Avoiding Common Mistakes in Board Directors Meetings

A well-run board directors ‘ meeting allows your board to make informed and ethical decisions. The board must be able to review documents, have discussions and reach a consensus on complicated issues. The meeting must be documented properly, allowing for future reference and conformance. The process could be difficult to navigate but it is essential that the board makes the most of their time and resources.

Board work can be thrilling as well as exhausting at the same time. Avoid these common pitfalls to keep meetings productive.

1. Rehashing of discussion points from previous meetings

Reliving the discussions from the previous board meeting will take up time and distract you from the most important agenda items. Getting sidetracked by new discussion topics will also hinder you from achieving the objectives of the board’s meeting. If you must discuss the topic that was not originally on the agenda, make the group agree to move it to the conclusion of the meeting with the promise to reevaluate the issue and decide if the topic should be researched further or added to the following agenda or assigned as a task.

2. Information sharing is too much

Board members need to be well-informed, but the board package should be in a form that will encourage discussion and stimulate questions, and not function as an exhaustive summary of every bit of information available to the board’s review. It might sound like playing pre-school teacher, however it allows the board to focus on the most important decisions and ensures that they’re tackling these issues when their decision-making abilities are at their americanboardroom.com/how-to-run-a-board-meeting peak.