Beyond the Boardroom

This might seem hard to believe, but over the last 7 years, I’ve personally engaged with over 3,000 different executive-level women: women seasoned and senior in their careers, with a strong mix of those still elevating to the C-suite, others wanting to join boards, and at least a third already serving on boards. 

Throughout my conversations, I’ve learned many things about women leading big careers. One of them is that despite board work being a hot topic, it’s rarely ever their full story. It’s not their only next goal, nor the last thing on their career list, and it’s not even close to the full definition of who they are or who they want to be.

What I’ve learned is that at some point, most of us shift gears in our thinking. We get tired of describing ourselves or thinking about ourselves in a linear, resume-like fashion. Rather, we want a portfolio approach to ourselves, and a biographical way of talking about that. This is what we have come to call a Portfolio of Impact™ at Athena. 

Imagine a wheel with 5 points on it:

• Lead (your core career role - the space most of us spend most of our careers)
• Govern (board/advisory work)
• Invest (funding the next great businesses)
• Build (go create the next great business as an entrepreneur)
• Inspire (write a book, teach a class, start a podcast, speak at a conference) 

(Yes, I left off philanthropy, travel, family, hobbies as I’m talking specifically about your Professional Portfolio of Impact here, and specifically the areas you could continue to make an income if you want to or need to well beyond your core career years).

I could give you countless examples of women living a professional Portfolio of Impact into their 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and even a few in their 80’s! Taking myself as an example: I’m an investor (one of my investments just landed their Series A), I’m an entrepreneur (I raised money and launched Athena as a commercial company after the age of 50 even 😀!), I “govern” (I’m on the board of two private companies), and I inspire (I’m constantly on the road for speaking engagements). 

Athena members Yvonne Wassenaar , Laurie Yoler , Betsy Atkins , Christine / Chris Heckart , Alison Davis , Julie Lyle , Suja Chandrasekaran … and so many more are all incredible women we know as having terrific Board Portfolios, but zooming out, they actually have so much more than that. They all touch a number of points on the Portfolio of Impact™ wheel I described. 

I write this to challenge us all NOT to think myopically, thereby limiting our potential and our view of ourselves. Rather, I encourage us to think limitless, expansive, impactful. You are so much more than a board role, or a board portfolio. And, the good news is that for most leaders who will not serve on boards (the reality is there just aren’t enough roles), there are plenty of things to explore in your later career that you can use to make an income AND make an impact!

Within the Athena community, hundreds of women serve on boards. They engage with Athena not only to keep their board skills sharp with our Peer Groups for Audit, Comp, and Nom/Gov committees and with our weekly Salons focused on topics of the modern boardroom, but also to build more impact as entrepreneurs, investors, and thought leaders. When a network of incredible leaders join forces, we expand our careers beyond the one-dimensional and unlimit our individual and collective impact.