Are your Board meetings painful? Do you struggle with:
- Reaching a quorum?
- Having your Board members come prepared?
- Your Board continually putting off making decisions?
It does not have to be that way.
Successful Board meetings have everyone well-prepared, clear of their role and provided an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution. As the Executive Director, you can create this environment.
With planning and attention to your presentation, your Board meetings can be a time when members feel engaged and strategic decisions get made.
There are four elements to successful Board of Directors meetings where everyone feels it is a productive use of their time.
1. Prepared Board Committees
Board committees should be active in between full Board meetings. The Committee work involves working on projects and preparing recommendations for Board action.
The Executive Director needs to check in with each Board Committee to make sure they have meaningful contributions for each Board meeting. Checking in with Committee chairs for progress reports proactively keeps everyone on task and ensures the Board meeting has action items to address.
2. Set Meeting Goals with Your Board Chair
It is crucial to meet with the Board chair prior to all Board meetings to jointly develop meeting goals and outcomes.
No one wants to meet just to meet, time is too precious. The Executive Director and Board chair need a clear plan about what needs to be accomplished at the Board meeting.
Planning the Board meeting requires jointly identifying the decisions to be made and the information needed for informed deliberation. Focusing on outcomes is an effective strategy to make sure the Board meetings are successful. This is a powerful way to keep your Board Chair updated on Committee progress and where they may need to intervene to move projects along.
3. Create a Targeted Meeting Agenda
Develop an agenda with your Board Chair that prioritizes discussion and decision-making. You want to create an environment which prompts Board members to interact. Do not bog down the agenda with information Board members can read on their own. Quarterly budget reports and other updates requiring no action can be provided in preparatory material allowing the meeting to be devoted to discussion and action.
Experiment with building an agenda with only items that lead to discussion and decision-making.
A decision-based agenda creates a norm for Board members to take responsibility for reading the material and being ready to ask questions or raise concerns. This creates the expectation that the Board is participatory and active.
Engaged Board members are passionate about your organization’s mission. Their commitment is deepened by exposing them to the organization’s work in an impactful way. At the Board meetings highlight a case study or share a video of your latest social media campaign or have a partner organization present on a joint initiative. Highlighting agency work is also allows you to expose the Board to key agency staff.
4. Deliver a Compelling Executive Director Report
Your Executive Director’s report should inspire spirited Board discussion about agency accomplishments and challenges. Instead of simply repeating data, use the report to stimulate discussion on trends, challenges, and organizational direction.
Your Executive Director report is a way to educate the Board of agency issues and future trends based on your perspective and knowledge of the philanthropic, political, and service landscape.
How often have you made a fancy PowerPoint presentation only to conclude your report to total silence on the part of the Board? Your presentation may not answer the questions they have, or they did not understand the data you provide.
Guide your Board in identifying key data points they want to be informed of on a monthly or quarterly basis-. Develop a data dashboard to capture key metrics regularly and explain the broader context behind the data.
This approach allows you to educate the Board on the complex factors that influence your daily work.
These four steps will elevate the quality and quantity of discussion at Board meetings and help keep your members engaged.
If you need some support in amping up your Board agenda, schedule a 90-minute strategy session guaranteed to improve the energy-level of your Board meetings.