Delivering difficult news, like redundancies, is an inevitable part of the HR professional’s role. That’s why it’s crucial to empower HR leaders with the resilience and confidence required to navigate these challenging discussions with compassion and effectiveness.
Led by careers expert Victoria McLean, Founder & CEO of Hanover | City CV, you’ll explore the nuanced dynamics of delivering tough news while preserving your wellbeing. Discover actionable insights and proven strategies to confidently lead through difficult conversations, cultivating empathy and trust within your team and organisation.
During this interactive workshop, we’ll cover:
Understanding the psychological impact of delivering difficult news
Recognising and maintaining healthy boundaries in the workplace
Practical techniques for effective communication and empathy
Strategies for self-care and resilience amidst challenging situations
Walk away from this session with the tools and confidence to navigate tough talks with resilience and compassion, ensuring the well-being of both yourself and your team.
Register here – https://tinyurl.com/starfishmay
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We held our first webinar of 2024 with our partners City CV in March. At Starfish we believe you are never too young to be a non-executive and it is an opportunity available to people at all stages of their leadership journey and from all walks of life. Over the last few years we have seen that the market is becoming more fluid as people begin to blend their executive and non-executive roles and move away from a traditional, linear career path. The whole process is more creative as leaders adopt their own routes to achieving what feels right for them. Accessing opportunities and getting started is often the hardest part however, and with an application to interview rate of 27/1 for most non-executive roles, this webinar was the opportunity for an audience of around 100 people to share in the insight, reflections and recommendations from the experts.
Planning your career success as a board member is as important as any other aspect of your career development. It can be a highly competitive recruitment process, even though the majority of trustee roles are voluntary, and many NED roles offer a relatively modest reward. Even so, the requirement for particular skills, experience and attributes as well as demonstrating a deep commitment to the mission and cause of the organisation are vital. Board roles can be a heavy commitment, but they also offer opportunities to discover a new sector, engaging with a new team of fellow board members and making an impact in another organisation as a leader.
Demonstrating your ability to think strategically and impartially, offering maturity of judgement whilst being a team player and engaging with the business can be very empowering and you learn to quickly recognise the difference between non-executive and executive leadership. It is important to convey this understanding within your application. The focus of your CV is less on delivery and more on strategic vision, oversight and impact.
Our advice for anyone getting board ready is to have a strategy. Consider where and how you would like to work as a NED or Trustee. How can this add value to your executive career or build out your portfolio coherently and with meaning. Be proactive and select your opportunities with care, bringing the entirety of your personal brand and collateral together , ensuring that your LinkedIn and social media profiles all support your application and demonstrate consistency and personal integrity as a leader . The experience of being a NED can enrich your personal and professional life in many ways and equally, broadening the talent pool of NEDs and Trustees brings diverse perspectives and attributes into the board room.
If you’re interested in a board career, our newly launched Board Practice will be a great place to start browsing opportunities – https://starfishsearch.com/board-practice/
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Starfish is committed to supporting organisations that want to improve their diversity. One of the most effective ways to deliver positive change is to address the diversity of non-executive Boards. Having inclusive board recruitment practices and being prepared to recognise and value the contributions offered by a broader range of backgrounds holds the key.
After many years of supporting candidates who have been through board recruitment processes, we thought it was time that we made better use of the insights we’ve gained. We decided to create the 50NEDs initiative that would encourage and support would-be non-executives from all walks of life who want to join boards, but simply don’t know how to access opportunities and get started. Our aim was to inspire and help prepare 50 ‘boardroom ready’ first time non-executives to organisations we work with within two years and we’re very proud to have reached this remarkable milestone.
We’ve placed brilliant people at an early stage of their leadership journey from many different backgrounds: from entrepreneurs, medical doctors and campaigners, to artists, surveyors and conservationists. And we’ve placed those who’ve had successful executive careers into organisations as diverse as Girlguiding, Wilf Ward Family Trust, the Solicitors’ Charity, the Co-op Foundation, Drinkaware, World Vision UK, Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation, Cambridge House, Lampton 360 Group, St John’s Foundation, the Richmond Fellowship and the Young Foundation.
