3. Introduction

If you are reading this, it is likely that you are or at some point will be involved in the appointment of a new chair, trustee or chief executive. You may yourself hold one of these positions and may have experienced the good, the bad and the ugly with regards to recruitment. And you might be finding yourself on the other side of the table for the first time.

The marketplace is never static. Many factors influence it, from the social, the political, to the economic. The candidate pool is never the same. Enter the market only a few months apart and you are likely to find different talent on each occasion. Leadership and governance themselves are changing rapidly and this too has an effect on what organisations look for, the qualities they recruit for, and the cultures they want to establish. Recruitment practices evolve, executive search firms engage in different ways. And because we are all dealing with people who can change their minds, even the best laid plans have to be adapted quickly and constantly. To recruit and appoint successfully, you will have to get used to a degree of ambiguity and risk to secure the kind of game-changing talent that is out there.

So while it remains true that the success of any organisation depends on the quality of its leadership, manifested (at least for the purposes of this report) in the chair, board of trustees, and chief executive, how that leadership is defined and enacted will have different connotations at different times.

The purpose of this report is to provide a basic, practical guide for civil society organisations in recruiting a chair, trustee, or chief executive.

These appointments really matter. A well-led board will always ask the right questions and provide the requisite levels of rigour and reflection required for the organisation to grow, develop, and improve. It is the board’s ability to adopt and debate a variety of perspectives and options which will foster greater engagement and support, and which will ensure the organisation remains representative of and connected to the people who use, commission, fund, support or deliver its services.

It is at board level where there should be insight and challenge, ownership and accountability. It is the board which must recognise the potential gaps between what the organisation says and what it does, and at board level where difficult questions should be being asked and addressed.

Chair

The chair sets the tone for the culture of the board.

Their role is to nudge the board forward on difficult, complex decisions, especially where consensus is hard to find. Their role is to achieve, if not consensus, then consent. The chair must enable the wisdom in the room to be heard – including the dissenting voices – while synthesising views and outlining the direction of travel.

An effective chair will bring a high degree of emotional intelligence, diplomacy, and soft power. They must also possess judgement, courage and resilience. Being able to keep an ear to the ground, to use time between meetings to influence, nudge or cajole, and to act as wise counsel are all vital characteristics.

Trustees

We see the board as a networked system, a complex, interlinking entity in which the pieces are in motion and which changes with each piece placed. Each time someone leaves or joins, it is, in effect, a different board. You will almost certainly be looking for individuals who can create the conditions for different conversations, while talking insightfully about how they have balanced the breadth of your portfolio with good governance, risk management and careful scrutiny. Working out how to complement and enrich the array of skills and perspectives within the group requires time and effort. Creating and sustaining that dynamic group, ensuring it is representative of the audience, demographic, or community you serve without becoming siloed by that very expertise, guaranteeing that it meets the requirements of good governance and regulatory compliance is incredibly demanding. Any appointment exercise, therefore, must be carried out with care.

The board holds the values of the organisation, and this is an important dimension in choosing the right people. Do they understand this, how do they live out their values, do they align with yours? Beware of ‘do they fit the culture?’ – more important is what can they add.

For all non-executive roles, whether chair or trustee, it is important to find candidates who have thought carefully about their availability, their motivation, their commitment to the cause, especially at a time where voluntary roles – especially chair roles – are proving harder and harder to fill due to increased scrutiny and liability, is all important.

Additionally, the time commitment roles of this kind require often means that many of those that would otherwise be of interest to you are unable to commit as the additional responsibility of taking on a new role can destabilise other fragile parts of their portfolio.

Chief executive

In the executive sphere, we are witnessing significant changes in leadership style. Where before the chief executive displayed a more presidential, directive, ‘heroic’ way of operating, the current generation tends to act differently, in a manner which is more distributed and more humble. We are seeing a move towards greater followership, with a consequent emphasis on storytelling, the creation of a shared vision and mission, and a (relatively speaking!) smaller ego. This can be seen across both the internally and the externally facing dimensions of the position.

In this age of social media, chief executives need to be more accessible and transparent than ever before. The corollary is that they will also need to be even more robust and resilient. They need to be not only adept at looking to the horizon and spotting trends before they become reality but also capable of demonstrating the capacity and willingness to bring others into the debate, to join them in discussions that are already taking place elsewhere, or to step aside on the occasions when that might lead to greater and different impact.

A good, modern chief executive will demonstrate well-developed managerial skills and, in the current marketplace, will typically need to offer greater autonomy and responsibility to their senior leadership cadre, creating an organisation in which leadership is distributed and decision-making better devolved.

Whether facing inward or outward at any given point of their mandate, we imagine the next chief executive cohort will choose to operate more within an ‘eco-system’ than an ‘ego-system’. They will see themselves as part of a much bigger picture and understand their responsibilities to a wide and diverse audience.

There is more on the of skillsets of contemporary leaders here acevo.org.uk/skills/leadership-competencies