I thought it might be useful to share my own Board journey. These journeys are unique to the person and their circumstances and mine is certainly not the standard way in. The most common route to Non-Executive Director roles are retirement from a senior executive career and NED roles as a way to keep busy and earn an income. Mine was nothing like that and I encourage as wide a diversity of possible and people to consider taking a Board role. It’s never ever too early!
In 2011, aged 33 I had a very hazy idea of what a NED actually was. I had run my own business (twice) and was in a full time CEO role for a public/private partnership. I was working with a Board of Non-Executive Directors and I wondered how possible it would be to sit on the other side of the table for a change. It seemed so much easier than running the business. Little did I know!
I started looking for local roles and came across a voluntary role on the Board of a Credit Union. I didn’t do any of the things I would recommend now to my clients like due diligence, matching roles to your skillset, thinking ahead to which paid roles I’d want, risks to reputation or researching the requirements of the role. I simply saw the role and applied!
In retrospect I was very lucky because it turned out to be a rewarding role and gave me experience which were critical to securing paid roles. Credit Unions are heavily regulated and understanding governance and regulation are key skills for many NED roles. Financial governance is also a key skill for NEDs – all members of a Board have a responsibility to ensure the financial viability of the organisation. There were also people issues around retention and recruitment and the Credit union was merging with another so there we cultural and systems issues. I learned a lot in a short space of time in a supportive environment. I also came to learn that the advertised time commitment is almost never correct and the time taken by roles will expand as much as you let it.
In 2012, my father became terminally ill and I didn’t feel I could sustain my 60 hour plus a week job and Trustee role. I thought I’d look for a paid board role to keep some money coming in and keep me in the job market. I saw a role for an NHS Board member and thought I’d apply. I was still quite naïve about what was involved and again failed to do any diligence or follow the process I would now recommend!
The application process for Public Appointments is very standardised and competency based. This means that you will answer several questions on the application for which test if you have the desired skills for the role. The format is a paragraph with a specified word count where you outline an example of having used the skill. I like this method as usually there is no CV involved and I believe it reduces bias in the recruitment. The examples you give can be from any field as long as they show you using the skill. My Credit Union experience proved invaluable and I used it to answer 2 of the 4 questions.
I was pleased to get an interview for the NHS Board role. I had no one to help me prepare and was really going into the interview blind. This is something I would never recommend and there’s so much help available now which wasn’t around at the time. The first part of the interview was with a panel and the second part was an exercise in reading a Board paper and then telling the Panel what questions you would ask about the paper in the Board meeting. I enjoyed the intellectual challenge and was very pleased to find out that I had got the position.
This was where the real learning about being a paid Non Executive Director started and I’ll outline my experience in another blog post to follow.