What stops board meetings being great?

Board-meetings are very important to the success of your business, but we’ve all experienced the horrible feeling of leaving the boardroom wondering what the hell went on during the last 60 minutes. 

So, what are the main causes of scratch heads and perplexed facial expressions? Let’s take a look. 

Mistake #1: Not holding people accountable 

Board-meetings are extremely important as they provide an opportunity for attendees to discuss things in a positive environment while also gaining the benefits of body language. After all, your poker face isn’t nearly as strong as you think it is, and human interactions allow team members to identify things they wouldn’t via telephone calls or emails.

While you should encourage a sense of freedom and give attendees the confidence to speak up, ignoring any sense of accountability would be a huge a mistake because individual members won’t push themselves to provide constructive insights. Worse still, others will use it as a way to focus on self-interest rather than the business. You probably know which team members will fall into this category before the meeting has even started...

Consequently, then, it’s imperative that people are held accountable. As the Business Leader, you must challenge needless negativity by asking individuals to elaborate on their points - just try not to smile too hard when you successfully shut down the negative nancy. Likewise, the minutes should set clear actionable items for all topics covered in the meeting. This ensures that individuals have to take responsibility by completing the set tasks in the set timeframes, ensuring they take accountability during and after the board-meeting.

Mistake #2: Allowing a free following agenda 

Time is of the essence during any board-meeting, which is why an agenda without structure simply won’t do. The problem with taking this route is that it enables team members to stray away from the main topics, meaning that you’ll spend less time on the important issues and more time on items that could have been discussed by email. Worse still, it could descend into a chat about the latest farcical VAR decision Regrettably, this will translate to unproductive meetings with inconclusive outcomes.

On the one hand, you want to give your team a little freedom. On the other hand, though, some members of the team simply don’t have the braincells or common sense needed to get through the board-meeting unless they have their hands held throughout. 

Instead, then, you should aim to set a clear agenda that confirms the goals of the meetings, the items to be discussed, and the time allocations for each topic. Send this in advance to receive confirmation from all attendees no later than 48 hours before the meeting. When the meeting starts, dedicate the opening to setting out the format of the board-meeting too. This way, you can drag even the worst member of your team to a positive outcome.

Mistake #3: Giving people an option for 'Any other Business' AOB 

Introducing the topic of AOB towards the end of a board-meeting is common practice and has happened in businesses across the globe, but that doesn’t make it right. After all, it’s hardly the first time older generations have followed poor practices (ahem, gender and race inequality amongst others).

Using AOB is a mistake because it can distract the team from the important issues that were discussed in previous meetings. Making the whole team suffer because one person can’t accept that the point they made two weeks ago was utter nonsense simply isn’t an option. The concept of Any Other Business additionally consumes more time and runs the risk of bringing workplace politics into play.

Instead, you should use your clear and concise agenda to keep things moving in the right direction while using post-meeting emails, group messaging, and private discussions to discuss AOBs. If any issues brought up seem that important, you can always include them in the agenda for your next board-meeting.

In most situations, though taking this approach will actively save time, money, and your sanity - nobody wants to discuss John’s tedious and ill thought out proposals for a new product that simply won’t work). In turn, this ensures that the board-meetings remain productive.

Now that you know the top 3 mistakes that Directors make and how to avoid them, I'd like to invite you to take your next success steps learn all about "Boardview" by clicking here