6 reasons you need a NED CV

If you are seeking a board appointment, you will be asked to provide your CV sooner or later. In fact, I don’t think I have seen anyone appointed to a board without providing their NED CV during the process. I’ve also seen people lose appointments because of their NED CV (or lack thereof). You need a NED CV (Non-Executive Director CV) – something very different from your Executive CV.

Here are the 6 reasons why you need a NED CV

1. Chairs, recruiters, and decision-makers make yes/no decisions based on CVs. As a past board recruiter, I have assessed over 10,000 CVs and worked with hundreds of chairs and organisations to recruit new board members. I know that a ‘yes, let’s interview them’ often starts with a well-crafted NED CV.
   
   
2. Chairs and decision-makers expect serious candidates to have a NED CV. Not having one will indicate to them that you are not as serious as other candidates about their board opportunity or your board career. This presents you as a risk to either their reputation or the organisation they represent.
   
   
3. The process of writing a NED CV is valuable: I have found that often the task of writing your NED CV can be as beneficial as the document itself. The simple process of putting pen to paper forces you to consider your background and experience to ascertain what has value at board level. Unless you do this, this information often remains untapped or forgotten.
   
   
4. Not having a compelling NED CV means that you are unable to articulate how your skills and experience are valuable at board level, not executive level. It is unlikely that you can explain why you should be appointed to a board. In a highly competitive board appointment process, and they almost always are, it is unlikely for you to make the initial shortlist, let alone an interview.
   
   
5. From your NED CV, you can write a better and more compelling board pitch, what you do, and how it is valuable to boards. This information should form the basis for all of your board applications, your ‘water cooler’ moments, conversations with influential individuals, and, of course, help form your answers to questions during your board interview.
   
   
6. They work: Here is what a member told me after I wrote him a NED CV that led to his recent board appointment… “With pleasure, I am informing you that as a result of using your advice and the NED CV you worked on with me, I have now received an appointment as a Non-Executive Director. Why do I know the NED CV was a catalyst? Because I asked what attracted their attention to me, to which they responded- the style, format, and clearly articulated content of your CV”.

In truth, you will never quite know how important your NED CV is viewed in the decision-making process – in some cases, it simply ratifies the decision to appoint a candidate, but in other cases, it can have the opposite effect. For this reason it is absolutely essential that you create a document that leaves the reader in no doubt of your credibility and appointability.  – a NED CV is worth it.

In the past 10+ years, I have personally written 5000+ NED CVs. If you are struggling to write yours or simply lack the time to dedicate to this exercise, my personal NED CV Writing Service is included in most of our Member Packages.

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