A recent board survey recently revealed that almost half of company directors in the US and UK think their boards do not add enough value.
Coming from Board Intelligence, Europe’s largest board technology and advisory firm, this is ‘interesting.’
Some of the problem has to do with the inputs the boards receive.
Today, I’ll unpack that and offer some remediations.
Boards worry they don’t add enough value
With a large percentage of the 200 US and UK director responses indicating that their boards do not add enough value, we have work to do!
In digging into the detail some more, it seems those presenting to boards can help improve the quality of decision making. Here are some thoughts.
Firstly, some facts to put the degree of the problem in perspective: it’s big.
Almost half (46%) of US and UK company directors think their boards do not add enough value to the organisation.
Almost a third (31%) said their board adds no value at all.
This is a significant problem, given these people have great wisdom to share and would prefer to feel useful.
Secondly, some ideas to help you set your board up to add more value.
- Take the time to think deeply about what you need from the Board (or SLT), rather than offering a knee-jerk response to requests.
- Put updates in context, and rather than offering long lists of things you have done, focus on two things: what value your activities have delivered against the strategy, and how the board can help you add even more.
- Be disciplined in how you allocate your spending. One of the big concerns the survey raised was that 29% of directors were concerned about spending allocation.
- Articulate why each aspect of your strategy will add value, not just an overarching goal. Defend why each and every item is the right thing to do. This will give them greater confidence, particularly when discussing complex areas such as technology and digitisation. Thirty-two percent of directors felt ill-informed about digitisation and technology strategies.
Board members typically bring a wealth of insight and intelligence. It’s a shame not to set them up to drive performance and your organisation’s success.
I hope that helps. More soon.
Davina
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ABOUT AUTHOR: DAVINA STANLEY
I love what I do.
I help senior leaders and their teams prepare high-quality papers and presentations in a fraction of the time.
This involves 'nailing' the message that will quickly engage decision makers in the required outcome.
I leverage 25+ years' experience including
- learning structured thinking techniques at McKinsey in Hong Kong in the mid 1990s before coaching and training their teams globally as a freelancer for a further 15 years
- being approved to teach the Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto in 2009
- helping CEOs, C-suite leaders and their reports deeply understand their stakeholder needs and communicate accordingly
- seeing leaders cut the number of times they review major papers by ~30% and teams cut the amount of time they take to prepare major papers by ~20%*
- watching senior meetings focus on substantive discussions and better decisions rather than trying to clarify the issue
My approach helps anyone who needs to engage senior leaders and Boards.
Recent clients include 7Eleven, KPMG, Mercer, Meta, Woolworths.
Learn more at www.clarityfirstprogram.com
(*) Numbers are based on 2023 client benchmarking results.
