Patricia Rodriguez Christian has been an entrepreneur for more than 20 years. An advocate for underrepresented communities, she serves on a medical devices board that focuses on supply chain diversity and building a path for women. During a personal health challenge that required a long period of treatment, she asked herself two questions: What can I do to prepare myself to be on the board of directors, and what can be done to ensure that other women have access to that same path? She found the answers at Harvard Business School (HBS) Executive Education's Women on Boards (WOB) program and stayed connected as cochair of WomenExecs on Boards (WEOB), a community comprised of past participants of HBS Executive Education programs.
What motivated you to attend the Women on Boards program?
I was attending the Program for Leadership Development as they were putting together the first cohort for Women on Boards. It was all in line with what I felt was the next thing for me to do in that space: integrate the advocacy piece with the business piece. And so I enrolled in the inaugural course.
Once the program had wrapped, we continued the conversation through WomenExecs on Boards by having conference calls every two weeks for about 18 months: "Tell me what you're doing. What recruiters are you talking to? What are those conversations like? Are you getting interviews?" At WEOB, we work to continue demystify the process for the women coming out of Women on Boards and other programs at HBS Executive Education.
How did the Women on Boards program help prepare you for board service?
Through the case study process, you learn how to prepare what you say about yourself in the right context, because a chronological résumé doesn't convey your value. When the program provided the opportunity to speak to Linda Rabbit, founder and CEO of rand* construction, she was very clear about how you put together a team to ensure the success of the organization, in spite of who the leadership is. The value of having different voices in the boardroom was a big piece.
You also have to be clear about why you want to be on the board. Being on a board for the sake of being on a board doesn't help anybody. Are you really invested in what the organization stands for? Do you care enough to put your time, energy, and passion into it? Sitting on a board is not transactional. It's very much a relationship.
You mentioned the importance of having different viewpoints in the boardroom. How did you discover and learn to leverage your unique perspective?
Through an industry organization, I got to know the CEO and chair of a company that does original research funded by the NIH to improve the patient experience. At one point, I told her about the Women on Boards program and my interest in board service. She said, "You know, I need to add somebody new to my board, and I think you might be the right person."
Had I not had that very prolonged, arduous patient experience, I wouldn't have that point of view in the boardroom. It had absolutely nothing to do with anything else that I had done in business. But I had the corporate governance piece, business acumen, and now the patient experience in the boardroom. I brought a different point of view, not from the caregiver but from the receiver.
Could you share your thoughts on the continuing connection between HBS and WOB/WEOB?
The pandemic gave us an interesting way of looking at the world, and the way that HBS is evolving in their offerings has allowed us to be a more integrated partner. The ecosystem we've created through WOB/WEOB is very collaborative. It's about changing the landscape of the corporate boardroom, and who else to do it through but the world leader of executive education?
Any advice to other HBS Executive Education participants who are interested in forming a peer network like WEOB?
Our commitment to each other is one of the cultural tenets. If you're going to be part of the program, then you have to be invested not just in your success, but in the success of everybody else as well.
It's not an income generator, by any stretch of the imagination. It's largely a volunteer-led organization, so participants have to be invested in the vision that they want to create for that effort and very clear about why they want to create it. I've never dedicated as many hours to an organization as I have for WEOB. It's an amazing global organization that's really changing the corporate boardroom.