Board searches run candidates through search results before a single conversation happens. AI tools summarise professional standing from whatever is publicly available. A label gets written either way, the only real choice is whether a leader has had any hand in writing it.

A board wants governance judgement. An executive team wants day-to-day decision-making. The market wants a clear account of value. None of these are contradictory, but managing them without a clear foundation is where leaders lose coherence. Here’s how to hold one identity across several conversations.

The senior leaders I work with are not short on substance. They have run divisions, sat on boards, built teams, navigated crises and delivered results that took real judgement under pressure. What’s harder for them is stepping outside that experience to see it the way someone else would. That is the ‘inside the jar’ problem.