Leading an effective board room meeting as a key issue in the board management. How to inspire and motivate your board room members?
Boardroom meetings
Driving board engagement is a popular issue in the world of modern board management for a reason: it’s vital to maintain board efficiency, but it’s easier said than done.
Furthermore, inefficient board participation and communication are among the leading causes of board resignations.
In this piece, we’ll define strong board engagement and give you four techniques to engage and inspire board members that you can use in your own boardroom.
- It is advisable to schedule important meetings for a more productive time – the first half of the day. It is necessary to observe the measure – to avoid unscheduled meetings or hold them as rarely as possible, they break the rhythm of the work of managers, reduce the culture of service relations. The leader should not hold meetings only in his office, here the situation itself establishes inequality between the participants, subordinates are more constrained in these conditions. Meeting participants will work more efficiently if they know that the chairman takes into account and accepts their requirements.
- The same situation can be assessed differently by two different managers. As practice shows, such a decision can be effective, which is made not only by the head, but also by the performers themselves, taking into account the quality of this decision. When holding a meeting, it is important to take into account not only the interests of the organization, the meeting participants, but also the “details” of etiquette, which can develop into circumstances that seriously affect the outcome of the meeting. A manager will get a broader view of the problem and a greater number of ideas if, during the discussion, he first asks for the opinion of young managers, and the opinion of more experienced and senior employees will be addressed last. This approach allows you to give the initiative to young employees without fear of expressing ideas that do not coincide with the opinion of older ones, and also emphasizes respect for the experience and knowledge of experienced managers.
- It is important to take into account the interpersonal relations of the meeting participants. It is impossible to do without critical remarks about colleagues. It is important here that criticism be substantive and business-like, be constructive, not concern the individual and not be the result of any offense, perceived as well-deserved. If the relationship between managers is broken, then even the best arguments do not lead to a positive result. This situation is usually called the “iceberg model”: the surface part (10-20%) is occupied by the subject area, and the underwater part (80-90%) is the area of relationships. You should constantly remember the driving motives of the meeting participants, their personal interests, pride, self-esteem, and never, under any circumstances, offend, try to offend, do not treat with disdain, be polite and tactful, always, when possible, recognize the correctness of your colleagues. It is unacceptable to use offensive statements, various barbs in relation to all participants in the meeting, to interpret the words of another participant in one’s own way or to attribute thoughts that they have not expressed to others, to avoid direct instructions. The more completely in relations with people the chairman relies on positive means, the less unnecessary situations are created and the greater the effect.
- Usually, information is distorted during transmission. A serious barrier to the promotion of information is bureaucracy, differences in the goals and needs of departments that act as a kind of filter, delaying information or making adjustments to it. In addition, people often do not say what they think and what they really want. The effectiveness of communication increases if the decisions are specific and clearly formulated in the protocol, this increases responsibility.