Engender a culture of agility and adaptability A good place to start to ensure board effectiveness is for the chair to foster a culture of agility and adaptability on the board and throughout the organisation. Achieving this requires the chair to promote an entrepreneurial spirit both on the board, and beyond (with the help of the board), to the management and thewider workforce. This releases the potential of directors and employees to provide new ideas to help take the business forward. It also requires that boards engender curiosity and fearlessness to inspire creativity, innovation and continuous improvement. To accomplish this boards must lead by example in demonstrating diversity of thought and ideas in the boardroom, as this will give confidence to the rest of the business to follow suit. However, it’s important to realise that it’s only those boards that are themselves diverse which will have true diversity of thought. Focus on board diversity while engendering a culture of inclusion It’s widely understood that diverse boards are more effective than those that aren’t. Therefore, chairmen need to consider whether the current compositionof their board is the right one to take the organisation forward. To do this they should look at the board through the prism of the five drivers of diversity - demographics, skills, experience, thinking styles and circles of influence - and consider how well the current lineup matches up. Diversity without inclusion is an illusion. Therefore, a key task of the chairman must be to enable the culture on the board to be one of inclusion to gain the benefit of the different perspectives brought to decision-making by a diverse board. Understand cash is king It may seem obvious that cash flow is the lifeblood of business. However, distractions during volatile times can take the mind of the board off this important focus. The chair needs to ensure directors are clear on understating the diversity of financial performance at the organisation and keep a keen interest in the cash flow. It’s all about the people/talent The great work re-evaluation that has occurred in the wake of the pandemic has seen people rethink their relationship with their work and career, along with other aspects of their life. This has resulted in a shortage of talented directors and staff members who give an organisation its competitive edge. To help reduce turnover, the chair needs to have effective relationships with those on the board. This means they must have emotional intelligence, so are empathetic and have self-awareness when communicating; enabling them to build engagement, generate trust, respect, and provide leadership. This will help nurture a board culture of psychological safety, something that allows bad news to travel to the board faster than good, empowers directors to have the courage to constructively challenge, and is one where it is fine not to have all the answers, particularly during these uncertain times. The chairman must also ensure succession planning takes place on the board for the CEO and directors at least once a year. Only then is it possible to deliver a smooth transition in the leadership of the organisation with minimal disruption and business continuity. It’s something that’s even more important during volatile times. Understand the board’s vital role in cybersecurity The acceleration of digitisation in the ‘new normal’, the spike in
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk3Mzkz