Bored at Board Meetings

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Jun 18, 2010

Two weeks ago, I led the deal team to sell Hybricon, one of the companies where I was a director, to Curtis Wright, a multi billion dollar global corporation. A perfect match between the businesses and a great deal for everyone. This now brings my board activity down to six private companies, plus the time I put in as a director of two not for profit business associations. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t, and is about consistent with what I’ve done for the past 20 years including being a director of a public company.

My experience is that it’s not about the quantity of the boards; it’s about the quality of the board meetings and follow on work. I’ve always advised the 60/40 Rule. Depending on the status of the business, a maximum of 40% of the time can be spent by management “reporting out”, while the remaining time should be spent discussing previously-defined strategic questions. That’s really the value of having a group of heavily experienced managers at the board table on a consistent basis.

Therefore, I very much enjoyed this morning’s Harvard Business Review’s Management Tip on Boards, which I have copied here.

3 Ways to Motivate Your Board of Directors

When serving on a board of directors is voluntary, sometimes members can lose focus or doubt that their participation is essential. At your next board meeting, try these three tips for reinvigorating and encouraging board members to devote more time and energy to growing your company:

1. Pose provocative questions.
 Spend a significant part of each board meeting wrestling with critical issues and asking your board to think through the toughest challenges facing your company.

2. Share the stage.
Minimize time spent listening to prepared presentations. Be sure the conversation isn’t dominated by one or two members.

3. Spend time one-on-one.
Find out about members’ individual interests and how they might translate to helping your company in a unique way — for example, by coaching an executive or attending a critical in-house meeting.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “Motivating a BOD” on the “Ask the Expert: Tammy Erickson” board of the HBR Answer Exchange.

 

Tags: Management; Board of Directors