Effective Board Meetings: How To Run Effective, Efficient Meetings
Your organization depends on the board members to relay important information to the internal teams and ensure that everyone is focused on achieving overall goals. Unproductive or ineffective board meetings can lead to a decrease in productivity and an absence of communication with management.
Understanding the role of each member and the different ways of discussion within your board is essential for creating productive meetings. For instance, certain members may be more vocal and prone to speak first, whereas others will think before speaking. The chair of the board, executive director, or CEO should be spending time outside of the boardroom to get familiar with each individual’s interests, discussion styles and preferences, so that they can help in promoting engagement.
In the initial session of your board meeting, ensure that there is a majority (a minimum number needed to legally conduct any business). Then, ask the chair to summarize highlights from the board’s agenda and pre-meeting calls, and set expectations for buildingbettertrustboards.org the rest of the meeting.
The board meeting should be focused on discussing ways to overcome roadblocks and strategies to encourage progress. This is when the board is able to bring in fresh perspectives to encourage innovative thinking and support growth. It’s ideal for your board to have an agenda item dedicated to legal and compliance matters. This will ensure that they are in compliance with all laws regulations, ethics and standards.
