From Doer to Director: Five Lessons I Didn't See Coming

 By Wendy King

With over two decades in executive leadership and now an independent director, Wendy brings a dual lens to governance. She merges hands-on operational insight with strategic oversight at the board level.

After 20 years in executive roles, stepping fully into board work felt familiar but the reality was humbling. I knew governance. I had worked closely with boards. But becoming a board member revealed a need for a different set of muscles.

Here are five things I wish I had understood sooner. These insights have fundamentally reshaped how I show up in the boardroom.

1. From Authority to Inquiry: The Power of ‘I Don’t Know’

When I first joined boards, I assumed my value would come from what I knew: 20 years of operational depth, a track record of getting things done, answers at the ready. But what I’ve learned is that good governance often demands the opposite. It’s not about knowing everything. It's about knowing what questions still need to be asked.

There’s a quiet strength in saying, “Can someone walk me through that?” or “What assumptions are we building this on?” Vulnerability in the boardroom isn't a weakness. It’s leadership. It opens space for clarity, for rigour, and for others to admit when they don’t fully grasp the implications either.

That mindset didn’t come naturally. In management, you’re expected to project certainty. But in governance, certainty can be dangerous. Questions are oxygen. And some of the best board moments come not from the loudest voice, but from the one who paused long enough to ask, “What if we’re missing something?”

2. Boards Don’t Just Need Data. They Need Context

One of the biggest blind spots I see now that I’m on the other side of the table: we rely too heavily on management to frame the conversation. As an executive, I thought we were doing a good job: tight packages, thoughtful memos, risks flagged. And we were. But now that I’m a board member, I see how much gets lost in translation.

The information gap between board and management is real and necessary. But the gap has to be thoughtfully overcome. It’s not about volume of information, it’s about meaning. A 100‑page board package can still leave a board underinformed if the right context isn’t there. What’s changed since we last saw this issue? What’s shifted in the environment? What tension are we trying to resolve?

And board members need to ask for more. Not more pages, but better context and framing. How does this tie back to the strategy? Which risk register item is this addressing? What policy is this activating or challenging? If we want to govern strategically, we have to demand strategically relevant information. Not just the facts.The frame matters too.

3. From Problem Solving to Pattern Recognition

As an executive, I was wired to solve problems, and fast. I would identify the root cause, get the team on it and quickly deploy and monitor a tactical fix. But as a board member, that reflex can actually get in the way.

One of the early lessons I learned: when you’re too quick to fix, you often miss the real issue. Boards shouldn’t be solving isolated problems. They should be surfacing patterns and interrogating the structure beneath them.

It’s tempting to jump into operational weeds. But boards exist to ask: Is this a one‑off, or is something systemic going unaddressed? Is the strategy still sound? Does the org design still support the intended outcomes? Do our incentives reward the right behavior?

I’ve learned to slow myself down. Instead of asking, “How do we fix this?” I try to ask, “What does this pattern tell us about the system we’ve built?” That one shift moves the conversation from tactics to true oversight.

4. Great Boards Don’t Happen by Accident

Great governance isn’t a loaded topic cycle or a tidy annual work plan. Great boards are built: intentionally, continuously, and with just as much effort as any high‑performing executive team.

It’s easy to fall into the rhythm of board meetings and assume the structure is “set.” But high‑impact boards treat governance as a living system. That means regularly reassessing not just what’s on the agenda, but who’s in the room, what dynamics are at play, and how well the board is truly aligned to strategy.

Being great at anything takes hard work and I think sometimes we forget that. We think if we just respond to the package in front of us we are doing our jobs.

Boards should be asking:

• Where are we heading, and does our current mix get us there?
• What voices are missing?
• What behaviours are we reinforcing or tolerating that shape how we show up as a governance body?

It’s hard work.

5. Strategy Isn’t a Slide Deck. It’s a Living Conversation

One of the things I am grappling with now is that right balance between great strategy and great for now. I see way too many times when boards and management exhaust themselves trying to make the strategy “perfect”.

We workshop it, wordsmith it, polish it until the slide deck gleams. But strategy isn’t a tidy package. It’s a living, breathing set of choices that should evolve as we learn, act, and test assumptions.

Some of the best governance moments I’ve witnessed didn’t come from approving a plan. They came from staying with it. Holding space for the discomfort. Saying, “Let’s live with this direction for a while, see how it behaves, and stay open to what emerges.”

Boards need to stop asking, “Is the strategy finalized?” and start asking, “Is the strategy working?”

That means revisiting it(not rewriting it) through the lens of outcomes, new information, and alignment to values. It means resisting the urge to over‑define too soon. Sometimes the smartest move a board can make is to let the strategy stay a little messy while the organization learns its way into clarity.

If I could go back and give my management self one piece of advice, it would be this: getting something over the finish line isn’t always the goal. Sometimes the smarter move is to let it evolve, especially when it comes to strategy.

Closing Reflection

The deeper I go into governance, the more I realize this work is not about sitting at the table. It’s about making the table better. Conversation by conversation, question by question, year over year.

These five lessons weren’t obvious to me when I started. But they’ve sharpened how I think, how I lead, and how I show up for the organizations I serve.

And I’m still learning. Because the best governance isn’t something you master. It’s something you practice.