In the current economic climate, demand is growing among aspirational firms, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to have a non-executive director (NED) on board. The last decade has also seen a sharp increase in the number of NEDs on the boards of UK listed firms. With this increase the opportunity has presented itself to more executives than ever before to transition into a portfolio career or utilise their wide range of skills, experience, and wisdom to benefit those organisations that need it most.
What does it take to become a NED?
Firstly, to manage expectations it usually takes on average 12 months to secure your first NED role so it’s worth keeping this in mind as you plan ahead. This is why a strong motivation and commitment is needed at the outset to be successful. It’s often too late to be thinking about securing a NED role if you’ve already retired and it’s likely that the hiring company will be keen to leverage your sectoral experience so the more up to date this is the better.
In this article we highlight the key elements that you should be considering when looking to secure your first NED position. It is not exhaustive but will give a firm steer on the areas that you need to give attention to be achieve success.
Relevant transferable skills, expertise and experience
Experience is often crucial, so if you’ve not been a NED previously consider applying for a voluntary NED role with a charity or non-profit first to gain a foundational understanding of the role. As a NED you must have:
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- the ability to think analytically and creatively
- high emotional intelligence
- problem-solving skills
- an inquisitive mindset.
A great place to start in understanding the requisite skills of a NED is the Korn Ferry report on ‘What makes an exceptional Non-Executive Director?’ This is something we recommend to all of our clients as a strong reference point on how they currently measure up. It also identifies growth areas as skills can be developed if necessary.
We have found that while sector expertise remains essential, boards increasingly emphasise transferrable and diverse skills. Currently, the most high-demand skills that UK boards are looking to add are the followings:
- Transformation, change management and restructuring
- IT infrastructure, technology, and digital skills
- Governance
- Risk management
- Finance and accounting
- Legal & compliance, notably if your expertise relates to the sector for which you apply, e.g., property law skills in the real estate sector
- HR skills
- Sustainability
Tailored NED CV
A key weapon in your arsenal to achieve a NED role is a NED specific CV. By this we mean a punchy, impactful and tailored CV that is no more than 2 pages long with a strong focus on the key 3-6 transferrable skills that you have to offer. When working with 3 Hats we explore what these are for the individual based on your previous executive career experience. The insights gained form the cornerstone of how you need to represent yourself across all touchpoints. You also need to ensure that the CV provides strong examples of impact that you’ve had during your career that relate to NED competencies. Although you’ll need to create a baseline CV, it should always be optimised depending on the organisation and role that you’re applying for.
Optimised LinkedIn profile
Next to a strong CV is an equally impactful professional LinkedIn profile. Quite often hiring managers will review your CV first, as part of your initial application, and if they want to dig deeper will go online to review your LinkedIn profile to see how this matches up and what other say about you. A fully completed profile is essential including professional headshot and cover image related to your areas of competence and reference under the roles you’ve held of the impact that you’ve had in terms of key achievements. The shop window to your LinkedIn profile is the ‘About’ section that should provide a strong overview of your career to date and key skills and personality that you bring to your professional endeavours. Another section that is key is the recommendations from existing or previous colleagues to provide social proof of the impact that you have delivered. We can all wax lyrical about ourselves but it’s always that much more powerful coming from others.
Personal branding
The concept of personal branding might be a new one to you as quite often people don’t put much thought into their own brand and how they are projecting this into the world around them. Personal branding is all about perception and how other around you, in either a professional or personal context, perceive you to be. Do they think of you as a strategic thinker?, do you excel in stakeholder management?, are you easy to get along with and collaborate with in a professional context?. It’s essential that in your NED search you have a clear sense of your personal brand and the elements of your profile that you want to resonate with hiring managers and others involved in board-level recruitment. We suggest that you reflect your 3 – 6 brand pillars across all touch points such as CV, LinkedIn, other social media and applications. For board-level recruitment, it is much more important to focus on the transferrable skills and experience you have than your career history as tends to be the focus for an executive CV.
Networking
A little-known stat of board-level career recruitment is that around 70% of NED roles are actually recruited via networking as opposed to 20 – 25% via job boards and less than 5% via head-hunters and executive search firms. Networking in the context of securing a NED role should be used for two-fold purposes including seeking out opportunities, with LinkedIn is the go too resource for this in the first instance, as well as engaging with those in your network that have prior NED-level experience and can share their route into their NED experience.
Job boards
There are numerous job boards out in the marketplace that are usually the first port of call for aspiring NEDs to see what’s currently available in the market. As previously noted, they only represent a fraction of the market so should be considered as such. One of the main benefits of job boards is that they provide a good specification of what skills and essential criteria companies are looking for in their future NED hires. We advise clients to start with a few job boards to get their search started and to use them as an opportunity to get a sense of the market and measure where they are currently with the requirements of the role.
Interview preparation and technique
In our experience we often find that many of our clients, from senior leadership positions, haven’t had an interview in a number of years given organic promotion through the ranks so this is an area that a refresher is often needed. Given the increased demand for NED roles and the competitive marketplace, candidates need to be sharp at interview to help them stand out from the crowd and land a role. At 3 Hats we work with clients to sharpen and practice their interview technique to give them the confidence they need to make the best impression to a hiring manager or interview panel.
Availability
NED roles on average require a commitment of between 1 – 3 days per month to include reading board papers, attending board meetings and involvement in any committees that you are also required to engage and attend. Even given this estimate many NEDs report that the time commitment can become much more than they expected so this is something that needs to be factored in. If you’re looking for your first NED role while maintaining your executive career do you need permission to undertake the role? How are you planning on balancing your time? These are things that need consideration before applying and onboarding onto new roles.
Drive and motivation
This is a significant one as you may well find yourself in a NED role for a number of years so you need to be committed to the organisation and its aims to make your appointment an influential one. When coaching clients around this space we often ask them to reflect on their career and personal life to establish the sectors or interests they have that they are passionate about and to use this as a guide to the sorts of organisations to approach about NED roles. Some clients are fortunate and succeed in securing one of the first roles they apply. However, it’s more often the case that multiple applications need to be made to achieve that all important first role so it’s important to maintain that drive for success even though there is likely to be a level of rejection along the way.
So, are you ready to start your non-executive journey?
If the answer to that question is a resounding ‘yes’ then let’s have call to understand your immediate and future needs and work together to make your NED aspirations a reality.
Whether you need coaching, mentoring or advice on the necessary steps needs to make your ambition a reality we have it covered. Simply book a 15 min consultation directly into our Founder Simon Bergenroth’s diary and begin the journey to success.