The paradox of experience  The people who need professional development the most are those that think they don’t

That is the paradox of professional development. The more successful you become, the less likely you are to believe you need professional development. And therein lies the danger.

Nobody reaches the boardroom by accident. Directors arrive there through experience, judgement and results. They’ve built organisations, led teams and navigated challenges that no online or in-person classroom can replicate.

This is precisely why professional development is often considered a stepping stone to leadership rather than a responsibility of leadership itself.

Yet the evidence tells a different story. It is that evidence that is the foundation of the IoD’s Director Dividend – the knowledge that investing in director development generates returns, for both organisations and individuals.

The organisational case is compelling. Research shows that firms with a chartered director on their board achieve a 16.7% revenue advantage over comparable organisations. Not engagement. Not awareness. Not sentiment. Revenue.

For individuals, the impact can be just as significant. Among chartered directors who applied for board roles after qualifying, almost nine in ten (89%) said their IoD qualification helped them secure a position.

What is striking is that neither statistic is really about learning. Both indicators are about outcomes. One speaks to organisational performance, the other to personal progression. This suggests that professional development is often misunderstood.

Professional development’s value doesn’t lie solely in what you learn. It lies in what that learning enables. It is human nature to invest in things that promise visible gains ahead of those that seek to mitigate issues that haven’t yet materialised.

Professional development sits firmly in the second category. Its value rarely reveals itself immediately. More often, it emerges later – in a better decision, a risk spotted sooner, a challenge handled more effectively, or an opportunity recognised before others see it.

The value compounds. Yet compound returns are difficult to see while they are accumulating. After all, nobody knows what they don’t know. At least not until they are confronted with it.

The IoD’s Director in the Dock event at the Old Bailey in May provided a powerful illustration of that point. The mock court case explored what happens when governance failures lead to unforeseen problems of personal accountability.

The audience that day didn’t comprise aspiring directors. It consisted of experienced leaders. Yet many left discussing responsibilities, risks and consequences they had never fully considered. This was not because they lacked capability or experience, because experience does not eliminate blind spots. Sometimes it disguises them.

There is that paradox again. The judgement that makes directors successful can also make it harder to recognise where their knowledge is incomplete. The longer we’ve been doing something, the easier it becomes to assume we’ve seen most situations before. The higher we rise, the less likely people are to challenge our thinking. And that is exactly when blind spots become a serious threat.

That challenge is only becoming more pronounced. Many of today’s directors are expected to oversee issues that barely featured in board conversations when they began their careers. Artificial intelligence. Cybersecurity. ESG. New forms of regulation. Increased scrutiny from stakeholders who expect more transparency and accountability than ever before.

Experience remains invaluable, but it cannot provide ready-made answers to questions that did not exist 20 years ago. The best directors understand this. They don’t see development as a remedy for weakness. They see it as part of the job. A commitment to remaining effective in a world that refuses to stand still.

Perhaps that is the real Director Dividend. It is not so much a qualification. It is a mindset. It is a willingness to stay curious – long after success in your career might suggest you have anything new to learn. It is a readiness to challenge your assumptions and seek different perspectives. Resisting the temptation to believe you’ve seen and done it all before is crucial.

The best directors are not those who think they have all the answers. Rather, they are the people most willing to question what they think they know, because the greatest risk facing any director isn’t ignorance – it’s certainty.

Rebecca Watkinns is Head of Marketing at the Institute of Directors