The Trusted Advisors at Board Mentoring have a Vision

“To improve performance and diversity in the boardroom”

What makes us different?

We offer outstanding business leaders as Mentors and role models - 20 great leaders with a passion for leadership and mentoring who act as Trusted Advisors.

All our Mentors have wide experience as leaders, both running organisations as Executives/CEOs and on Boards as NED's/Chairs and in multiple sectors and cultures. We value diversity and its ability to add value to the organisation.

Mentoring is focused on commercial and personal challenges and improving performance.

Who do we mentor?

Clients find it is particularly valuable for the following groups of people:

  • New appointments in post – whether externally recruited or internally promoted or transferred to a new role
  • High Performers – where retention and career development are key
  • Functional Specialists working in Group Centres in complex organisations

We add value by ensuring these key people are supported and highly effective. Where they are new in post we ensure they quickly establish positive relationships with colleagues, transition successfully into their new role and become effective quickly.

We believe that companies serve their customers and stakeholders best when the leadership team is diverse and where there is diversity of thinking. This is evidenced by numerous research studies and reports and many of these are summarised in the Davies report, published in March 2011. This diversity of background, experience and thought is of particular importance to critical Board responsibilities such as the management of risk, strategic planning and talent development and retention.

Across Europe, including the UK, women are in a minority in the boardrooms of the largest companies. In UK FTSE 100 companies only 12.5% of board members are female and this drops to 7.5% in the FTSE 350. The number is growing, but very slowly (Davies Report 2011). There is also a lack of diversity beyond gender in quoted and private companies, but far less data is available on this. Functional diversity is a key issue, especially as the number of executive directors in the boardroom is increasingly limited to two or three, including the CEO and the CFO. It is vital that functions beyond finance such as Marketing, Sales and HR have a voice in the boardroom. Recent surveys have shown that the top two challenges facing boards are setting business strategy and achieving growth. (PWC NED Survey 2011)

There is much anecdotal evidence that women and minorities are less likely to be sponsored through their organisations by a senior leader. This can be for a variety of reasons including the fact they are not a “mini-me” and concern about the optics and perception of sponsoring a younger female colleague. Both the EU and the UK Government are considering introducing quotas for Women on Boards to speed the rate of change.

There is now a clear expectation from societies and governments to ensure Boardrooms are both diverse and representative of their stakeholders and communities they serve, supported by legislation such as the UK Companies Act 2006.

Our particular skill is supporting Directors, both Executive and Non-Executive, stepping into new situations and roles. We work with talented individuals to prepare them for their first Board appointment and to ensure they are successful in the Boardroom. We work with executives on fast track development, new appointments to the Board, FD’s/CFO’s and Directors stepping up to MD/CEO and NED’s transitioning to Chairman. We create personalised structured mentoring plans for each individual and for the particular leadership situation.

To achieve this, our Mentors are outstanding leaders who have operated in Boardrooms for many years and have the wisdom, insight and experience to offer both a confidential sounding-board and a source of valuable advice and guidance.

These inspirational Mentors of outstanding achievement have substantial experience on boards as both Executive and Non-Executive directors, CEO's and Chairmen, across a huge range of sectors. Many have international experience. We all share a passion and commitment to mentoring and a focus on achievement.