The pandemic has presented some tough challenges to boards in their eternal quest to support but also prod management in pursuit of the best possible organizational future. Margaret Mulligan, who serves on the boards of Canadian Western Bank and mining company New Gold, told a recent panel discussion that the same factors distinguish a good board from a great board in normal and crisis times but it takes a crisis to know if you actually have a great board.
Often when the topic of boards is raised we instinctively think about big corporations, but most organizations have boards and our own experience in that sphere is more likely to come from serving on a community or social agency board, or advisory committee for a friend’s nascent business. We agree to serve, expecting meetings to be important and exciting, but instead, we too often find the agenda is like a Swanson TV dinner – functional but stale, as long-time director Brian Hayward puts it in his book The Great Chair.
Columbia Business School professor Rita Gunther McGrath says board members are positioned on the edge of the company and need to figure out how to gain unfiltered information, particularly if the management team is not keen for outsiders to be sniffing about. She suggests you join a task force to learn more and ask revealing questions in and out of meetings. She also urges you to make sure your organization’s leaders have time to think in these tumultuous times.
With so much uncertainty, boards need a strategic focus. That might be centred on customers, technologies, purpose and mission, or even joyful purpose. “Do you know where your company is investing its resources? Most of the time, the answer is, not really,” she writes in her e-mail newsletter. Often organizations are loaded with what she calls “zombie projects,” things that once had a senior champion who is no longer there or revolve around ideas that seemed good at the time but didn’t pan out.
INSEAD’s Stanislav Shekshnia, who leads one of that university’s board development programs, set out seven governance questions at the start of the pandemic that still ring true as we edge toward the end of the first COVID-19 year: Is our executive leadership adequate? Does management have the right mandate? Are we supporting management effectively? Are we providing stakeholders with the information they need? Are we operating in the most effective way? Are we preparing for the post-pandemic future? Are we taking care of ourselves?
Rob Wood, who heads a Kingston consultancy I am affiliated with that works with small- and mid-size organizations in the municipal, university, hospital and social services space, has found them struggling with the need for new structures. “Some boards and CEOs are finding their old committee systems aren’t nimble enough for today’s environment – and perhaps they weren’t all that effective in the past, but no one noticed,” he says. Some are moving to ad hoc teams struck for specific purposes. Others are moving to broader forums, having “everyone in the room” to explore uncharted territory or build consensus behind new directions. He also argues it’s critical for boards to confront their own need for learning: With so many parameters changing during the pandemic, board members – in a time of increased risk – are discovering they don’t know as much about the organization as they thought.
Given the rapidly emerging challenges and opportunities companies have navigated over this year, RHR International consultants suggest directors ask themselves: What value did the company need our board to contribute and how well did we deliver it? In addition to good governance, what did we bring to the organization that significantly helped? What could we have done differently that would have brought even greater, more relevant, or timelier impact? Jeff Kirschner, Deborah Rubin, and Paul Winum also recommend this added check: What did the pandemic teach us about our company’s strategy, business model, capital structure, and supply-chain dependencies? What are the implications for the future? Given what we know about our company, the business environment, and the market trends, what do we need to accelerate or revise in terms of major decisions or actions we had been considering? How do we ensure ongoing alignment within the board and with the senior team?
Those are all big, weighty, complicated and potentially explosive issues. Mr. Hayward views board meetings as multiparty negotiations since the members will arrive with different perspectives on the meatier elements of the agenda. The board chair, of course, is the all-important mediator.
Bad directors can muck up the works. He offers a “Wheel of Misfortune,” listing seven types of woeful directors, starting with the unqualified member who is clueless and the lazy soul whose heart isn’t into it. Sometimes the board might include an icon, serving because they have celebrity or tenure. The stand-in is most frequently found on representative boards, silent until something critical to their constituency arises; a similar pattern is seen from the expert, who appointed for their professional background and usually sits quietly until a matter touches on their expertise. The holdout is intractable, not engaging in conversation or exploring interests but just repeating their traditional opinions. The seventh on his wheel is the worst: The bully director, who badgers and humiliates others.
Thinking of your own board, those categories might help you to understand why some members have been unhelpful. The issues boards are facing these days are difficult enough without such hindrances.
Cannonballs
- James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, has been starting his days by writing “What do I actually want?” on the top of a blank page. Each day, his answer becomes more precise. When he nails it, he turns it into an action plan.
- Over the years there have been calls for more men to mentor women and help them push past the barriers they face but University of Michigan Professor Cindy Schipani suggests instead the focus should be on more women executives mentoring men.
- An African proverb says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
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Harvey Schachter