Check psychological safety at least once a year
"As a member of this board, do you feel able, safe to say what you really feel in the room, or are you in some way self-censoring? And when did you last do it, and what happened?" (38:33)
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How chairs get the most out of their boards
Ideas from the Enter the Boardroom podcast, hosted by Nurole CEO Oliver Cummings
Speak for less than ten per cent of the meeting
"If you're a good chair, you don't speak for more than ten per cent of the time. And very often chairs speak for more than thirty per cent of the time." (26:19)
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Make sure everyone feels, they’ve said their piece
"As long as you allowed people to say exactly what they thought for as long as they needed to, and then you brought it back into comment and debate... gradually it turned around and we ended up making the right decision." (09:11)
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Delay the CEO debrief
"For the chair, it's very important to do that debrief, but not at the end of the board. A few days later, to reflect on what happened in the board, what worked well, what do we need to deep dive more into? Did we have enough of a strategic conversation?" (22:04)
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Do the hard things first
"I'd rather have the big decisions at the beginning ... People get tired in board meetings, and I want them when they're fresh. We can do the routine paperwork towards the end, but I want to have the most important stuff right at the top when people are fresh and they're open and we get the full benefit of their attention." (07:09)
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Write a board charter and cross-reference it in every meeting
"We have a board charter, which is linked to the values of Yorkshire Building Society and specially designed by the board and the ExCo as to how we want to turn up in the boardroom. We have it out every board meeting and we assess ourselves against it every board meeting, and we don't always live by it, but it's there." (42:31)
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Adapt to the CEO, not vice versa
"One of the key roles of a chair is to have a chameleon-like quality where you fit yourself to the personality of the CEO, and it is not for the CEO to fit themselves to the chair's person." (10:00)
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Further listening
Episode 159 – Sir Ian Cheshire: How to be a high-impact board member (2/2) – Listen
Episode 150 – Sir Douglas Flint CBE: Chairing listed companies - lessons from the BP Macondo crisis, HSBC and the abrdn rebrand – Listen
Episode 146 – Dame Marie Gabriel CBE: structuring board meetings, dancing in the boardroom, and taking risks - lessons from an NHS Chair – Listen
Episode 118 – Gerry Murphy, Tesco & Burberry Chair - How boards add strategic value – Listen
Episode 100 – Amy Edmondson: Psychological safety: how boards have the best conversations to make the best decisions - Listen