Taking On A New Identity When You Become a Director

You might be a new appointment, you might be an independent non-executive, or you might be a senior executive newly appointed to the board.

Whether you wear one hat or two, being a director is different from being a manager, or a consultant.

For a start, you take on joint and several liability, as well as responsibilities that go beyond legal compliance. You will also be likely to be exposed to a new level of scrutiny, both internally and externally. You become a public person.

When you achieve your first directorship it is probably because you have been successful as an executive. It is important to recognise that directorship and management are totally different types of role.

For one, there are the contradictory forces of balancing short-term and long-term priorities. Second, the magnitude of the decisions is greater both in terms of the money involved and the duration. Third, the style of decision-making is different; strategic decisions involve complex judgements as to what the situation will be in two to five years’ time and will include such matters as succession planning, long term investments, mergers and acquisitions.

During your career you will probably have taken on more responsibility and, at the same time, become more specialised. In effect you have moved from knowing very little about an awful lot to knowing an awful lot about a very little!

As you move up and up in your career you will become more expert in a narrower field, or focus only on the interests of a single department. Suddenly you become a director and everything is different, you need to show equal responsibility for all departments and to monitor a very wide and general environment, both inside the organisation and externally, changing your reading and viewing habits and acting as an ambassador for the company.

In addition, you will need to renegotiate your relationships with your colleagues as you take on a new status and identity.

Here are some of the issues you should consider:

• What are the challenges of the new role?
• What do your old colleagues expect of you now?
• How do you handle the change of status and relationships?
• What do your new board room colleagues expect of you?
• What do customers, suppliers and other stakeholders?now expect?
• How do you handle dual responsibilities as head of department and board member?
• What practical steps should you take to improve your awareness, develop new skills, establish yourself in your new role?

One of your first steps should be to discuss these with your chairman?and ensure that you have a full understanding of what is expected of you.

A promotion to a senior level such as director or partner brings with it new legal responsibilities, and the importance of understanding these should not be ignored. However, there are other, more subtle, things to consider.

If you are appointed from within, there needs to be a change of identity as well as of role. It is better if this is managed, rather than gradually evolving. If you are appointed from outside (a non-executive directorship is an important stage of many successful people’s career development) there are additional issues of relationship building and access to information.

There should be a formal induction process?for all new appointments, with a similar structure to the induction for any new role, but with particular attention paid to managing the change in relationships.

It is surprising how many directors continue to think like managers, even after two years on the board.

Here are five areas new directors should consider, even if there is no formal induction process.

• Have you discussed your new role with your chairman? Are you both clear about your role and responsibilities? Do you understand the culture and operating procedures of the board?
• What does it mean to you to be a director? How do you perceive other directors? Are you comfortable with your new identity?
• Have you discussed your new role with your staff and colleagues? What are their expectations of you now?
• How should you change the way that you trawl for information? What radio, television, newspapers and magazines should you access? What sorts of things should you notice?
• How and where should you network and how should you represent your organisation? Have you defined your new public identity and are you comfortable with it?

Richard Winfield is the author of The New Directors Handbook, creator of The Essential Directorship and Strategic Company Secretary masterclasses and curator of the CPD 2.0 Professional programme, which provides a stream of governance alerts and management insights. He teaches corporate governance internationally to directors, boards and corporate secretaries and provides personal career coaching and assistance in preparing effective job applications, supported by comprehensive online assessments.

Clients approach Richard to help bring structure and clarity to their lives - and to get onto the short list for their dream job.

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