Expanding Your Passions: Executive Career and Board Search

What does it really take to climb the executive ladder and secure a board seat? Host Mike Horne discusses the specifics with Debra Boggs, founder of D&S Executive Career Management. Debra, known for her success in executive career coaching, shares her approach to preparing candidates for top-tier job searches, drawing from her extensive experience and recognition in the field, including being part of Forbes’ Next 1000 list. 

The discussion highlights the difference between executive search and standard job applications, noting that C-level jobs often aren't found through online job postings. Instead, networking and personal branding, especially on LinkedIn, play crucial roles.

Mike and Debra talk about the value executive search firms bring to the recruitment process, leveraging their networks and expertise to match candidates with suitable positions. They stress the importance for executives to be ready to demonstrate their value to a board, not just in their expertise but in their potential contributions to the company's growth.

Debra advises on showcasing how one's work has impacted business growth. She offers advice for executives looking to advance their careers or secure board positions, highlighting the importance of clear goals. She also discusses the need for more diversity in executive search and the challenges involved.

This episode provides clear insights about the executive job market, emphasizing the importance of presentation, networking, and clarity in professional goals

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• “At the CEO level, it's often a question of assessment. Is this person really capable of continuing to lead this organization? And board members, to your point, have a different view, where our jobs as senior leaders in organizations might be collaboration, cooperation, all the things that you mentioned. The board has a different fiduciary responsibility to the stakeholders or shareholders in a publicly traded corporation.” (17:54 | Mike Horne)
• “Be really clear on your focus on what you bring as an executive candidate and what kind of organizations you are uniquely equipped to serve.” (20:02 | Debra Boggs)
• "You can offer value in a lot of different areas, but we can't try to be everything to everyone or else people will not understand what box we've been in. Be really clear about that focus and the kinds of companies, size of company, industry, and business model. All of those things will help you get your career assets in order–your board resume and your board bio." (20:22 | Debra Boggs)
• "Some board recruiters and some organizations will ask for a resume, some ask for a bio and some ask for both. They're not interchangeable. So having both is helpful. And then a really strong LinkedIn profile. And I say that because so many people that we talked to have built amazing executive careers and have not needed to leverage their network or their digital brand. And you need to think about your LinkedIn profile as being the first opportunity you're going to have to make a first impression." (21:03 | Debra Boggs)
• “The very first thing you need to do is get clear on what you want. Because getting clear on what you want in the beginning makes every single step of this easier. It makes writing your resume easier. It makes writing your LinkedIn profile easier. It makes building a search strategy and the way you're going to take yourself to market easier. If you know your audience, your value, what their struggles are, what those kinds of companies are struggling with. Understanding that makes everything run more efficiently for you.” (43:33 | Debra Boggs)