A timely article from our friends at the AICD, and we thought we would take the time to summarise it for those who don’t have a long commute or have a quiet 10 minutes to read it. As firm believers in the necessity to ensure your Board is effectively governed, this means starting at the top, with your Chair. Below is a short summary of the article:
- The role of the Chair, and their ability to lead, is absolutely essential now, and they must be skilled and ready to adapt to all sorts of challenges
- Instead of turning issues into crises, inspire confidence
- Being a Chair is not easy and meeting remotely can make it harder, however a good Chair will be able to find solutions to manage this
- Important skills for Chairs to have both pre/post Corona
- Interpersonal skills, and the ability to engage all Board members
- Business acumen coupled with appropriate conflict resolution capability
- An appropriate sense of humour
- They MUST understand and be able to use tech e.g. Zoom. This will make things easier when everyone is apart and will set a strong example to the Board
- Be prepared for online meetings and make sure Board members are prepared too
- Make sure that all members can speak/offer their opinion – it can be hard to catch the nuances of a conversation online
- Personal qualities of an effective Chair include:
- Diplomatically holds themself and others accountable, and knows their limitations
- Is open-minded, engaging, transparent
- Has patience and empathy with others facing challenges and change
- Effectively chairing a meeting involves the 3 Ps:
- Purpose – demonstrate the organisation’s purpose
- Preparation – essential for the Chair to prepare before the meeting
- People – achieve consensus with fellow Directors
- After the meeting invite feedback on how it was run online/differently to usual
- Make sure Chair works closely with CEO as necessary
View the full article.
