BoardPro Podcasts

As a board member of an SME or Nonprofit, preparing for the upcoming board meeting, you have lots of information to review and want to get to the important stuff quickly! You don’t want to be nine pages in and still wondering if the new marketing program is delivering results. Nor do you want to be forced to search old minutes for the performance targets you agreed to. Unfortunately, with poorly s...

The meeting is where governance actually happens. Only the board as a group can make decisions. Sadly too often the precious time is poorly spent, focussing on things that have already happened or reviewing management busyness. The board’s role is to create the future not mind the shop and in the meeting is where that happens. We look at how to structure your meeting and your years work to ensure...

We have already noted that the board’s job is a thinking one. As a group and as individuals the board must be committed to learning. The board needs skills of active and purposeful inquiry. The best directors maintain open minds on issues always searching for new information. None of this happens by accident. To mold the board into a genuine learning entity needs effort and some planning. Here we...

Too often boards leave planning to management, rubber stamping what comes back. Only the board can decide the purpose of the organisation and what it is to achieve. In this second session, we discuss the board’s role in outlining the top lines of planning.

Board work is thinking work. Too many boards get stuck in oversight mode and reacting to what comes before them. The engaged board is in constant strategic mode, checking that resources are being used in an optimal way. Also, understanding and reacting to the changing world. Here we look at how that happens.

A board is generally physically present less than 1% of the time but with full responsibility 100% of the time. It needs to be comfortable that for the vast majority of the time is not in session the organisation is well run and pointed in the right direction. The connection to the chief executive is the primary mechanism for ensuring that all is as it should be. Here we look at how that happens.

We start by looking at what governance is and isn’t. The board as a subset of the owners has a separate and distinct role that needs to be made clear, understood and adhered to by directors and management alike. In this first session, we explore some of the key principles that define governance.