Pretty Good Year

I've been at my "new job" for a year. As with every milestone ever, I can safely say that I simultaneously feel like it's gone by in the blink of an eye, but also I feel completely settled and like I've been working at NCVO for much longer.

A year and a bit ago, if you'd asked me how I felt about my "new job", I'd have told you I was honestly terrified. While I'd changed job a lot of times, I'd worked for the same organisation for almost seven years, and the idea of having to make new friends and learn new processes was incredibly intimidating. Not only that but I'd just joined the board of a charity, I was gearing up to get married, and it was still the middle of a pandemic. It was an odd old time.

Now, with the benefit of hindsight I can see that that terror was never justified. My job as a Governance Consultant has so clearly been the right move for me since day one, and getting stuck in has been enormously fulfilling - and continues to be, as I meet new people and work with new organisations almost every day.

However, that wouldn't be an interesting place to end an article, so I think it's about time for a little list. It's been a year, so what have I learned?

1. Remote working is honestly ok. I was so concerned that not meeting my colleagues in person would make it difficult to fit in, and hard to learn new systems. I've been lucky however that I'm surrounded by friendly colleagues and people who want to help. There are plenty of people at NCVO that I am yet to meet in person, but that doesn't mean I feel any less like part of the team and that's an amazing environment to belong to.
2. I know more than I realised. In the past year I've had the privilege to work with all kinds of organisations, big and small, in the midst of radical change and on the brink of closure - and I can confidently say I've helped them all. It's amazing how much we pack away in our brains and I've loved bringing all my knowledge to the fore this year.
3. Project management isn't just for Christmas, it's for life. I confess, I've never actually project managed a Christmas (except for Christmas board meetings) but I've brought all of my project management skills with me into this role and it's made a heap of difference. Never have you seen as many spreadsheets as I share with poor Daniel Francis on a weekly basis.
4. No organisation is perfect. I've had hiccups and difficult moments in my first 12 months at NCVO, and I've also glimpsed the imperfection of lots of other organisations as I've helped them with their governance. I've also spent a lot of time telling trustees that they don't need to aspire to perfection - there are a lot of people out there doing a better job than they realise and they are to be applauded.
5. Charities are the best. From presenting at conferences while jet-lagged to bouncing around in front of rooms of confused trustees, every charity I've had the privilege to work with in the last year has been brilliant. I have learned so much from each and every one, and I cannot wait for the things I am going to learn next.

In 12 months I have worked with 13 organisations on governance projects, including away-days, governance reviews, and document drafting. I've run 17 bespoke training sessions for trustees, and run our open course eight times which means I've trained somewhere in the region of 350 trustees this year. I've presented at three conferences and I have another next week (Wrigley's Annual Governance Seminar), and I have project managed our series of events for Trustees Week 2022. Oh, and I've written thousands of words of governance content for our Help & Support pages.

Here's to the next 12!