Strategies for Optimizing Board Meetings

The administrative profession holds both routine and unexpected demands throughout each day. Due to each role being unique, much like your thumbprint, no manual makes it black and white or a no-brainer. However, having transitioned from the profession myself, turned into a specialized headhunter, I’ve been blessed with thousands of hours of 1:1 interactions with admins living this profession daily. They've shared with me remedies, ideas, and hilarious moments which could help others transition from the “Island” in which we feel and see ourselves living to a place of community.

As I craft this motivation piece, I hope you discover applicable takeaways to excel with this special demand, Board Meetings.

If handling Board of Directors (“BOD”) activities is on your plate, then this article is for you. Protocols and governance are likely in place, so this piece was designed to elevate the current bar of performance to achieve additional success. When you know your goals, you are better equipped to support such demands. 

This article is a joint effort. I leveraged a LinkedIn post to gain insight from fellow admins. This piece is likely to grow over time with others sharing insight after reading. You can email your thoughts to the office; thanks for contributing.  

 Find here things to consider when handling your BOD responsibilities.

Board Meeting Engagement

A top thing to remember is - strong, consistent engagement produces a great outcome. High engagement can be achieved when thorough communication and extra care are applied. 

How to achieve this:

1. Compile information to create a Dossier for each member.

   1. Leverage a digital outlet, i.e., a fillable form, to support the end-user by providing the necessary information. If you can leverage their EA to gain information, approach the ask as a double win - complete the demand and grow your network. Whatever it takes to gather detailed information it’s worth the extra effort.

2. Arrange a 15-minute, “Get to know you” call with each member. During the call ask the same list of questions to each member. When you're closing out your time together, share insight into the rhythm for each meeting and what to expect. See below.

3. Remember to learn each member's communication preference.

4. Create a Board binder/folder to keep materials readily available for quick access. Share with your executive(s) that this resource is available (#micdrop). Hospitality is key so check out this great article for extra inspiration on engagement. 

Elevating Board Meetings

Time and time again, I continue to observe that everyone has room for improvement. One area to level up is recognizing timing is everything. Remember, being a board member requires finding extra time on the calendar to get up to speed and prepare for the upcoming meeting. Commit to building procedures so you can build trust with each member. This information would be great to have for the closing part of your “Get to know you” call.

1. Send a heads-up email 2-weeks before the actual meeting. This email should outline when you’ll send your next correspondence and what will be included in that message. The subject line of this email should include “(read-only)” at the end so that they know there are no action items included. This increases engagement. Consider this article for elevating your written communication.

2. Sending an email with a ton of attachments puts the receiver in an overwhelmed state. Consider working with your IT team, or your Operations team, to create an online portal (i.e. private, shareable folder) for each member to access necessary materials. In this folder, create a READ FIRST document to walk them through the provided files.

3. Make sure every document includes a footer that provides necessary names, email addresses, and phone numbers so the board member(s) can quickly access people vs. having to look for details. If you use a digital platform (e.g. Google), open the commenting feature on specific documents to support getting feedback in advance of the meeting. Your READ FIRST document should provide quick instructions on how to leverage this feature (add screenshots).

Measuring success in Board Meetings

So many professionals approach a task head-on but are in the dark about what success truly looks like. It’s important to discover, by way of asking vs. assuming, “What does a successful meeting look like?”. While each meeting is essentially the same, different topics are addressed, certain people are absent, the meeting could move off track, etc. (we all know how this goes). Learning what success looks like offers a sense of fulfillment to all, including the members.

1. Making a list yourself of what you think success looks like following the next meeting and covering it with your executive(s) presents you with a chance to offer executive composure along with strategic value add. 

2. After collaborating over this list, create a checklist for yourself so that every time something on that list occurs and is successful, you have a track record for how that meeting unfolded and concluded.

3. Once the meeting is over, and within 2 days, consider sending a closing email to the board members. In this email, propose 3 (short) questions asking how they think the meeting went giving a score of 1 (poor) - 10 (seamless). Once you receive feedback, transfer the comments to your list. Decide when to debrief your executive(s) on the information learned. Show up to that meeting with a draft game plan on how to be stronger next time and what things you should repeat.

Launch Pad

1. Create high, strong and consistent engagement with thorough communication and applying extra care.

2. Remember that timing is everything so be sure to discover ways to build procedures that will help find extra time on the calendar. 

3. Learn what success looks like by asking. Take notes and make lists to collaborate with your executive(s) for the next meeting. 
   

For additional resources, my assistant took to the internet a widespread search for articles on this topic: 

Planning a Board Meeting 

Building a Better Board

How to run a start-up board meeting

How to run an effective board meeting

Best Practices for working with a Board of Directors

Building a Board of Directors

Lynda.com - do a general board of directors search; there’s a wealth of information

Want to get inside the head of leaders, be sure to check out this episode.