Senior board members offer advice to their younger selves
"Think about the unique skill that you have rather than your board experience, because you don't have [it]. So focus on putting in your own CV your editorial line about yourself, what you are very, very good at, because that's what's going to get you to your first board seat." Anne de Kerckhove, Chair of Eagle Eye Solutions, Ep.73 (36:20)
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"I realised ... that my advancement into the boardroom wouldn't necessarily be facilitated by [my] employer. So I had to figure out for myself, how would I make the jump into board work?" Anne-Marie Headley, CPO at Optasia, Ep.17 (01:29)
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"As well as getting known by the headhunters, make sure you get out and about in what I call the NED village, people who knock about in the village where NED appointments are happening, and get out to some of the dinners." Cathy Turner, SID at Lloyds Banking Group, Ep.61 (09:04)
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"There's a certain amount of making sure you're ready for the opportunity and being open to it, and doing a little bit of homework and legwork to get out there and unearth opportunities that really fit with what you can bring to them." Susannah Nicklin, Chair of Ecofin Global Utilities and Infrastructure Trust, Ep.18
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"I want them to be challenging, inquisitive ... but then also having done their homework. I interviewed somebody quite recently who clearly [hadn't] even looked at [our] website ... Particularly as a new NED, do your homework. Literally understand what are the challenges for the business and go beyond what's on the website." Lord Allen CBE, Chair of Balfour Beatty, Ep.72 (35:14)
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"Brevity is key. At that stage, less is more, and if you've not done it before, you are likely to over-answer that question and kitchen-sink it. And ... by the time you've got to the interview, you're already good enough." Fiona Hathorn, CEO of WB Directors, Ep.139 (28:46)
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"Tell me a situation where you needed to take a highly unpopular stand ... and you went against [the group]. And if the person says, 'Gee, Roger, I can't think of any,' I would eliminate them from contention, even if they were the CEO of a giant company." Professor Roger Martin, Professor Emeritus at the Rotman School of Management, Ep.63 (22:22)
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"Why do you care about this company? Why do you think it matters?" The Rt Hon Justine Greening, NED at On The Beach, Ep.178 (45:09)
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"I normally say to them at the end, 'What questions have you got for me?' And that's normally quite telling, because it ... indicates how much they've thought about the role and gives a little bit of an insight into their concerns." Sir Lloyd Dorfman CBE, Chair of the Royal Ballet and Opera, Ep.190 (39:13)
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"Look very carefully at your fellow board members, particularly your chairman and your chief executive ... There will be reputations out there in the market in terms of whether this company is performing well, whether its governance works ... Do a lot of due diligence. You can do that these days. It's all out there." Dame Alison Carnwath, Audit Committee Chair at Asda, Ep.94 (37:33)
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"Don't be disheartened by not getting a role, because very often it's not about you, it's about the specific fit of you with the skill set of the rest of the board." Lucy Walker, Chair of Aurora UK Alpha, Ep.83 (34:11)
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Episode 193 – Dame Hayaatun Sillem - upcoming release
Episode 186 – Tom Toumazis MBE: How to build a portfolio career: getting your foot in the door, identity challenges and how your exec career relates to your non-exec one – Listen
Episode 185 – Dame Anne Richards: From CERN to Coutts: How boards behave under pressure – Listen
Episode 117 – Cindy Rampersaud: How to excel as a trustee and transition to paid board roles – Listen
Episode 45 – Shellye Archambeau, Fortune 500 Committee Chair: Building a board portfolio: how to get board roles, develop non-exec skills, construct a portfolio and manage impostor syndrome – Listen