different ways of looking at effective governance structures that move us away from the traditional "top floor down" thinking of where boards belong. Are directors the problem or is it something else?  Some answers await...

This week's short snippet from Paul focusses on a bit of research by those smart people at Havard and Penn universities called “The Liking Gap In Groups”. Apparently, we can routinely underestimate how likeable we seem to others, but this gap shrinks as we get to know one another.  What does this have to do with governance, the boardroom and the role of the director? IT'S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS!!! Ok, there's more to it, but in just a few minutes you'll know more...

We are back...again! Yes, the Future Directors Podcast is crazily inconsistent but you can't beat the content right?  For the next little while, FDI Founder Paul Smith will be sharing his thoughts in bite-size monologues of under 5 minutes each. Governance geekdom at its finest. This episode is all that little thing bandwagon called AI - Artificial Intelligence. Paul is interested in ChatGPT’s (and more broadly, AI’s) implications for boards, strategy, risk and their role as organisational...