Board meetings becoming a drag? Use these tips to make the most of them!

Friday October 06, 2017 , 3 min Read

Ever been in a board meeting at your workplace? Did you enjoy every moment of it? It is indeed tough to stay awake in long meetings. Every month, a huge amount of time and money is spent on board meetings which may prove to be unfruitful at the end of the day. Sometimes these meetings may be unnecessary for the subject matter being discussed. Rather than frequent board meetings, one must maintain a good system of communication with employees so that the performance of a company does not suffer. Here are a few tips on how to get the most out of a board meeting:

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Make the Objective Clear – Vagueness brings in ineffectiveness

Sometimes, the agenda brought up by the board members may be very vague, with no proper paths to follow for clarity. In such cases, the discussion becomes redundant and there seems to be no plausible solution to any problems. The basic problem or agenda that would be discussed in the board meeting must be shared with board members well in advance so that they have a clear idea about the topic of discussion. Any other documents related to the topic must be shared as well so that board members can come prepared with their own views and inputs. This would save a lot of time in board meetings, and make discussions effective and to the point.

Do not beat around the bush

Ask about the necessity of your presence in a board meeting directly, but politely. Make sure that you are not a victim of office politics due to which you are being asked to attend a meeting. Make sure you attend the meetings only when your presence and inputs are really important. If only the essential people are invited, the flow of discussion is maintained, and it helps everyone present stay on track.

Move away from PowerPoint presentations

A slideshow presentation becomes very boring to follow, and it is natural for people to fall asleep. Make sure people speak, rather than pointing at slides. Visuals can be used as supplements. Jeff Bezos of Amazon also does not favour PowerPoint presentations during the course of board meetings.

Call before board meetings

It is better to have calling sessions with the invited members in a board meeting before the meeting actually takes place. This makes communication fluent, and sharing of ideas also takes place. Hence, the discussion becomes even shorter and to the point.

Do not forget to follow up

Make sure that you keep track of actions that were supposed to be achieved post the board meeting. Those hours of discussion must not go to waste.

Building social relationships is important

For improved coordination among board members, social gatherings are important in a company’s culture. Such relationship-building activities are important in bringing forth unity.

Hence, do not hesitate to improvise to increase coordination among board members. Make sure your board meetings are not redundant. Take care to share the views and problems at hand clearly to all the members invited to the meeting. Cover only the essential so as not to waste time, money and resources.