Lindsay Zwart

Louise Broekman: Welcome to the advisory insights interviews. I am Louise Brockman the founder of the Advisory Board Centre and I’m here with the lovely Lindsay Zwart:  to talk all things advisory boards. Welcome Lindsay.

Lindsay Zwart: Great thank you thanks for having me.

Louise Broekman: I’ve been looking forward to this conversation as I always do in hearing in hearing real stories from the frontline. So Lindsay, to start with, do you mind sharing with our listeners today a bit about your background?

Lindsay Zwart: My background is predominantly in the technology space. I worked for IBM for quite a few years and then I worked for Microsoft for 13 years, predominantly in Seattle. My last role was leading for the U .S. subsidiary, so obviously large size -scale business and then moved back to New Zealand just before COVID, who knew, to run B2B for Vodafone and the core objective there was really to redefine the business from being a fixed mobile telco to becoming an ICT player and so building services you know cloud services, contact center, IoT, technology, cyber security technology, cybersecurity.

I’ve had a fantastic career in the corporate world and I’ve loved it, but I’ve decided to do something different. I went to step away from the corporate world and do more board advisory work. And a friend of mine recommended that I do the Advisory Board Centre Certified Chair™ course in Australia. And it was fantastic because I love getting in and helping organisations solve problems. And the difference from a governance to an advisory level is you can really consult and support them to think differently about their challenges without being responsible so much for risk and governance and those other areas of the business.

Louise Broekman: What an interesting transition and reinvention of yourself, Lindsay. The advisory board journey, what’s that been like for you now as an advisory board professional?

Lindsay Zwart: So it’s been a year and I almost stumbled into it, I think. I started out by wanting to take a year off and doing nothing. And a colleague of mine who I’m on the Ice House board with asked me to come and join another board with him. He’s actually our ex -finance Minister and he asked me to come and join this other board as an advisor and I loved it and so as I said I then went and did the Advisory Board Centre Certified Chair™ course which was great because it helped me ground myself and what does it mean to be a board advisory chair? How do you lead programs? How do you think differently as opposed to governance and where does your remit start and end and it helped provide clarity around my purpose and my way forward and board work.

For me, it started out by just lots of people reaching out to me through my contacts and hearing about what I was doing and asking me to join different boards. And then I’ve been successful in joining a board through the Advisory Board Centre, which is a great avenue for us to think about how we can connect internationally and join other boards and provide some of our insights.

And I think it’s the only platform that enables us to do that effectively. You know, seeking all the other advertising, job advertising portals, they’re not built around what we need for board advisory services. They’re quite different. And so for me, the Advisory Board Centre being able to think about how I can connect and help different organisations has been great. I’ve just started to put myself out there a bit more through the roles advertised from the Advisory Board Centre.

Louise Broekman: That’s great. Lindsay, if we could just talk about the actual experience of being on an advisory board, how different that is to being on a governance board in a professional capacity. What’s that been like for you?

Lindsay Zwart: There’s a few things for me. It’s when you join as an advisory capacity, I think people look at you, I would say as a breath of fresh air coming in with the ability to challenge the way of thinking, you’re able to question what they’ve been doing in the past, and you’re able to put on the table some new methods which might not have been considered in the past. And I think there’s several reasons for that. When you’re brought on as an advisor into a board, the organisation generally looks at what is the skill set that we need to bring in to support us.

Traditional boards have, you know, lawyers and other roles around governance. And I think they look and they say, who can come and help us, whether it’s technology, operational support, et cetera, can come in and help us think quite differently around our structure, our growth opportunities, how we got a market, where we got a market. And so, you know, it’s a long -winded way to answer your question. But I think it’s I think the difference for me around governance and advisory is the opportunity to challenge the status quo in a way that’s respectful, but it’s different to running governance on a board. I think you have the opportunity to push a little bit differently around the objectives where we can go, what we should do, and I think it gives you the freedom to do that. Not being a voting member on a board. I can challenge people around how they think and how they’re voting for different investments because I don’t vote. And I’ll just give them different opinions, you know, good and bad around pros and cons around what they have to do. But I’m not a voting member. And so I think it’s quite good, whereas the voting members are quite challenged around how they can push different opinions.

Louise Broekman: How do you provide that feedback, enabling them to be vulnerable, but being able to do it in a really respectful way at the same time, Lindsay, because it can be quite challenging receiving feedback that may be different to the direction that you think you’re going in.

Lindsay Zwart: It’s interesting, I’ve recently joined a board that had quite strong opinions around what they should be doing and the board chair actually came to me and said I’m so grateful for how you pushed and positioned new ways of thinking and so I think the way I come in, which is the same way I lead teams in my corporate world, which is I’ll come in and I’ll learn because I don’t know your business, you know your business, teach me and I’ll learn about your business. But the value I can bring is outside perspectives. And the way I challenge is with respect. And I don’t necessarily say you’re wrong. It’s the other way for us to think about this.  And in my experience, these are the things that we’ve seen and how can we work together? Because my goal is to help your organization be really successful. And that is a big difference isn’t it in the role? And that relationship is you want the best for somebody else, you’re actually not a decision maker yourself. So the conversation actually, it flows differently, doesn’t it?

And as a newbie in this space, I’ll often talk and discuss new opportunities or concepts and the people will be, “I didn’t know that. That is so great.” And you also start to realize the value you can contribute and the experience that you have. And for me, predominantly in technology space, coming into organizations that are not technology advanced and the opportunity for them to lean in around data modelling, AR, and the opportunities to drive operational growth within their business is significant. But there’s a bit of fear in leaning in to do it because they just don’t have the skill sets and the capability to do it, particularly at the board level and the investment and decision making area. And digital transformation is one of the biggest areas for advisory board today.

Louise Broekman: Lindsay, Let’s talk about organisations first. When they’re considering about what they need to do next, what’s the best way for them to really think about how to bring the outside in?

Lindsay Zwart: I think it’s to sit down and look at your board composition and determine the skill sets that you have and that you don’t have, but then also look at your strategy that you want to achieve for your business, not just five years, but 10 years out. And what do we want the business to look like? And so in order for us to get there, where are the areas that we need to invest? And predominantly, in a lot of cases, it is in the tech space.

And how do we get that type of capability in to provide thought leadership and support to the CEO, Operations Lead, CIO, CTO in the business to make sure that we are making the right investments to get to that 10 -year strategy. So for me, it’s the capability and composition, but it’s also the core objectives for that business. And 10 years out, not short term, but further out.

Louise Broekman: Thank you. And for, future advisory board professionals when they are looking at reinventing themselves, any tips that you would like to give your future colleagues in the advisory board sector?

Lindsay Zwart: Well, I’d say definitely do the Advisory Board Centre Certified Chair course, because as I say, I learned a lot from it. But I think also put yourself out there and connect with the advisory board community. So for me, I’ve met a few people in our community and I can, you know, I can ring Viv, who’s our chair for New Zealand and I can bounce ideas off her. And you have a sounding board, And I think having that community of people you can talk to is really, is really great. And then, you know put yourself out there and join a board even though it seems I’ve had people it’s scary and I don’t think I should do it, I’m not sure if I’m skilled to do it- just go out there and do it and you’ll realise the value you can add to an organisation and the skillsets that you bring in that you don’t often recognise that you have.

Louise Broekman: Thank  you and Lindsay it’ll be great to continue to watch what you do and see the success. You’re already building a really good reputation in the market in the advisory board space and I believe you’ve got another one coming on board in 2025 so keep doing great work and I really do appreciate you being such a valued part of the advisory board community.

Lindsay Zwart: Thank you very much. Thanks for your support.