RAISING THE BAR
Beat Board Boredom!By Sam Wolgemuth
Leadership tips for your board chair.
Is it difficult to get your members to come to board meetings? Are you quorum challenged? In spite of their excuses, the reason is usually simple. They’re bored. They won’t tell you that. In fact, they may not even realize it. But that’s the reason. Your board members are voting with their feet.
Whose fault is that? If you are the chair, look in the mirror. Boring meetings are your fault. And you can fix them.
Are you doing the Master’s business? God’s work is never boring: scary, exciting, difficult, exhilarating, controversial, but not boring. If it is boring, God’s Spirit is being ignored.
The antidote is simple and obvious—no boring meetings! (Easy to say, but maybe not so easy to do.) Here are some ideas to bring excitement back into the boardroom:
- Put the hot issues in the sweet spots of agendas. Bring in the hot issues when group energy is highest. Hot issues generally revolve around three critical questions: Where are we going? Do we have the right CEO to take us there? What do we do about the critical things that could derail us?
- Focus the board’s energy when you lead the meeting.
- Comfort your people. They need sufficient personal space, and must be able to see each other. Crowding and blind spots make it difficult. Except for the CEO, exclude non-members from the boardroom most of the time.
- Be the clock cop. Honor the members’ time. It’s their most valuable gift to you. Show that you mean business about it. Start and end on time. Announce break durations and enforce them. When you cannot do justice to the issues without running over, give members fair warning and ask for permission. Be a clock-watcher. If you don’t, everyone else will.
- Be the judge. You must decide what is board business and what is not. It’s your job to stop a discussion and ask, "Is this our business?” You make the call. Vet everything on the agenda before the meeting. Don’t have a "new business” agenda item. Communicate that all last minute items must be cleared with you before the meeting starts or, if necessary, during a break.
- Illuminate and simplify. Listen to what’s going on with the ears of your newest member. Did someone just use an acronym? Stop and spell it out. Was that a confusing statement? Ask for clarification. Personalize it, "That wasn’t clear to me.” Some members are hearing-challenged. Ask speakers to speak up.
Demand attention. Do it kindly, but insistently. Allow only one conversation at a time. Simply stopping the main discussion will send the message. Operate device-free. When a member yields to the temptation of quickly glancing at a smartphone or computer, it sucks attention out of the room and away from the subject at hand. Get an agreement on devices: only for emergencies, and once you have left the room.- Keep it moving. Don’t let anyone drone on—even the CEO (especially the CEO). Interrupt with a question. Make a clarifying comment. Elicit comments from quieter members. Know how long a report is going to take. Allow the time and stick to it.
- Be decisive. "What do we need to do about this?” is a good way to frame a conclusion. Create an "actions items’’ list with who and when after every meeting so that agreed follow-up happens.
- Go for consensus. Differences of opinion are good. They lead to learning and better decision-making. But unresolved and hurtful differences can be an open sore on the board’s body. "What can we do to resolve this?” is a good question to ask.
- Praise good results. Have you just had a spirited discussion that led to resolution? Thank them. When a contentious issue is resolved with openness and mutuality, note it with praise.
- Pray when prompted. Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. When it crosses your mind to pray, that’s the time to do it. Call on members to pray. Perhaps someone has just given a sobering report. Pray. Celebrating good news? Pray. You have just given the CEO an annual evaluation—lay hands on him and pray.
- Finally, be humble. Take your role seriously, but not yourself. You set the tone. Be intentional but light. Show humor. Smile. Laugh. Enjoy one another.
Sam Wolgemuth is interim CEO of World Relief Corporation. He chairs the board of Youth for Christ International and is past chair of World Relief. He is an active board development consultant.
Wolgemuth will co-lead workshops on "Engaging Women as Executives and Board Members” and "Leveraging Technology for Better Boards” during the 2011 Christian Leadership Alliance National Conference in Dallas, April 26-28 (
claconference.org).