Having spoken with the group of non-executives we’ve placed over the last two years, some key themes and insights as well as some brilliant pieces of advice have emerged. Many had assumed at the start that board members are all either professionals at the end of their careers, or at top C suite level, but realised this wasn’t the case. Instead there is a shared set of skills and attributes that boards are looking for.
These include things like having the ability to think strategically and impartially, being a true team player, using emotional intelligence and having the capacity to be self-reflective, to keep learning and self-regulate. Non-executives also tend to offer a maturity of judgement, which means they can land their views with impact and credibility. This group brings a broader set of experiences with them into the board room and is willing to contribute beyond their professional area of expertise. None are attributes that are confined to one demographic within our society.
Motivations tended to fall into fairly broad themes – from the obvious but vital wanting to ‘give back’, be that helping and supporting others on their own leadership journey, or having a deep connection or alignment with the cause; to wanting to gain professional experience and networks, or having some level of lived experience that gives a board a deeper insight into the communities they serve. In return this group has been able to gain a huge amount in return, by working as part of highly diverse, motivated and interesting teams. This experience has helped them to enrich their own professional or personal lives. And they’ve also had a lot of fun.
And there are some top tips. At the head of the list, and perhaps no surprise to anyone who has held a board role before, is the amount of time you have to realistically commit, whilst understanding what a ‘time commitment’ means – from reading and reflecting on board papers and preparing for meetings (the complexity of good governance and the legal side of the role can be overwhelming at first); ad hoc meetings and events that happen in evenings or at weekends; perhaps learning about a completely new sector whilst still doing your day job, and getting to know your fellow board members and how they like to engage… The top piece of advice that everyone we spoke to shared was the importance of taking the time to get to know your fellow board members outside of the boardroom, and ideally before you even attend your first meeting, which makes the journey much easier.
Thank you to everyone who gave their time to help others think about what they wished they’d known before they started out. And, of course, our own journey hasn’t stopped just because 50NEDs has achieved its aim. If you’re interested in a board career, our newly launched specialist Board Practice will be a great place to start browsing opportunities https://starfishsearch.com/starfish-search-launches-its-new-dedicated-board-practice/
Watch this space for articles and insight pieces throughout 2024 and beyond. See you there.
Led by our CEO, Juliet Taylor, our new dedicated Board Practice at Starfish will ensure that the right technical capability and expertise is available to all clients for their non-executive recruitment and board development assignments. Over 35% of appointments we’re commissioned to handle now involve non-executive search. Our new practice will continue to evolve throughout 2024, matching expert consultant skill and experience to the level of complexity, nuance and partnership often required for a successful outcome. Despite challenging market conditions, particularly for pro bono Chair appointments, Starfish continues to hold a placement rate of 98% on over 250 Chair, NED, Trustee, Committee Chair and President appointments. We are proud to have built a compelling track record of projects where our work has facilitated a genuine shift in authentic board diversity, or board capability, reach and culture. Meeting the high expectations our clients necessarily bring to their Board requirements, given the pressures they themselves face, requires clear advice grounded in insight, a pragmatic and tenacious approach, and a team that can be trusted to deliver results. As we approach our fifth anniversary, we remain focused on listening to our markets and responding to what we hear through the active development of our services, and attention to customer care. We are now growing our team of knowledgeable, committed board enthusiasts to rise to new challenges as the world around us all continues to change.
For more information about the Board Practice and our services, please contact juliet.taylor@starfishsearch.com
At Starfish we are committed to diversity and inclusion and we are pleased to announce that we are now certified as Disability Confident Committed.
By signing up to be Disability Confident Committed we will continue to enhance our knowledge, skills and confidence required to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled colleagues in our workplace.
Every colleague here at Starfish has gone through training on what it means to be Disability Confident, with each of us making an individual pledge as to what steps we can take as individuals to improve our understanding of disabilities and be supportive of colleagues who may have disabilities.
We are looking forward to offering work shadowing opportunities for those with disabilities in the Spring of 2024.
We want to ensure that disabled colleagues have opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations.