board presentation best practices

13 Tips on How To Nail a Presentation To the Board of Directors

Published: January 13, 2021

In college, I always made it a point to listen intently to presentations. I knew how stressful and nerve-racking it was to present in a room of peers and authority figures.

I would nod feverishly to let presenters know I was invested in their presentation. And they knew it too. They often zeroed in on me as I became their focus point and silent motivator. The fixation felt awkward at times, but that felt like one of my small contributions to society. That, and an endless supply of cat videos.

Back then, the stakes were relatively low. But when you’re tasked with putting together a presentation to a board of directors, the pressure’s on.

But with a few tricks in your arsenal, you won’t need a sympathetic audience member to gauge how well you’re doing.

Let’s walk through some tips to prepare for your presentation and review some things to avoid.

How To Make a Presentation To the Board

• Know your audience.
• Plan ahead.
• Structure your presentation.
• Keep it concise.
• Set up early.
• Incorporate visuals into your presentation.
• Focus on results.
• Send materials beforehand.
• Build confidence with your power outfit.
• Rehearse your script.
• Don't fall into the PowerPoint Trap.
• Read the room.
• Include time for questions.

1. Know your audience.

Knowing your listeners is as important as the content of your presentation. When you understand their priorities, you can put together a presentation that speaks directly to them.

If you don't know the board well, do some research and get answers to these questions:

What does the board care about?

This will help you see from what lens they look at things. For instance, a board keen on community impact may not be drawn to a presentation focused on return on investment (ROI).

There are a few ways to find this out. You can start by looking into each board member’s professional background. If most members have a finance background, for instance, you’ll want to make sure you cover any financials as it relates to your presentation. This could be cost, expected ROI, or operating margins.

You can also get some insight into what the board cares about by looking back at your interactions with its members. Think about the conversations you’ve had: What comes up most often? Is it company culture, profit, philanthropy, innovation, or something else?

What are their main concerns?

A board of directors is responsible for making decisions that will ensure the growth and sustainability of a company. So naturally, they will be looking out for anything that may impede that process.

Common concerns a board may have are:

• Costs: How much time and money will it require?
• Timeline: How long will this project take and is that timeline feasible?
• Risks: How risky is your proposal and what is the risk-to-return ratio?

You may find that each board member has a different focus, which means your presentation should be well-rounded to tackle these issues.

Once you know this answer, you can subtly handle each concern throughout your presentation. Getting those answers will help you create a presentation that not only interests your audience but also aligns with their goals. This, in turn, will bring you much closer to accomplishing the plans laid out in your presentation.

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2. Plan ahead.

The next step in delivering a great presentation is making a plan. This means figuring out the focus of your presentation, what you’ll cover, and what you’ll leave out.

A presentation should follow the structure of any good movie, with a beginning, middle, and an end. Here’s an example outline for a presentation where the head of the marketing team is proposing course offerings as a new lead generation channel.

The middle is the meat and potatoes of your presentation. You'll likely spend time providing data, contextualizing it, and explaining your approach.

Your ending should bring together your key points and leave your audience with actionable steps. Because what good is providing the information if you have no plan for what to do moving forward?

3. Structure your presentation based on the board’s process.

Not every board of directors operates in the same way. Sure, there are standard guidelines for every meeting. However, the approach may vary for presentations.

Some may operate more like a town hall, pausing periodically to discuss the points as they come up. In this case, leave room after each section of your presentation to discuss what was covered.

Others may follow the more standard approach: presentation followed by a discussion. Studies show that humans remember best the beginning and end of what they read, hear, and see. What’s in the middle tends to get lost. With that in mind, consider sharing your most pertinent information toward the beginning and end of your presentation.

4. Keep it concise.

One thing board members aren’t known for is open availability. That said, you want to make the most of your time with them. How do you do that? Stick to the scope of the presentation.

While it’s great to incorporate storytelling, avoid getting sidetracked and wasting time. Be clear and keep it simple.

