Going for gold: leadership development through a quasi-non-executive board in the SME context

This chapter uses the dynamic of being a non-executive director (NED) as a process for leadership development. Of significance is the context. The participants are owner-managers of growing businesses. Their context is demanding but also isolating from the lifeblood of leadership development – a variety of contexts, a variety of ‘leaders’ to observe and a variety of demanding inter-personal challenges. The process we explore in this chapter is the leadership learning enabled by participating in a peer learning community as a NED theorising it as a community of practice. In particular, we look at how owner-managers stretch their leadership capacity and confidence by engaging in a year long journey as non-executive directors.