Whether you’re a large corporation or a local non-profit, it’s important for your board to periodically evaluate its mission and establish consistency in goals and objectives. A board assessment provides a strategic opportunity for organizations to better evaluate and understand the functioning board and confirm that individual director competencies are aligned with the organization’s priorities and the concerns of its stakeholders.
An effective board assessment helps yield reliable information for decision-making, better communication with key stakeholders, and improved board governance. Beyond assessing the board and its members, the process also helps evaluate their effectiveness in managing their responsibilities over the organization’s strategies, enterprise risk management, ethical values, compliance, accountability, monitoring, and IT governance.
Benefits of a Thoughtful Board Assessment
While there is no one-size-fits-all equation for conducting a board assessment, there are common factors and goals that an assessment should accomplish.
Improving and strengthening
- Clarity on the roles of the directors and the board as a whole to avoid unnecessary conflicts and accelerate the decision-making process.
- The organization’s governance and transparency between the organization and its stakeholders.
- An understanding of the organization’s operations, customer experience, resources, and people management practices as it evolves.
Identifying gaps
- In knowledge and expertise related to rapid technological changes, cyber security, digital media privacy, and other associated risks and opportunities for the organization.
- In the enterprise risk assessment process, ensure the board clearly understands the organization’s risk appetite and the monitoring of unknown or unanticipated vulnerabilities.
Cultivating
- A deeper understanding of the industry, the sectors within the industry and competitive threats locally and globally.
- Trust among board members to address mistakes and poor decisions and to candidly discuss and resolve them as they occur.
- Board member’s commitment to the success of the team and mission.
- An understanding of the value each member adds to the collective board while seeking advice from each other.
Conducting Your Board Assessment
Every board will have a slightly different approach to assessing its effectiveness, and oftentimes independent consultants are brought in to help facilitate the process. If you have questions about board assessment or want to learn more about how we can help you, contact us.