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• Speaking to INEDS, the advice they would have liked to get when they started out was understanding:
  • The power of the collective.
  • The need for the INED to be self-aware.
  • How to get started in your career as an INED.
  • How to know when a board appointment is coming up.
• Their words of advice fell into three categories:
  • When to get started.
  • How to get started.
  • Once you’ve started the things you need to think about.
• What they wished they knew:
  • Start early as an INED while you’re still an executive.
  • Don’t worry about being inexperienced in the sector that you join. 
  • Be ambitious and tell people what your ambitions are.
  • Watch who’s coming on and off boards and reach out strategically.
  • Be prepared for mismatches along the way.
  • Understand there’s great strength in having a diverse portfolio of sectors, organisations and sectors.
• Consider what you have to offer:
  • Have good self-awareness.
  • Understand where you need professional development and invest in that.
  • Stay on top of best practices.
  • Shape your proposition and the contribution you can make.
• Talk to people:
  • Obvious advice but something most people don’t do.
  • Build your personal brand.
  • Get involved with different agencies.
• Due diligence:
  • Thoroughly understand what the business is about.
  • Be really clear about what the organisation you’re thinking of joining wants to do.
  • Understand the people you’ll be working with.
  • It’s tempting to say yes when you’re getting your INED career up and going but be prepared to say no.
• Test your comfort levels:
  • If you’re unsure if it’s the right organisation for you, agree to work on a project.
• Understand the time commitment:
  • Spend time with the people outside of a crisis moment to help make those crisis moments more cohesive.
• Get to know your board colleagues:
  • Understand different people’s perspectives.
  • Develop mutual respect.
  • A solid relationship will be essential during any crisis moments.
• It’s about the collective, not the individual:l
  • Don’t see yourself as a single voice on a board, you’re there to represent the collective.
  • Avoid labelling people.
  • Don’t force your view of the world. Listen and respect other views.
• Question yourself when you’re on the board:
  • Do you understand what the organisation is trying to achieve?
  • Who are the influencers?
  • Understand the culture and how to get things done in the organisation.
• Give and get:
  • Develop a shared understanding of each other’s worlds.
  • Influence people’s view of your world.
• When you give your word, deliver:
  • Your board colleagues need you to deliver.
  • Building trust between your colleagues will build cohesion when there are challenges.

Are you looking to become a board member, an executive or independent non-executive director (INED)? or are you a board member who’s looking to make a change and take on a new challenge?

Then this is the webinar for you.

Ellen Roche, Director of Executive Search, PwC will be discussing PwC’s experience on what you should be considering when deciding which organisations to pursue for your board aspirations.

In this practical session Ellen will be providing us with the advice, guidance and reassurance you’ll need to build and develop your board portfolio. She will take us through questions you need to be asking and the priorities you will need to be focusing on. Ellen will guide us on the habits and behaviours you’ll need to adopt, while also guiding us on the pitfalls you can avoid. She will speak to us about the experiences of the board-level community today and the role it is tasked with.

In the session, Ellen will demonstrate:

• The power of networking
• The importance of finding the right executive search
• Continuous professional development and you – strategic alliances & personal development
• ESG: The discussions happening at board level
• Customer Experience – Why the customer should be represented at board level
• Transparency – yes, it’s important – but why? understand its impact.

Discover, Learn and Get Inspired.

Ellen is a director with PwC Ireland and leads the firm’s executive search team, making senior executive and independent non-executive director (INED) appointments in organisations across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She joined PwC in 2001, having had a career in education where she also worked on programmes funded by the European Union and The International Fund for Ireland for human resource and capital developments.