COMEX & Board Member is (really) a full time job

As a professional and then an Executive coach, I am having for 10y the privilege to be in contact with COMEX and Board members during Executive rituals.?

Here are the 13 best practices I noticed with top performers we support

1. They understand that the more we are, the more decisions are difficult to make. Having the capacity and the humility to step-out to serve the collective purpose is in some cases highly valuable.

2. When decisions seem too risky on the long term, they developed their capacity to find short terms alternative solutions to meet their objectives and decide instead of postponing

3. In environment where “collaboration & consensus” are the standards, they accept sometimes to (respectfully) assume another posture to serve the collective objective

4. The capacity to formalize a clear recommendation covering risks & opportunity assessment by reliable information is a key success factor

5. They invest time personally to get trained on all topics outside their area of competence in order to be relevant during the debates

6. When an information is not available to decide (ex: survey result, NPS, etc), they make decisions based on theoretical thresholds so that they move fast when info is clarified

7. They never finger-point peers during the sessions or debates as the co-ownership is the rule in those meetings

8. They formalise disagreement to respect each and everyone in his/her role without blocking the collective process

9. They measure how to move faster on less strategic topics by reversing the decision : “I propose…. Does anyone disagree?” They also know how to react if the method is not adapted to the stakes they perceive on others’ topics

10. They measure that the minutes are NOT an administrative task and that, often, the worlds which will remain counts more than the discussions. Top ones comes with wording proposals.

11. They never apologize to be a new joiner as it would be the best way to create 2 “leagues” which might become a trap for them on the long term

12. When there is a non-executive member, they pay attention to who brought the person in and make sure mandates are clear

13. They mainly ask Yes/No questions. When it’s not possible, they always come with a proposal of answer.

Executive meeting is a very complex exercise which is quite often underestimated by the rest of the world as, from the outside, it looks like just “another boss’ meeting”

I often measure that getting trained and coached to assimilate the right codes can really make the difference.

- Romain -

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