Yousuf Khan is a partner at Ridge Ventures. Prior to joining Ridge, he was the first CIO of Automation Anywhere, CIO and VP of Customer Success at the Moveworks cloud-based AI platform, as well as CIO of Pure Storage, Qualys, and Hult International Business School.
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Since he did the transitioning to venture capital, I have learned firsthand that a critical part of investor engagement and due diligence involves serving on boards of directors.
I quickly realized that the composition of a board, as well as what is required of its members, is very different at an early stage of startup from what I experienced when I was reporting to the board of a public company.
My formative experience with board meetings was as a CIO, presenting information and strategy for my part of the business. I started sitting in on meetings when I wasn’t actively involved, curious to see how they went. Eventually, I joined the board of directors of a small startup before landing at Ridge Ventures. As a VC, I have served on six boards and spoken to hundreds of founders.
When done right, board meetings provide tremendous value to founders. But they can be tedious tasks that members dread, or a disorganized mess during which nothing meaningful gets accomplished. They may be too long, lack the right content, require too many follow-ups, or not generate enough action.
Remember that board members have a fiduciary duty and will not always agree with you on the best way forward.
Frustration increases when people cannot speak and be heard on a regular basis. Having a clear process that allows valuable and focused work to get done efficiently is critical to getting the most out of board meetings.
Here are 10 quick tips to ensure board meetings run smoothly.
Planning and consistency are critical
Set a regular cadence for building the board and distribute it to members several days in advance. In the early stages, this process could be a one-person show driven entirely by the founder. As a company grows, key updates will need to come from other leaders.
Start early, have a template and structure in place, and give your key stakeholders the opportunity to add content at regular intervals. Clearly define topics and objectives on your agenda and distribute them to board members prior to the meeting. Follow up right away and include a summary of action items to make sure everyone understands what’s expected of them. Have a clear set of actions and conclusions. Keep track of what people have committed to and hold them accountable.
Keep the meeting going
If a certain conversation goes on too long, move it to a parking lot (a space for discussions or questions that can be addressed later) for an offline discussion. Don’t turn your board meeting into a solutions meeting – this is a time to debrief, talk about where you need help, and plan. Healthy discussion is good, but you don’t want a whiteboard session.
Allow employees to submit
Have a key engineer come in for a product update or have the sales leader responsible for winning a major customer come in and talk about what went well.
Many employees who do not have regular opportunities to interact with the board of directors find it a great career boost to receive direct, face-to-face credit for a significant achievement. Bring in the person who is best equipped to talk about the success story and make room for them on the agenda.
Source: techcrunch.com