Instagram Live with Rebecca Finley-Schidlowsky

In our most recent instalment of Social Distance Learning Friday, we talked about being the female board chair of a not-for-for profit dedicated to battling toxic masculinity⁠.

Yup, you read that correctly, we were joined by Rebecca Finley-Schidlowsky who shared her experiences as a Management Consultant and the Board Chair of Next Gen Men, a national non-profit that is focused on engaging, educating, and empowering men and boys around gender. ⁠
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Over the past 3 years, Rebecca has led the Board’s evolution from five Directors to a structure that now includes five Committees with members from right across Canada. Passionate about governance, Rebecca is an accomplished speaker who has lectured in Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto. She has also had the privilege of being a guest speaker for MBAs/EMBAs at The Drucker School of Management, based in Claremont, California (USA). Most recently, she has led several online workshops that are consistently sold out and have welcomed participants from Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, California, Spain, and New Zealand!⁠

Missed the IG live? Here’s what we learned:

Key strengths of a Board Chair

“I think the most important thing about being a board chair is being a fantastic facilitator… you're in charge of facilitating a group of really smart people and making sure that you’re driving the conversation forward, not only at the board table during the session but your prep is always before and after a session too. As I mentioned you want to surround yourself with super smart people. A strong board chair will always promote a healthy exchange of views and give everyone an opportunity to speak. It’s not about the board chair, it's about those around the table sharing their expertise and recommendations and talking through important situations. The board chair is responsible for the strategic drive of the organization, where your organization is going and why, and you lead the whole strategic planning process quite often through a governance committee to think about that future direction”. Rebecca referenced Chantel Cabaj’s analogy that, “a board chair is like an MC at the wedding, they’re making sure that the board meetings are functioning as smoothly as possible and their job is quite immense”.

Debunking gender roles on Boards

Rebecca emphasized her valuable relationship with the male Executive Director. As a female Board Chair in an organization focused on empowering men and boys around gender she says, “gender doesn't play a role in it at all. I think that in a perfect world, no one sees themselves as a man or a woman. You’re just leaders around a table and you’re all working together, and I think what all the men do so great in Next Gen Men, is that they make us feel like complete equals, all the women are completely respected and vice versa. I never feel like my gender is even a thing. I think if you're really successful as an organization, you don't feel gender. Everyone there is just offering their expertise and helping out”.

Achieving multiple sectors of diversity on Boards

“People and organizations perform better when there’s women on their boards. But diversity is not just in gender, it’s also in terms of what industry is represented in our board table and what they are bringing in terms of their skills and their knowledge that I don't have or other directors don't have. Diversity is also in terms of age and this is something which is really interesting. Next Gen Men is a ‘younger’ startup organization but we’ve always been very mindful of including more veterans in their fields in their 40s, 50s, and 60s on our board so that we can have their expertise and wisdom influence our decisions too because there's a lot of things that I don't know. Diversity is also in terms of regions. We’re a national nonprofit so it’s very important for us to have directors from Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax. They need to represent that spread because people from Toronto think differently than people from Vancouver and so those ideas definitely come out in some of our conversations and it makes our decision making stronger”.

How to get started on Board and manage your imposter syndrome

Rebecca offers insightful advice to those people self-selecting out of board service. She says, “You have to be more positive and optimistic about what skills you really have to offer. Never let it disway you that you haven't had any experience at all. You can always shadow a board; this is something we’ve done informally at Next Gen Men for the past few years. A lot of people are scared of governance because they don’t know what a board meeting looks like. I think shadowing is a really great way because I think you get more involved with hearing the language and you see the tempo and you’ll be less scared of it.” When discussing feelings of inadequacy and imposter syndrome, Rebecca talks about her experience and how Next Gen Men encouraged her confidence. “When we think about getting more women into boards we talk a lot about mentorship which I think is important but sponsorship is so important too, so I had Jake pushing me saying ‘no, you’re going to do a great job, there’s no reason that you couldn’t do this’ and so I was really grateful for him. I would just like other women that are in positions like I’m in, or other men, to be very mindful about how they can encourage other people to get involved in the work they may feel a little reticent or nervous to join initially. Give people that confidence. That’s what leadership is really about, when you leave, they can do a great job without you and they're better because of the leadership you’ve helped them gain”

Thanks again to Rebecca for taking the time to chat with us! Also, thank you to everyone who tuned in and participated with meaningful questions for our guest. 

For those of you who want to hear more meaningful conversations such as this one - and we know you all do - make sure to follow us on Instagram @directhernetwork to get a chance to engage live in our latest Social Distance Learning instalment with more inspiring female leaders.