Then, map each to a concrete example from your career, not as a deliverable but as an insight or perspective you now bring. This exercise will help you build a compelling, strategic board narrative.
2. Clarify Your Board Proposition: Define Your Edge
Every board candidate needs a “hook.” In essence, this is a distinctive combination of expertise and committee readiness that aligns with what boards need right now. Your proposition is your positioning in the governance market. Boards are increasingly skills-based in their selection criteria, particularly around emerging risks and stakeholder demands. Your job is to clarify where you add value, and how.
Think in three dimensions:
- Sector or market expertise: Regulated industries? Emerging markets? Consumer behaviour? What’s your background, and where have you worked?
- Functional insight: What’s your area of focus? Digital, ESG, finance, people, M&A? Something altogether more niche?
- Committee readiness: Can you sit on Audit, Remuneration, ESG, Risk, or Nomination? Have you volunteered on a small-scale board?
Example Propositions:
“I support boards navigating digital disruption and data ethics, with experience leading AI transformation in financial services.”
“As a former HRD with a global remit, I bring insight into workforce strategy, executive pay, and culture, aligned to evolving stakeholder expectations.”
Your Action
Write a 3-line board bio. Then ask a peer: “Would you know where I fit, and why I matter, on a board?” Once you’ve done this, consider how you might incorporate your bio into your specialist NED CV and LinkedIn profile, or a board-level interview.
3. Understand the Behavioural Shift: Less Doing, More Thinking
One of the most underestimated challenges for new NEDs is not technical but behavioural. It’s the shift from being a decision-maker to a steward of governance. Executives are trained to solve problems and drive action. But in the boardroom, that instinct can undermine your role. NEDs must learn to support without directing and challenge without dominating.
Behavioural shifts to master
- Advocacy to inquiry: Ask questions that expand thinking, rather than proposing solutions.
- Urgency to patience: Boards operate at a different tempo than executive teams.
- Accountability to oversight: You’re not responsible for the outcome, but you are accountable for ensuring the process is well-governed.
Your Action
Start observing how high-performing boards operate. Sit in on public AGMs. Listen to panel discussions. Reflect: What questions do great NEDs ask? This might be a good time to consider whether your governance knowledge is sufficiently advanced, or if you could benefit from developing foundational coaching leadership or soft skills before you leap.
4. Invest in Gravitas and Governance
You may have held C-suite titles, but in the boardroom, reputation is re-earned. Two areas make a significant difference early on: governance acumen and personal presence.
Governance Acumen
Formal training instantly signals credibility and competence. Professional programmes also build the technical knowledge required to approach NED responsibilities, covering foundational and sector-specific tenets of governance, from fiduciary duties to boardroom dynamics. Consolidating this foundation and applying this knowledge in context can be equally efficacious. Many aspiring NEDs gain experience by:
- Sitting on subsidiary or advisory boards
- Joining charity or school boards (with appropriate rigour)
- Becoming trustees of NGOs or foundations
Gravitas and Presence
Boards value presence alongside performance. That means showing up with influence and restraint. Gravitas can be summarised as carrying weight without throwing it around. This is where techniques such as executive coaching make a powerful difference, especially in increasing emotional intelligence and the ability to influence with less airtime.
Your Action
Ask for feedback from peers and mentors on how you show up in senior rooms. Do you listen more than you speak? Do you land ideas with conviction? Could you benefit from the guidance of a coach or mentor to enhance your presence and board readiness?
5. Clarify Before You Campaign
For top executives who are used to removing fast, it can be tempting to jump straight into the search for a board role. However, the most successful transitions never begin with a flurry of applications. The initial, reflective phase is where real traction happens. Use this time to clarify your intentions and craft an approach that’s authentic and strategic.
- Get clear on your “why”: What kind of boardroom contribution feels meaningful to you? Are you driven by innovation, oversight, transformation, or inclusion? Knowing this helps shape your direction.
- Be sector-savvy: Consider where your experience holds weight and where you genuinely want to add value. Think about industry alignment but also purpose.
- Shape your story: Board appointments are rarely about qualifications alone. They’re about presence and values. What do you want boards to remember about you?
- Become visible in the right spaces: Whether it’s contributing to a conversation on governance trends or joining curated networks, this is your opportunity to be seen as a peer, not an applicant.
Your Action
Take some time to consider how you’re currently positioned and how you want to be seen. What’s your unique boardroom value? Where do you want to show up and be part of the conversation? Building visibility takes intentionality. You will need to show up consistently with a clear USP and open doors through the right networks.
Next Steps
Once you’ve taken the time to reflect, position yourself strategically, and build visibility, you’re ready to move forward:
