Board Players — Challenges for the CEO

“The Queen is the most valuable and important piece and the whole outcome can depend upon how successfully she plays her role.” Anatoly Karpov

Praesta has a thriving Board practice — we work successfully with individual Chairs, CEOs and Directors to help them do the best possible job. We also conduct sensitive, insightful board reviews that enable Chairmen and Directors to identify aspects of their board’s work that, if done differently, will improve its effectiveness.

In our experience, the Chief Executive (CEO) — akin to the Queen in the game of chess — has the power to make or break a board’s effectiveness.

We’ve seen powerful CEOs dominate their boards and equally powerful ones enable and inform the board’s work. We’ve seen CEOs lead their executives into the board room and others who don’t give an effective executive lead — and we have no doubt that board effectiveness is enhanced by the former. We’ve seen CEOs who collaborate with the Chair to structure and support an annual board calendar that brings all the important subjects to the table, in an orderly and well-informed way; others who, meeting to meeting, gather together an incoherent pot pourri of papers, briefings and standing items that suffer from insufficient preparation, coordination and forethought.

Board members, in general, and the Chair in particular can influence these matters; nonetheless, it remains surprising how tolerant some boards are of CEOs who don’t service them well. Servicing boards can seem a waste of time and energy to busy CEO’s, who, occasionally, complain that non-executives add little value, are quick to criticise and slow to praise, don’t bother to read the papers or get briefed properly and are more concerned about their own reputation than the organisation’s. Even if the criticisms are justified (and we have seen places where they are), they rarely help change things for the better. The CEO has to help the board move to a better place, even if this takes time and patience. Simply put, it is hard to step out of the CEO role on your own board.

In the context of a board and its work, the best things a CEO can do are:

• Invest in your board by, for example, organising elective briefings on topics of strategic relevance, taking directors off-site a couple of times a year to stand back from the day to day, and encourage them to speak to your people. It pays back.
• Get to know your non-execs by spending 1:1 time with them, regularly. As part of that, do some things together, such as seeing-is-believing visits and co-hosting stakeholder events.
• Show respect and regard for others and expect it in return. Welcome and invite comment and insight and respond constructively to input even when you beg to differ. When your patience is tested, don’t let exasperation show. Remember that the board is your friend, not your enemy.
• Collaborate with your Chair to design and execute a strong board calendar that ensures all major topics are systematically brought to the table, in ways that recognise the division of labour between the board and its committees. Prepare high quality inputs to stimulate high quality discussions.
• Lead your executive into the room. CEOs enable board effectiveness by delivering a report that covers all the main bases, identifies the issues and directs the Board’s attention to what matters most. They do this whilst ensuring other executive directors have airtime and support them when things get “sticky”.
• Step out of the CEO role to speak as a director, from time to time. Flag clearly when you are doing so. You should not restrict your board contribution to that of an officer of the business or feel you are “on parade” the whole time that you are in the boardroom.
• Promote openness and transparency. Encourage non-executives to walk the business and tell them what is keeping you awake at night.
• Take options and questions to the board, not just answers and solutions. The board has a responsibility to guide the business as well as oversee it. You can use the talent and experience in the room to inform your thinking and influence the organisation’s direction of travel.
• Work with your Chair to configure the board, anticipating its future need for knowledge and skills, when planning succession. CEOs meet a lot of people, so you are well placed to identify and introduce contacts who might become good directors one day.
• Don’t let things fester. When a director has upset you, got the wrong end of the stick or said something inappropriate — or you have done that yourself — don’t let it rest there. Pick up the phone, deal with the issue and get the relationship back on track.