News & Insights

For many senior leaders, 2025 has been a year to pause, assess, and recalibrate. The market remains active, but employers are hiring with sharper intent. This means that clarity, timing, and positioning matter more than ever when you decide to move. Here are 5 practical steps to strengthen your position and ensure your next move […]

The NI labour market remains resilient. Jobs and vacancies are at, or near, recent highs, with broad growth across manufacturing and services during 2025. At senior and Board level we are seeing steady demand for leadership that can deliver growth, cost discipline and, increasingly, digital transformation. However, organisations are more selective than a year ago […]

It is becoming clear that the future of work for many will include some form of hybrid working rather than 100% working from home. HR teams, who have had a busy year as it is, will have to review contracts and T&Cs to consider if pay needs reviewed. Managing a team where some are in […]

A business’s personality revolves around its company culture. All organisations have a company culture that reflects its values and priorities, whether you can define it and cultivate it, is a different matter altogether, but you do have one. Cultural fit is really how well your employees integrate with the overall culture. Questions you may want […]

The weekly lockdown ritual begins this evening of asking friends, ‘have you watched anything good?’, in the vain search for a boxset or movie recommendation to entertain you for a couple of hours over the weekend. Last week on my school friends WhatsApp group, a fairly innocent question, kickstarted a debate about the best sports […]

Over the years many prominent business owners and leaders have reflected that a characteristic of the ascent to their lofty heights is experiencing isolation or loneliness. Today’s executives often have support from Board members, or family members in privately owned businesses, from whom advice and counsel are found. Outside their organisation, they can access mentors […]

So far, we have covered strategy, leadership, stakeholder engagement in our first three instalments, and now we will consider; communication. A communication question is one of those competencies that is often assessed in a variety of different ways. It can be covered at the interview, absorbed into the presentation stage or marked separately at the end of […]

I didn’t get an interview because they already had someone else lined up for the job. This is one of the regular excuses we hear from people who are telling us about a time they didn’t get an interview for a job they wanted. This really only serves the purpose of enabling them to avoid […]

We are attempting to demystify the process of completing application forms. We have covered strategy in our first instalment, and now we look at leadership. This is one of the most common competencies covered and can be in the form of questions such as; “Provide an example which demonstrates your personal leadership skills and how […]

For those applying for senior level roles in the public or voluntary sectors, including Non Exec or Board positions, you will more than likely be asked to complete an application form rather than a CV. We are not covering the STAR method here, rather the key components of the answers to common questions and some […]