An Alphabet board director on landing your first board seat
Robin Washington did not wait to be picked for a board. When she felt ready for a Fortune 500 seat, she wrote it into her annual performance review and told the board members she had one-on-ones with. The first seat came through a recruiting firm. Mark Benioff asked her onto his board after years of running into each other. Today she sits on the boards of Alphabet and Honeywell, and Salesforce tapped her to become its President, COO, and CFO. In this conversation she breaks down the one thing she says makes you board ready, why a great operator is not automatically a good board member, what h…