North West Director of the Year Awards 2021
The Institute of Directors Awards are open for entries. One of the few cross-sector Awards programmes, it celebrates leadership talent, success and achievement.
The combination of the pandemic and preparations for Brexit meant that 2020 produced exceptionally tough operating conditions, forcing directors to reassess business models and respond at speed with bold, innovative decisions. These monumental efforts deserve recognition. Whatever your sector or organisation – whether you are a director in an established company, innovative start-up, family business, SME, NED or Third Sector – we want to hear from you.
We hope you will consider submitting an entry – remember, you can enter more than one category and entry is free.
Deadline for entries is 5pm GMT on Friday 23rd July 2021.
TOP TIPS FOR COMPLETING YOUR ENTRY
Remember that the IoD is about individuals, not organisations, so your answers should be biased to what you have done, achieved or influenced. If the organisation has made great achievements, stress what you did to make it happen.
• Vision: articulate your vision and how you are driving it forward
• Approach to challenge and innovation: talk about the challenges you have encountered and how you overcame them. What did you learn from the experience? Tell the judges how you have innovated with new ideas, approaches and processes.
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Company culture: how do you foster a good culture? What is your attitude to Continual Professional Development and Corporate Social Responsibility for you and your staff? How do you drive this through the organisation?
• Corporate Governance: if your organisation is too small to have a full board, demonstrate how you ensure you make good decisions, for example a mentor or consultant. If you are a larger organisation, discuss the role of the independent chair and NXDs and how you ensure the board is balanced and remains up to date.
• Leadership: describe why your team would see you as a role model and how you have provided strong leadership at times of stress and challenge and how you support staff and communicate with clients, stakeholders.
WHAT IS A DIRECTOR?
Directors are responsible for leading their organisation, defining its strategic direction and, along with the rest of the board, they have a duty to make informed decisions and exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence on behalf of that organisation. They owe a duty of trust, loyalty and confidentiality to their organisation and they must act in good faith in the best way to promote its long-term success. At the IoD, we recognise that practising, aspiring (including student) and retired directors, all have a crucial role to play in the director community.
The IoD believes that all directors, regardless of their specific role on the board, the sector or industry in which they operate, or the size of the organisation, need to demonstrate competence in a wide range of areas in order to be truly effective leaders.
The IoD’s Director Competency Framework sets out these competencies, divided up into knowledge, skills and mindset. Besides the concrete skills and explicit knowledge required to carry out their duties, directors should also bring an ethical mindset, integrity and independence. When it comes to an organisation’s ethical standards the directors and senior management need to be beyond reproach and ‘set the tone at the top’.
2020 AWARDS
The 2020 event took place on Wednesday 15th July, but for the first time we had to take the event online - watch the highlights below.