Board Players — Working Together

“It is not enough to be a good player… you must also play well.” Siegbert Tarrasch

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.

Guiding and overseeing an organisation, so that it is successful today and tomorrow, requires the collaborative interaction of all the different board players — the CEO, the Chair and the executive and independent non-executive directors. They all need to understand that board effectiveness depends on the nature of their interactions, not just on how they fulfil their own roles. Making an added-value solo contribution is necessary but insufficient to deliver an effective board. Every director has to help other board members contribute well, both inside and outside the boardroom.

The Chair, CEO and independent directors play different roles within the team, but it is one team. Where we see a board’s dynamic operate in ways that lead to its whole being less than the sum of its parts, this is rarely attributable to wilful dysfunctional behaviour on the part of directors. More often, it is because the board’s formal and informal processes for doing its work are inadequate; and/or there is personal antipathy between some board members; and/or the Chair, CEO and the independent directors are not performing their roles as they should. Addressing the latter, in particular, is usually pivotal to sustainably resolving the others.

If the whole board is to operate more effectively than the sum of its parts, then the Chair, CEO and independent directors should:

• Enjoy full, frank and constructive dialogue inside and outside the boardroom.
• Share what you most need from others so as to fulfil your own role. Ask what they most need from you.
• Find out what and how others can best contribute, encourage that contribution, acknowledge it and build on it.
• Allow time and space for discussion. Build on other people’s comments before starting down another path. Resist any attempt to rush the agenda in the name of efficiency.
• Ensure the margins of board and committee meetings allow sufficient time to socialise and use that time well — don’t spend it making calls and reading emails!
• Invite feedback about your own contribution from time to time. Give each other positive feedback when warranted. If you have constructive criticism to make, do so privately not publicly.
• Ring the changes. Swap seats sit next to someone else. Change the venue from time to time. It is surprising how changes in a board’s ritualistic routine can improve its dynamic.

When the conversation and interactions are respectful, dynamic and challenging in supportive ways to the executive team, a board can truly work together to the benefit of the organisation.