Course Details
Governance with Grit: Leading Through Ethical Compliance
Audience
Company Secretaries, governance officers, and professionals supporting boards and executive leadership.
Trainer
Abstract
Governance is more than compliance. For Company Secretaries and governance professionals, it is the unseen practice of courage: spotting risks early, asking difficult questions, and protecting organisational trust even when boards would rather look away. This session draws on real experiences from The Secret Diary of a Company Secretary and high-profile governance failures to explore how grit – persistence, courage, and resilience – enables governance leaders to influence, escalate, and act with integrity under pressure.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
01.
See Governance Beyond Rules
- Reframe governance as a foundation for fairness, accountability, and trust rather than only a compliance function.
- Recognise the risks of “tick-box” approaches that leave boards exposed and professionals sidelined.
02.
Explore the Role of Grit in Governance
- Understand how persistence, courage, and resilience underpin the Company Secretary’s effectiveness.
- Learn from case studies drawn from The Secret Diary of a Company Secretary to see what happens when governance voices are ignored.
03.
Lead Through Ethical Compliance
- Balance statutory obligations with the courage to speak truth to power.
- Practise constructive challenge even when authority, hierarchy, or culture push back.
04.
Apply Governance with Grit in Practice
- Develop strategies for escalating concerns when the board is resistant or distracted.
- Build habits of curiosity, independent judgement, and professional courage to strengthen governance in practice.
- Leave with a personal “grit lens” – to apply in the next board cycle.
Detailed Course Outline
01.
Opening: Governance with Grit
- Why governance is leadership in practice.
- Reading from The Secret Diary of a Company Secretary to give voice to the unseen professional.
02.
See Governance Beyond Rules
- Why tick-box approaches fail and expose organisations.
- How governance professionals can reframe compliance into accountability and trust.
- Case insight: examples from The Secret Diary of a Company Secretary where governance warnings could have made a difference earlier.
03.
Explore the Role of Grit in Governance
- How courage and persistence underpin the Company Secretary’s influence.
- Stories from the book that highlight the costs of silence and the value of grit.
- Reflection exercise: where grit was absent, and what difference it could have made.
04.
Lead Through Ethical Compliance
- Balancing statutory obligations with ethical courage.
- Practising constructive challenge under pressure from authority or culture.
- Real-world scenarios: handling board resistance to uncomfortable truths.
05.
Apply Governance with Grit in Practice
- Tools for surfacing concerns: escalation pathways, diagnostics, decision-rights clarity.
- Strengthening professional habits: curiosity, critical thinking, independent judgement.
- Introducing the “grit lens”: how to apply it in your next board cycle.
06.
Closing
- Key takeaways: purpose, persistence, preparedness.
- QR code to The Secret Diary of a Company Secretary.
- Signing and conversation after the session.
CPD Mapping
Verifiable CPD
If you’re following the Unit route then any learning activity can count as verifiable CPD when you can answer 'Yes' to these three questions:
- Was the learning activity relevant to your career?
- Can you explain how you applied the learning in the workplace?
- Can you provide evidence that you undertook the learning activity?