Marie Hards, Associate Director at Trust Corporation, attended the IoD Introductory Certificate in Board Readiness programme at the GTA in November/December 2021 and here she talks openly about the benefit of the programme.
Attending the IoD Introductory Certificate in Board Readiness was a prerequisite as part of her career development to Board level. Due to travel restrictions at the time, the first two days of the programme were delivered by IoD tutors in a virtual classroom with good use of breakout rooms for smaller group discussions and exercises.
The programme provided Marie with a foundation for ‘Board Readiness’ and clarified the transition from being a hands-on manager operationally to a strategic thinker in four key areas; governance, finance, strategy and leadership, with exercises to implement learning.
A face-to-face third day covered management styles, mind-set and values and a great opportunity to get together and share knowledge already learnt. The values exercise was thought provoking and looked at respecting others’ values and the importance of understanding that it is acceptable to sometimes have a difference of opinion.
The content was pitched at exactly the right level, and the group had opportunities to work with others from different sectors and experience which gave another opportunity to network and learn new things from businesses who approached things from a different angle.
“Being promoted from a manager to a director is all about changing your mind-set and as I sit on the underlying subsidiary boards, it is important to have an understanding and awareness of our long term plan and strategy rather than being an expert in all areas.
I would recommend the IoD Introductory Certificate in Board Readiness to anyone in a senior management role as it has given me the confidence to believe in my abilities and to grow as a director being confident to question others in the board room”.