SHAPE A PORTFOLIO CAREER AS A DIRECTOR

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As you start to plan your NED portfolio career here is some tried and true advice to start the journey.

Define the investment and the return. It helps to decide what you really want to gain from a portfolio career in terms of income, reward, flexibility, effort and satisfaction. Like most transitions, it takes time and planning as the move often unfolds differently to what you first imagined. It is rarely a linear path. Have a considered idea of what it takes to get a paid board role and the limits you will place on the number of unpaid boards, consulting assignments or other work. The more specific and unique your set of capabilities and experiences, the more the building blocks of a portfolio career will fall into place. 

Backward visioning. Think about how you will design your new portfolio and work back from there. Write it down. Do a reality check – ask others. Seek ‘feed-forward’ on positive suggestions on what to do differently.

Don’t move out of your executive role too soon. Plan well ahead and start adding activities while you are still in your organisational role. ‘Start doing before you act’ makes sense. Create parallel paths so you can experiment with new possibilities and test new directions or build a greater level of financial security. Regard it as a safe period between holding on to the old and letting go.

An alternative rung on the career ladder. Often an executive’s identity is linked to a role, a title or the reputation of the organisation where they work. The way you advance or achieve satisfaction as a portfolio executive feels different – not worse or better – just different. 

New measures of success. Smarter executives make a smoother transition when they are realistic about what they have already achieved, the level they have reached and the satisfaction felt while getting to this point of life. They now wish to continue their career in a different way. They are also realistic about the new way of work that a portfolio career offers and that success is often incremental.

Design a trackable roadmap with stretch goals. Approach this as you would a major project or business investment. Work out where you want to be, within what timeframes and alternative scenarios that will get there. Look for the connections between your obvious value-add before you look more broadly. As you keep researching, the process of adding boards or organisations and eliminating others, helps create the pathways. Opportunities might also come from left field.

Know who sits on your potential boards. While you may target sectors or organisations, consider the board composition and chairman profile of particular boards. Plan and rehearse before you approach directors for advice. Be thoughtful and considered with your questions. Do not be surprised if you start to be interviewed – so be prepared to discuss matters intelligently.

Manageable, but not narrow, list of boards. Start by looking at sectors, listed or unlisted, private or public, geography, for-profit or for-purpose, sub-committees, customer target, business stage or business models. While a board search is a competitive landscape, the list of boards to work on should combine where there is a clear fit, where transferrable skills may be valued and those boards where you can best counter a skills gap or questions about suitability. Make purposeful choices. Know your point of difference. Concentrate on those activities that matter most to achieve your board search goals.

Many initiatives can lack a return on effort. Decide on which networking events to attend based on where you plan to be. Many people mismanage networking. They build imbalanced networks, chase the wrong relationships, indiscriminately collect passive social-network contacts or leverage the type of contacts they have ineffectively.

Be optimistic. Don't be deterred if you don't make the short-list. It happens to everyone. With an adaptable roadmap and persistence there are other options on the horizon.

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