Your Board of Directors is a tremendous asset.  Every single person in the room wants each of you to succeed wildly.  You are all investing your passion, time and often money with this shared faith in the team.   If the company (you) has done a great job choosing those Directors, there are probably stark differences in personalities and their core competencies.  This amalgamation of rock stars requires you to do be a well-healed leader.  Those rock stars likely have strong opinions and often Type ‘A’ personalities that your smart meeting agenda can leverage, and avoid those uncomfortable derailments.  Keeping the Board on the tracks, keeps the company progressing.

Preparation:

  • Give your Directors 5-7 dates/times for their scheduling.  These should be 90+ days down the road, they are busy and need more advanced notice than you think.  As they each choose which of those times work, select the date that each can make.  When you have a Quorum, any voting will likely need only a majority.  If you do not schedule well and Directors cannot be present, this often triggers “Unanimous Consent” voting, which is not something you want to rely on for your fiduciary and strategic decisions.  You want to move with a decisive and available Board.
  • Your Agenda is much more valuable to the company if you:
    • Spoon-feed updates for your Directors.  Again, they are busy and need accurate brief updates.  They will not want to read paragraphs or pages of your narration.  Think about a 14-16 slide deck with graphs/charts, bullet points and financial summary reports.  
    • Include Challenges or Questions that you would like your Directors advice and counsel.   They are not psychic, and they want to help.  Engage them directly with questions or pain-points that the company can use their input.
    • Submit your agenda to them 3-5 days in a advance of your meeting.  It may drive you batty when they STILL do not review prior to the meeting, but you don’t have control over that.  Give them the courtesy of reviewing regardless.

The Meeting Room:

  • The camaraderie of a Board is part of their fun.  It’s normally 4- 6 times per year, so the room set-up gives them comfort that they are spending their time wisely.  Snacks, drinks, note paper, pens, whiteboard, markers, etc.  Anticipate the tools that you may need, time effectiveness is very important of you.
  • Print extra hardcopies of your presentations.  Not all enjoy digital copies, many like the good ol’ pen and paper.  Have them at the ready.
  • All A/V, conference call technology and computer hook-ups need to absolutely be tested before you start.  A dry run the day prior is an excellent rule of thumb.

Time:

  • Retreats are code for an all-day session.
  • Most Directors prefer 3-4 hour meetings, which may also be more than you need.  This will naturally be influenced by the frequency of your Board meetings and the navigational needs the company.  
  • If you start at 9, consider a working-lunch to keep things rolling through 1p.  If you start at 1, put a fork in it around 5, they are ready to go home.  Rarely will and evening cocktail be a smart decision

You:

  • CEOs have a lot on their plate.  Non-Executive Chairs or Executive Chairs help relieve the burdens of prep and executing your meetings.  If it’s up to you, keep a few benchmarked ideas in mind:
    • Start on time, which means your invitation and agenda planning should accommodate the socialization and late-arrivals that temper start-times.  9a, may mean your agenda kicks in at 9:15
    • Each agenda item should have a time allocated to it.  Drives the agenda, minimizes tangents and respects everyone’s time throughout
    • Be firm but flexible.  They will recognize areas of urgency and importance differently than you.  Your agenda prep does not mean you are psychic, so don’t freak out if the Directors occasionally trip you up

And….don’t be scared.  This is your posse.  They want to do the right thing.  If you are prepared, they see you are doing things well and will come to conclusions on how your driving the company when they are not there.  Prepare and use this Board to help you build your dreams and improve your company.

Build well