The Savvy Director Blog

There are times when your CEO or Executive Director may approach the board with a specific request for direction on what to do about a high-risk situation.

When time is of the essence, a director’s view may be required immediately for input to the board’s discussion so that a consensus can be reached quickly, and direction given. Or your CEO may be looking for validation of their pending decision. In that case, your job is to act as a sounding board to help ensure nothing has been missed.

One of our duties as board directors is to challenge management. Some directors find it hard to challenge because they don’t want to offend. Others are eager to challenge but end up leaving resentment and hard feelings behind.

How can we find a balance so we can fulfill our duty and yet still maintain a positive relationship with management?

The answer is constructive challenge — the practice of asking questions in board and committee meetings with the purpose of providing scrutiny, putting ...

If you’ve been reading The Savvy Director blog for a while, then you know that, at DirectorPrep, we are obsessed with questions.

One reason for that is because asking questions helps us to fulfill our fiduciary duty as board directors. Through our questions, we inform ourselves about the subject matter at hand and satisfy ourselves about what is in the organization’s best interests.

Of equal importance, the right questions – asked in the right way at the right time – are a great tool to help...

Many of the problems that boards are faced with involve decision making under uncertainty. Rarely do we have the kind of perfect information that would allow us to predict with complete confidence what the outcome of our decision will be. Most of the time, it’s impossible to know that the facts we’re relying on are 100% certain.

To help decision makers reduce the uncertainty of the information at hand, business schools teach graduate courses on assigning probabilities to decision factors and ...

Is asking “why?” a good question for the boardroom?

A "why" question can work well during a board meeting because it can help clarify the reasoning behind decisions or actions that the organization has taken. A "why" question can also help uncover potential issues or challenges that may need to be addressed. However, it’s important to frame a “why” question in a constructive way to avoid appearing confrontational.

In the heat of the moment, framing a question carefully is easier said than do...

A week or so before a board meeting, savvy directors start their PREP work to make sure they’ll be ready to take an active part in the meeting and add real value to the board’s discussions. Part of their PREP work is compiling a list of potential questions to ask – the kind of great questions that get to the heart of issues and help the board move forward.

The management team is probably thinking about questions too. What questions might they have for board members that will help draw out th...

If you’re a regular reader of The Savvy Director blog, then you know how much emphasis DirectorPrep places on the value of questions. Questions are directly related to a board’s ability to learn and understand, to think things through and make good decisions. In many ways, a board’s value lies in how well the directors question management, advisors, and each other.

As a director, asking questions helps you fulfill your fiduciary duty by satisfying yourself about what’s in your organization’s ...

Whether your board serves a non-profit that competes for funding or a business that competes for market share, having a sustainable competitive advantage continues to be the holy grail.

Your competitive advantage is what you do better than anyone else. If you’re lucky, you could have more than one such advantage. The ‘sustainable’ part of the phrase refers to the ability to continue doing those things better than anyone else over the long term.

Does the board of directors have a strategic ro...

Ever heard that one before? 

Thankfully it happens much less these days.  But it took an experienced director to pull me aside after a board meeting one time to help see the light. 

Body language, tone of voice, choosing your words with care, and simply waiting for the right time to jump into the discussion have all made a huge difference in my ability to have influence over others in the boardroom.  But not every time.  I still manage to mess up when I’m not conscious of listening first or ...

I often close my email messages with the words ‘Stay Curious.’

For me, it’s more than just a closing line like ‘Sincerely’ or ‘Yours truly.’ I mean it as a reminder to the reader – and to myself for that matter – to intentionally focus on always bringing a lively state of curiosity to the board table.

I firmly believe that curiosity is one of the attributes that separates a ho-hum board director from a Savvy Director.

And I’m not alone in thinking that.

“The best board members are inhere...