Stay Out Front of Your Board

A company that is large enough to have a full corporate board, or at a minimum an advisory board of sorts, also has an Owner/Operator or CEO that tends overlook the need to think out in front of board members who may ask that one big question that wasn’t anticipated - asked appropriately at a moment that it was least expected.

A good board member is going to do just that; not for the sake of being troublesome but for the sake of making sure that the operator is, indeed, having all of their answers questioned. The operator is accountable and should welcome such probing questions and yet, in my experience, many leaders live in a “vacuum of hope.” 

They hope the question that needs to be asked is not, or they haven’t bothered to take the time to think out front and honestly assess whatever weak link may exist in the performance, plan or objective being discussed

An exercise that my client CEOs are asked to complete is the “Five Questions - Either Way” below:

A.      Create 5 Questions you, as a board member, would ask a CEO that could be used to make sure all of her/his Answers were being Questioned;

1.)

2.)

3.)

4.)

5.)

B.      Create 5 questions you would not particularly want to be asked if you were the CEO.

1.)

2.)

3.)

4.)

5.)

How did you do? It wouldn’t hurt to keep this challenge out in front of you as a tool to prepare for every board meeting.

Board members are there for the purpose you’ve asked them to participate in and they have a responsibility, should have the intellectual curiosity and the desire to assist you in making better decisions, with better results.

Jim Naleid is a Life-long Entrepreneur, Change-Agent and Thought Leader, Managing Director of Naleid & Associates and

Regional TEC (“The Executive Committee”) Chair leading a group of executives to become Better Leaders, Making Better Decisions with Better Results. http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimnaleid