Etiquette Underpins Cohesive And Collegial Board Meetings
The AGM season is over and now it’s time to agree on how your board will work in the year ahead. Discover a few etiquette examples that underpin cohesive and collegial meetings.
Directors don’t have to be best buddies to work productively and effectively together. You can agree to disagree and have robust debates all the while having the best interests of the organisation in mind when making decisions.
But there are some irksome little behaviours that can upset the balance.
So what better time than now, the first or second meeting after the AGM, to agree on some fundamentals whether meeting in person or online.
For just-elected directors it’s a helpful guide, an induction add-on, as to what to expect from colleagues, too.
🔹 Agree with the CEO the number of days before the meeting that papers be delivered – the night before or the morning of is not preferred
🔹 Read papers before the meeting not at it – would seem to be a given but …
🔹 One person speaks at a time – just being polite
🔹 Contributions are expected from everyone though not on every topic of course – no director is there to keep a seat warm for his or her successor
🔹 Stick to the agenda and avoid extraneous chat – restructure the agenda if it isn’t working as it should
🔹 Arrive before the meeting – a few minutes late doesn’t cut it
🔹 Help the chair run the meeting to time by not waffling on – no one enjoys meetings that regularly run over the advertised and agreed time
🔹 Apologise in advance to chair and CEO – not a few minutes before unless catastrophe strikes
🔹 Don’t send emails and/or play games on your devices – it’s a meeting people
🔹 Keep screens on – no one hides under the table or behind the door in face-to-face meetings
🔹 Desist from using chat – it’s as unhelpful and distracting as side whispers IRL and make it tricky for the chair to chair and for the minute taker to record what needs to be recorded
🔹 Keep confidential what’s discussed and agreed – use talking points to contain and delimit what directors can say publicly
🔹 Declare interests as and when they arise during discussion – the board will decide if there’s a conflict
🔹 Keep words and body language as neutral as possible even if you disagree – being on a board isn’t anyone’s stage
As always this is a non-exhaustive list. I hope you found these tips helpful.
Parking the Passion to Manage Meeting Time, and Other Revelations
Conversations, Questions and New Ideas: the Hallmarks of a great Governance Workshop
Let me pose a question: is there a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than in an airport hotel meeting room largely bereft of any feature, aircon that hardly keeps up and windows onto nothing much, than doing a board governance workshop?
The resounding answer in my humble opinion is a big fat No!
And so it was that that very thing occurred. The board of Australian Taekwondo, and several state association directors and others, were duly ensconced to be informed, entertained and enthralled by all things how to be better boards and directors (my words and I hope theirs, too).
We traversed a wide range of topics from director duties (which no one ever talks about, yet everyone is expected to know), to compliance obligations (often consigned exclusively to management) to the roles of the chair and CEO, and where committees fit, or not, into the picture of the effective functioning of the business.
Minutes and board papers got a run because meetings are where the rubber hits the road. How not to “lose” circular resolution votes was considered as was the frequency and purpose of in camera sessions and the value of talking points to maintain confidentiality. Lots of practical stuff.
And we debated the elements of etiquette to which directors ought to agree and adhere on an annual basis. As simple as turning up having read the board papers. Then there’s screens on in online meetings: after all no one hides under the table or behind a door in face-to-face ones. And of course, the courtesy deficit of using chat: may as well be having that annoying side whisper, not to mention what the minute taker is supposed to do.
It’s true to say that governance knowledge trickles from no one to nowhere, that “we’ve always done it this way” is the default of those who think they know it all/have nothing to learn, and that for those who are new to boards osmosis will save the day.
Workshops such as this one are a great opportunity to get that revelatory a-ha moment, to exchange ideas, learn a new way to approach an old problem and to reset and refresh for directors both old and new.
Thanks for having me Australian Taekwondo.
Contact me if you’d like to tee up a chat about a workshop reset and refresh, or a topic-specific seminar, for your board.