Insights from Starboard: Board Chair Companion

As board chair you need to know that sitting at the head of the table and running the meeting are two different things. I observed a board once where the board chair called the meeting to order, sought approval of the minutes, and then pretty much became a spectator in the meeting until the executive …
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For most organizations, when the board enters into executive session—clearing the board room of staff—it almost always signals that something ominous is about to happen. Staff will start speculating about whether the chief executive is in trouble, and there is the usual discomfort associated with excusing people from the room, how to record what happens, …
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Every few months the phone will ring and someone will ask, “Do you have any advice regarding whether or not the staff, other than the executive director, should be at board meetings?” Sometimes it’s the board chair wondering, “Who are all these staff people at our meetings, and why are they here?” Other times it …
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If you want to be able to have more time at board meetings for discussions of a substantive nature about topics of strategic importance, you can make your meetings longer (rarely a popular choice for most boards) or you can reduce the time you spend on other items.  Consider this scenario and see if it …
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So if we agree that running effective, meaningful and engaging board meetings is one of the essential duties of the board chair, doesn’t it make sense that you should find some way to evaluate whether or not they really are effective, meaningful, engaging? After all, if you go to a conference or a workshop you …
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If you have led or supervised a group of employees, you know that building an effective team that works well together takes ongoing and consistent effort. The same is true for a board of directors. You certainly can’t assume that a group of board members, coming together four, six, or twelve times a year is …
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