Making the Most Out of Your Board of Directors

What you get out of your board meetings depends on how much effort you put into it. 

That’s the gist of the latest CoLab Connect event featuring David Cautin and Rick Hartwig, General Partners from Enjoy The Work, a San Francisco-based startup advisory firm based for founders. Aptly titled Board Management 101, David and Rick explained what a board actually does, the role of the CEO and some helpful advice to keep meetings running smoothly and efficiently. 

You’ll be spending years with these board members, so knowing how to stay in control, manage conversations and set boundaries are some of the best things you can do, David and Rick say. And luckily, the principles of company building — with some exceptions for certain industries like pharma — are mostly the same. 

“While there’s a lot of resources that you manage as a CEO, your time is clearly one of the most important,” said Rick. 

Ideally, your board meetings will be problem-solving sessions with people who have the experience and knowledge to help you with your strategy. They’ll also give you a chance to look at your business from another perspective.

Here are some key insights from the event. 

What does the board actually do?

First, David and Rick explained the differences between the board and management team—they’re part of the same team but play different roles, said Rick. 

Parts of the board’s job include: 

• Confirming and voting on strategy
• Approving annual budget plans
• Making key compensation decisions 
• Making material legal issues known to the CEO
• Overseeing the termination of the CEO, if necessary

The management team, meanwhile, is responsible for taking all of these items that are agreed upon with the board and executing on them. David suggests bringing the management team into board meetings so both sides get insight into the other’s perspective. 

“I think it’s important for the board to get exposure to and really see the depth and breadth of talent at the company,” Dave said. “[And] I think it’s helpful for the CEO just to have more arms and legs to pull together the materials for a meeting.”

The board’s jobs can seem intimidating, but CEOs need to make sure that both teams are playing to their strengths and working together. To do that, they need to be in control.

It’s the CEO’s job to set the agenda 

Being prepared for a meeting can make a good impression on your board, who will see it as a proxy for how you run your company; if you’re well-prepared during the meeting, they’ll see you as well-prepared in your role.

Some of their top tips for board meeting preparation:

1. Set a clear agenda to make the best use of everyone’s time

As part of this, board materials should be sent out a week in advance, ideally, or at least two days before the meeting. CEOs can create templates to automate this process over time for data like KPIs, and David and Rick advise including a cover letter as part of these materials.

The cover letter should help set the context for a director who may have been out of the loop in the last 90 days, Rick said. It should be a few paragraphs that cover the theme of the meeting, what you’re excited about and how you’re addressing challenges with the business. 

2. Have a point of view

It can be tempting to just share a report and data, but having a point of view on data with an action plan will be more effective. This way, you have specific things to discuss and you can create action items that you can follow through on. 

“Those are the foundations of what would start to be a good board relationship and that makes these quarterly meetings a lot more productive,” said Rick.

Get your board to work with, and for you

Your board can do more than just give advice — they can do work. “Your boards can help you with sales and they can help you leverage their networks to get you in the door,” David said. You can make this process easy for them, like creating an introductory paragraph that they can drop into an email, for example. 

If there are action items that come up during the meeting, ensure that you’re assigning them to someone with a due date and owner, and keep everyone accountable to those deadlines. 

Follow up on deadlines privately ahead of the next board meeting, so no one is caught unprepared.

Be transparent

“Don’t be afraid if things aren’t working 100% like you thought they would,” said Rick.  “If you only show them [the board] the things that are working and then they’re going to start to probe and they won’t trust you anymore.”

You should be transparent about challenges during meetings, and if you’re communicating challenges, provide solutions alongside them. Board members know that running a business is difficult and want to help, but it’s important for CEOs to own this narrative to convince the board to help you. 

Another way to encourage open dialogue in the boardroom is to have some time set aside for board members to meet without you in the room. Called executive sessions, these meetings without any observers from your company allow board members to speak privately about you regarding things they don’t think are productive to have you in the room for. 

“A lot of times it’s not a big deal,” said Rick, and if needed, you should have some champions in the room who will defend you and give you feedback after the session on what was said. 

Even if you’re not in the room, doing this still gives you some control over the conversation as a CEO. “It helps you create that forum and once you know where that forum exists, it gives you the opportunity to manage and grow from that,” said David.

Overall, there should be no surprises in the boardroom, and preparation is key to helping you feel confident in your story and getting your board members on your side. 

This event series is part of Georgian’s CoLab, our collaborative pre-investment program for early-stage startups. If you’re interested in attending future CoLab Connect events or learning more about CoLab, contact Conor Ross.