A psychiatrist’s guide to better boards: Why people and relationships matter

After joining his first board almost by chance, Professor Steve Moylan GAICD draws on his skills as a psychiatrist to turn human insights into stronger board governance, while creating space and safety for open dialogue.

Steve Moylan's uncommon path to the boardroom began when his very first directorship came out of the blue. A friend urged him to apply for a board she was about to leave. "She said, 'It's a great board, a wonderful organisation and you'd be perfect," he recalls.

Studying for his final clinical examinations to become a psychiatrist at the time, Moylan assumed they were looking for someone with mental health expertise. In fact, it was a general non-executive director position with Global Voices, an NFP fellowship program developing future leaders by sending young Australians to policy gatherings such as the UN's World Food Forum and annual Climate Conference of the Parties.

"Global Voices was my introduction to being on a board and I got so much out of it," he recalls. "I've always really enjoyed meeting people from diverse backgrounds, hearing their stories and learning from them, and here I was, sitting with an incredibly talented group of people. I realised that boards were a great, time-efficient way to interact with and learn from all these smart people."

He was hooked.

"Shortly after finishing my specialist psychiatry training, I saw a newspaper ad looking for a volunteer director of On the Line Australia (OTLA). I put a little feeler in, saying I'd only had experience on one small board, and was fortunate enough to be chosen. I've found my board work very complementary to my day job ever since."

OTLA was founded in 1960 and provides free counselling sessions via organisations like MensLine Australia.

Clarity from crisis

Today, the practising psychiatrist is chair of Lifeline Australia, sees patients at the Central Geelong Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub half a day a week - "which I love" - and is executive general manager of performance risk and strategy, chief risk officer and chief medical officer with Victoria's Transport Accident Commission.

"Ten years ago, I answered an ad in the paper hoping to contribute to something," says Moylan. "Now I get to be part of one of the pre-eminent mental health organisations in the country and I have some ability to support all of the contributions so many people make. Honestly, it adds energy, it doesn't take away."

But a year into COVID, OTLA had a publicly reported crisis.

"There was an allegation of misrepresentation of our call data to government and it became quite a scandal," says Moylan. "A number of long-standing directors and executives left, and the remainder of the board asked me to be chair."

It was an invaluable experience. "I learned a lot of lessons, including that if you feel something is uncomfortable, you've got to say it out loud, which I hadn't done because I didn't feel confident," he says.

As OTLA chair, Moylan led its voluntary amalgamation with Lifeline. The merger brought OTLA's specialised programs into the Lifeline network, adding about 90 clinical staff members and 100,000 annual counseling sessions.

"OTLA had to heal, reconcile what had happened and come back to its core purpose," he says. "There's incredible duplication in the mental health system and it's difficult to know where to go for the best support. We saw an opportunity to create efficiencies and to hopefully make things better for people - a connected digital mental health service system. It required OTLA directors to give up the identity of the organisation in service of our core purpose."

Leading a board through change

It was a period that saw Moylan realise his strengths. "To be a decent psychiatrist, you've got to believe in people and know that even when there are challenges, there's hope for improvement," he says. "If you don't believe, you can't be any good at it. I'm a much better chair than I am a director. I started to see that my role was to help a group of people amplify each other in how they interact."

The amalgamation was nevertheless challenging.

"There was a lot of discussion at the board table about the pros and cons. It's not a small thing to give up the identity of an organisation that, for more than 60 years, has had thousands of people contribute to it in so many different ways. It just came back to a humble understanding: What would we be proud of three to five years down the track? We wanted to do the best we could for the community now and into the future, whether we were the directors of an organisation or not."

He says that while he "knew nothing about the technical aspects of amalgamation", he focused on the big picture.

"When you're doing large, complex things, people with diverse perspectives and skills bring a lot of value. The role of the chair is to elevate that and invite it into the conversation, while also keeping it framed around the ultimate goal."

Moylan says it reinforced to him that directors each have personal reasons for joining boards, particularly in the NFP sector.

"I had to think about what those different perspectives were bringing to the decision making and look for what we were missing or should be cautious of as we moved through the amalgamation. If you're making a big change as a board, it can't be a snap decision. People need to feel comfortable that they've been heard and valued through the process, even if they have a distinct view. That's a fundamental role of the chair."

A chair in waiting

In October 2023, OTLA was transferred into Lifeline Direct, the service delivery arm of Lifeline. Moylan became chair of Lifeline Direct and brought two directors from OTLA across to create a board of six. "We wanted to stabilise the transition as we brought the teams together in the new ways of working and the cultures," he says. "I was given observer status on the Lifeline Australia board and it was flagged that I would, in time, join that board."

In 2024, Jacinta Munro GAICD, then Lifeline chair, told him the board had been discussing Moylan coming onto the board as chair.

"I kind of fell backwards all over again," he says. "The board is such an impressive group of people, and an amazing organisation. It had been a privilege just to be an observer."

He and Munro planned the transition over nine months and Moylan became chair when she stepped down in March 2025. His almost accidental journey to directorship was in fact the perfect path to chair Lifeline.

"They saw value in my background. I'd run big mental health services, I've sat with people in emergency departments when they're suicidal, hearing their stories directly. I've experienced providing help and seen what it's like for people who are seeking help."

His vision for evolving Lifeline and a more connected mental health sector, plus his open manner, made him an ideal choice to become the organisation's chair.

"I like to think that people see I'm a genuine person who cares about what we're doing, building relationships and staying curious," he says.

"I'm not a zealot, I don't think there's only the one way of achieving things. It's through the diversity of people, their thinking and their relationships that the real magic happens. Part of the role of chair is helping to coordinate and facilitate that on a board. That's what I really like about it."