以数据驱动，打造高效的管理者

如今只要聊起性别和企业董事会，总免不了提起女性董事人数太少，以及需要多招一些女性。

人们往往会忽视女性首席执行官的声音。毕竟统计数字显示，在标普1500综合指数的成分股公司之中，只有16%的董事是女性，而且初次坐上执行官之位时可能都没在董事会任职过。

本周二上午在加州拉古纳尼格，《财富》2016年最具影响力商界女性峰会上午一场论坛里，多位经验丰富的女首席执行官发表讲话，分享了首席执行官如何赢得董事会支持的心得：

1、董事会成员不仅性别要多元化，其他很多方面也要多元化。

劳务市场平台TaskRabbit的首席执行官、惠普公司的董事史黛西·布朗-菲尔波特说，惠普公司拆分后组建董事会时，惠普的董事长梅格·惠特曼特别注意寻找观点不同的人选。“她觉得，要让董事会焕然一新，多元化是最重要的。”布朗-菲尔波特回忆道。

2、保持沟通节奏

“董事会与管理层需要密切沟通，千万不要低估沟通的作用。如果了解一下沟通实际上花了多少时间，估计都会大吃一惊。”已退休的前杜邦董事长兼首席执行官、现任初创公司Carbon3D 和联合技术公司董事柯爱伦如是说。

3、与某些董事一对一交谈，虚心征询建议

美容产品零售商Ulta Beauty首席执行官、星巴克公司董事玛丽·迪伦解释说，和每位董事一对一交谈“真的很有好处。”执掌杜邦期间挫败主动投资者尼尔森·佩尔兹分拆公司企图的柯爱伦接着补充：“特别是受到攻击时，就更要依靠平时积累的关系，关键时刻能董事坦诚交流，寻求反击机会。”

4、让每位董事都有一位“好朋友”

布朗-菲尔波特指出，惠普公司的“董事会好朋友”方案卓有成效。她解释说，具体方案是让每位董事与董事会内“另一人建立联系。”这样即便不开会，每位董事也会关注董事会动向。

5、必要时卸下董事长的角色

董事长和首席执行官的职位何时兼任，何时分开？曾经身兼杜邦董事长和首席执行官的柯爱伦称，并没有一定之规。她说：“我认为要视情况而定。假如首席执行官刚刚上任，你真的放心他兼任董事长吗？”布朗-菲尔波特表示赞成，说在可能两人各自管理更有利的时候，就可以调整职责，还指出她在TaskRabbit接任首席执行官时，公司创始人利亚·巴斯克仍担任董事长。（财富中文网）

作者：Valentina Zarya

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

Most conversation around gender and corporate boards revolves around the scarcity of female directors and the need to recruit more.

Often overlooked: the perspective of the female CEO on the other side of the table, who, given the stats—just 16% of directors of S&P 1500 companies are women—may not have board experience when taking her first executive post.

Speaking at a Tuesday morning panel at the 2016Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif., a number of experienced female executives shared words of wisdom for how CEOs can make the most of their boards:

1. Make sure your board is diverse—in more ways than just gender.

TaskRabbit CEO and HP Inc. board member Stacy Brown-Philpot said that HP Inc.’s chairman, Meg Whitman, specifically sought out diverse perspectives when putting together a slate of directors for the Hewlett-Packard spin-off. “Diversity was the number one thing she felt was going to create a different board,” Brown-Philpot recalled.

2. Create a cadence for communication.

“You can never underestimate how much communication needs to take place between the board and management. The biggest surprise is how much time it really does take,” said Ellen Kullman, retired chair and CEO of DuPont and director of Carbon3D and United Technologies.

3. Seek out advice with specific members one-on-one.

Talking to each of your directors individually “really pays dividends,” explained Mary Dillon, CEO of Ulta Beauty and Starbucks director. Kullman, who fought off activist investor Nelson Peltz during her tenure at DuPont, added: “Especially when you’re under attack, you’re going to rely on those relationships to make sure you’re getting the straight talk and opportunity.”

4. Give each board member a “buddy.”

Brown-Philpot noted the effectiveness of HP Inc.’s “board buddy” program. The idea is for each board member to “build a relationship with one other person,” she explained. That way, each of the directors remains engaged in board goings-on between meetings.

5. Hand off the chairman role when it makes sense.

There’s no hard and fast rule on whether and when to keep the chairman and CEO roles together or to separate them, said Kullman. “I think its situational,” said the former chair and CEO of DuPont. “If you have a new CEO—do you really want him to take on [the role of] chair at the same time?” Brown-Philpot agreed that transitions are times when it may make sense to split the two, noting that when she took on the CEO role at TaskRabbit, founder Leah Busque remained on as chairman.