Board Effectiveness

It’s a challenging time to be on a board of directors. Shareholder and media scrutiny in the post-Enron world are high, and compliance with new standards of corporate governance is an ongoing concern. But many boards have chosen to turn this challenge into a unique opportunity to reassess their role and commit to a higher standard of performance. These boards have learned how to draw on their members’ collective experience and intellect, and partner with senior management in an environment of constructive contention.

We can help boards rise to the challenge and build a blueprint for change that will allow them to:

Clarify their role: Designing work so the board can achieve an appropriate level of engagement without overstepping its proper role, which is to ensure the company is managed effectively—not to manage the company
Find the right combination of knowledge and skills: Determining what roles are required and creating profiles of the ideal candidates
Learn how to operate as a high-performing team: Building strong working relationships among board members, with the CEO, and with the senior executive team
Add real value: Playing an active role in the development and oversight of corporate strategy, CEO performance evaluation, executive succession, and risk assessment and crisis management
Assess and improve their effectiveness: Conducting formal, regular assessments of their own performance, identifying issues that are constraining effectiveness, and creating strategies to address them

To move beyond merely meeting minimum legal obligations to become a source of true value, boards must close the gap between talk and action. Board building is about more than what work the board chooses to do; just as importantly, it’s about how the board chooses to do that work.