A seat of her own

Who It's For

Women seeking a board role, and women already serving who want more influence

Overview

This Focus brings together all five modules of the Women on Boards topic. It opens with how boards work and where power sits, drawing on the Davies Review, the FTSE Women Leaders Review, the Higgs Review and Kanter's work on tokens, and Konrad, Kramer and Erkut's critical mass of three. It then sets out directors' duties under the Companies Act 2006, trustees' duties in the Charity Commission's CC3, practical ways to read annual reports and board papers, and the collapse of Kids Company. Next it covers board readiness, the skills matrix and public appointments, with a Welsh case study. It then explores the first hundred days, challenge and support, groupthink and the Theranos board, and closes with chairing and the EU Women on Boards Directive.

Aims

The aim is to help women gain board roles and use them well: understanding duties and finances with confidence, planning a credible route onto a board, contributing with independence and influence, and preparing for the chair in a landscape where few women yet lead boards.

In summary, you will be able to:

1. 1Explain the legal duties of directors and trustees and read board papers and annual reports well enough to ask sharp, well-framed questions.
2. 2Plan a route onto a board, translating your experience into a skills matrix, a board CV and due diligence before you accept a role.
3. 3Lead effectively as a board member and future chair, balancing challenge with support, guarding against groupthink and strengthening how the board is evaluated.

What you'll develop

Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:

1. 1Assess the evidence on women on boards, from UK voluntary targets to quotas, and make a balanced case built on decision quality, legitimacy and fairness.
2. 2Use a structured approach to read annual reports and board papers, and ask well-framed questions before and during the meeting.
3. 3Assess an organisation's financial resilience and your own due diligence as a trustee, drawing on the lessons of Kids Company.
4. 4Compare the routes onto a board, including public appointments in England and Wales, and plan a board CV and interview that lead with judgement.
5. 5Apply constructive challenge, support and practical influence techniques such as amplification, while keeping your independence as a habit.
6. 6Plan open routes to the chair through succession, open recruitment and sponsorship, and compare the EU Directive with the UK's voluntary approach.