Board engagement

Accelerated change means that today’s board might not be the right one anymore for tomorrow. You need to design your board’s role and composition to fit your company and its environment. A new future direction may require new directors, with new attitudes and skills. We stimulate the companies we partner with to evaluate the design of their board regularly and have the courage to let go of common practices such as automatic renewal of board terms when needed. 

To have this type of conversation requires courage, vulnerability, and trust. We were happy to read that Board Engagement is one of the six mindsets that distinguish excellent CEOs from the rest in the recently published McKinsey book on CEO Excellence. Their research shows that to build and maintain trust, the best CEOs dare to be transparent with their boards and develop a strong relationship with the Chair. They also encourage the board to renew itself, ensuring onboarding, and organizing continuous learning. Lastly, they promote a forward-looking agenda. This CEO mindset requires right-brain skills such as creative, big picture thinking and social intelligence.

How are the dynamics of your board? Do they enable you to have the right type of conversations?