I'm lucky to work with some amazing people on a day-to-day basis. From my Roda Co-Founder Matt Spry, the leadership team at Simpact Janet Chandler, Rikki Garcia, Liton Ullah and all our partners and customers, I’m surrounded by passionate, smart, driven people, who I have the opportunity to learn from every day.
But one role I’ve really enjoyed over the last 3 years is working with the incredible Claudine Adeyemi-Adams & Boris Bambo as an Advisor to Earlybird, as they build their business into one helping hundreds of thousands of people to thrive in employment.
Yesterday we held our second full Advisory Board meeting, and it struck me again just how much I am learning and developing through working with people who are operating at the top of their game. Helps me to (try) stay on top of mine!
I’ve had several Trustee roles before and advised public sector, social enterprise and charity Boards in a consultancy capacity, but this is the first Advisory Board role in a high growth, funded, fast paced start-up. Fair to say, I love it. It’s probably a better fit for my temperament actually than what I’ve done before...
If you’re starting out on your first Board position, here are a few pro-tips from a relative amateur.
1. If you don’t understand something, say. If the numbers aren’t clear, if you need more information to form an opinion, say so. To advise you need to understand. It took me some time to build up the confidence to do this.
2. Think about what you say, and say what you think. Sounds easy, really isn’t consistently (emotions, lazy thinking get in the way).
3. Always try and put yourself in the position of the person you are trying to support and advise.