Your Board Appointment Plan for 2023 – 10 steps

The new year is when most people start thinking about a board career or taking theirs to the next level. Regardless of your situation, a successful board career begins with a structured Board Appointment plan.

If you don’t have a board appointment plan, now is the time to develop one. If you do, the new year is the perfect time to reflect, revise and hone it. I have put together a checklist of 10 steps to ensure you have a board appointment plan ready to take advantage of every board opportunity in 2023.

STEP 1 – Be proactive and start now

Don’t play the waiting game. Board appointments do get offered to people who aren’t looking for them – but rarely. If you want a board appointment this year, it’s time to begin. From February to November, the majority of board vacancies are advertised, and board appointments occur.  You must be prepared to compete regardless of how a board opportunity arises.

STEP 2 Have the ultimate goal in mind

This step is essential. Achieving your long-term board aspirations is challenging if you don’t know what they are. Equally, it is very easy to make ill-informed decisions that may potentially prevent them from happening. So, ask yourself, ‘What sort of board do I want to be appointed to within the next 5-10 years?’ If, for example, your answer is a significant commercial/listed company, then think about which organisations today will help you get there and which ones won’t. Your focus should now be on those that will. 

STEP 3 – Stop doing what isn’t working

“The harder you work, the luckier you get” sounds like good advice but often isn’t. From a board appointment perspective, if you are continually writing board applications, waiting for recruiters to call you, not getting interviews or not getting appointed after an interview, your hard work is not paying off. Don’t keep doing the same thing over and over again ad nauseam. Then you need to do something different – something that works – not just work harder. 

STEP 4 – Prepare for hurdles

Take some time to think about what has prevented you from gaining a board appointment or stopped you from starting. Recognising current and potential hurdles is essential. Three main things will prevent you from gaining a board appointment in 2023:

1. You are targeting the wrong sort of organisation 

2. Your pitch to those organisations is not compelling 

3. You are not working smart and consistently enough.

STEP 5 – Write or update your board CV

Having reviewed over 10,000 NED CVs and written over 5,000 of them, I know that Board CVs work. Though they are not always the silver bullet, people think they are. Still, they often make the difference between being recommended by a recruiter, a non-executive director who can help or a successful or unsuccessful interview invitation. A client of mine proved this point. After being appointed to the board of a commercial company, he asked, “What attracted you to me initially?” Their response was, “It was the style, format and clearly articulated content of your NED CV.”

STEP 6 – Write down: At board level, what I do is…

The key here is your value at board level. Not only do you have to know it, but you also have to be able to articulate it. To simplify this step, just finish this sentence “At board level, what I do is….”  Don’t go into detail; just focus on the result. This is essentially an exercise in refining your messaging. It is important to do this because your message must be clear and compelling. Failing to do this will risk being perceived as too broad, too opportunistic and easily forgotten. Remember that old adage “Master of all, master of none”. It is particularly true when it comes to articulating your board value proposition.

STEP 7 – Write a list

Whilst over 45,000 board vacancies are filled in Australia each year, only some organisations will want to put you on their board. Equally, you are going to add value to only some boards. When establishing your Board Appointment plan, you must focus on the organisations that will value you, your skills and experience enough to appoint you.  Write a list of the top 12 organisations you believe would appoint you and want to be appointed to. I can’t think of a more valuable exercise to start at the beginning of 2023.

STEP 8 – Get connected

80% of board appointments occur without a formal application process – with no recruiters or traditional advertisements. The key to these appointments is personal connections. You must make them and nurture them. Here is when most of you cringe because, you either hate networking, or feel that you have no one to network with. Both scenarios should not be of concern. Use your list of target organisations (from Step 7) to research and compose a list of the current and past directors. Connecting with them should be super simple if you are authentic and legitimate. Most importantly, it requires zero cringe-worthy networking tactics. 

STEP 9 – Make time

A board appointment within 12 months should be your firm and achievable aspiration. To make it happen, you must be committed and consistent. You need to put dedicated time aside to make it happen.  From today, put in your diary a recurring weekly appointment of 30 minutes to spend time actioning your board appointment plan. 

STEP 10 – Seek support

2023 marks Board Direction’s 10th birthday. Over the past decade, we have helped thousands of people develop their Board Appointment plan and gain a board appointment. We help people find board opportunities they would have missed by: providing access to Australia’s most extensive list of board vacancies. Plus, provide practical support, training and accountability. If you would like a board appointment in 2023 and need support to make it happen, take a look at the services we offer.