Not every one of my client engagements involves work with a board of directors, but enough do that I can safely say I’ve worked with a lot of boards and that’s allowed me to reach some conclusions regarding what separates those that truly lift up their organizations from those that drag them down.
Unfortunately, it could also take a book to spell out all these differences, along with recommendations for how to improve boards.
Nonetheless, someone challenged me to identify the most important attributes of a high-functioning board so they could know where to begin for improving their own board.
So without further ado, here’s my best effort.
High functioning boards do five things particularly well:
- They are efficient
- They are responsible
- They are financially supportive
- They are connected to the cause
- They are continually improving
An efficient board holds well-run board meetings that are actively facilitated and focus on essential topics, they use committees or task forces where appropriate between meetings, and board-staff relationships are managed in a way that doesn’t create additional, unnecessary time sinks.
A responsible board meets its legal, ethical and fiduciary responsibilities. Responsibility also means the board has a culture of accountability — if someone commits to a task, they do it.
Financially supportive means they donate themselves and they have some involvement in raising funds or securing revenue for the organization. Not everyone needs to be an asker, but everyone needs to somehow engage as an ambassador, steward, cultivator, or in some other way that either directly bring in dollars or helps someone else on the team bring in dollars.
They have some connection to the cause (that staff continually reinforces) so that their passion for the mission can help get past any inertia or fear that would otherwise block them from being effective board members.
Lastly, they are continually improving, meaning they are constantly asking relevant questions, such as: “What skills and attributes do we need to add to the board?” And: “What could we be doing better?”
There are, of course, many details underneath each of these. Books worth of details. And the process of taking a mediocre board to high-functioning can take multiple years. There is no silver bullet.
But, if you’re beginning the process of building or improving a board, I think reviewing the above with the board and asking them: “how are we doing?” is a good place to start.