If you’re showing data, only share one highlight per data graph. There are several reasons for this:

• Data itself doesn’t tell a story. You, as the presenter, do. As such, you have to explain what it means and why it matters. Let’s say lead generation at your company has plateaued in the past year across all channels. That’s all the data says. But during your research, you realize it’s due to a shift in how your audience is consuming information. Your role is to present the data and explain the "why" behind the plateau along with a solution.
• You want to prevent information overload. Share the piece of data that best supports your points and has the most impact. For instance, if a new lead generation channel is the focus of your presentation, diving into the specifics of another channel may not be worth your time. Tools like Diligent Boards can help ensure directors receive a complete yet concise view of information directly pertinent to them, so you’re not overwhelming them with unnecessary details.

If you leave it to your audience to make sense of the data, they might reach a conclusion that doesn’t align with your message.

5. Set up early.

There’s nothing more awkward than silence during a technical difficulty.

Everyone’s looking at you while you’re figuring out why technology has forsaken you. The more time the issue takes to resolve, the more panicked you get. We’ve all been there.

To avoid this, set up early and do a run-through before your scheduled presentation time. It’ll give you time to get familiar with the space and any technology you’ll need to run during your presentation.

6. Incorporate visuals into your presentation.

When choosing between words and media, pick the latter.

Visuals help us make sense of information at a much quicker pace than words do. We’re also better at remembering what we see versus what we hear by 55% – it’s called pictorial superiority .

It’s also beneficial to keep your visuals simple. If you have too much going on, your audience will be confused. But if it’s too bare, it will take too many visuals to paint the picture. So, pull your most significant data and use data visualization tools to design intuitive graphics.

7. Focus on results.

A board of directors typically focuses on big-picture decisions that will have a long-term impact on the company.

In this vein, every piece of your presentation should get you closer to answering these questions:

• " Why does this matter? "
• " What is the long-term impact? "
• " How does this bring the company closer to its goals? "
• " Any potential roadblocks? How will you address them? "

Incorporating these answers into your presentation will set you up for a smoother Q&A session.

8. Send materials beforehand.

Depending on what you’ll be covering in your presentation, it may be helpful to send the board materials to review in advance. This should only be supplemental information that would be too time-consuming or distracting to cover in a presentation, like reports and demos. This way, the focus during the presentation will be on the "why" and not the "how."

The one material you don’t want to send is your presentation, as you want to be the one to contextualize it. Otherwise, the board might form an opinion based on limited information.

A week before the meeting is a good rule of thumb, leaving room for you to respond to initial comments or feedback.

Think of this process as an advantage. You get insight into what the board members may bring up during the meeting and more context to prep. Secondly, it ensures everyone is on the same page ahead of the meeting. That way, you can dive straight into key points during your presentation without covering minute details.

9. Build confidence with your power outfit.

Building confidence is one of the less concrete tips on the list to implement. But the good news is, there are research-backed techniques you can use to achieve it. One of them is right within your reach: clothing.

Many of us can relate to the feeling of trying on clothes in a fitting room and feeling like a million bucks. It tends to put us in a better mood and shift our perspective.

Well, turns out there’s a reason for this. In 2012, two researchers coined the term " enclothed cognition " to refer to the impact clothes can have on the psyche. They found that the clothes we wear can shift our perspective.

In that spirit, put on your best blazer or suit the day of your presentation. That outfit may be just the boost you need.

10. Rehearse your script.

During a presentation with a board of directors, you want to avoid the Michael Scott approach at all costs.

Instead, go the exact opposite route: practice. Practice is the cure to presentation jitters and the formula for seamless delivery. The more familiar you become with your content, the better the presentation will be.

If it’s been a while since your last presentation, start by practicing in the mirror. You’ll immediately notice any mannerisms that may be distracting to your audience. Recording yourself also works great.

Then, practice in front of an audience. And, unfortunately, your dog won’t cut it for this one. Practice with family or friends who can give you feedback on how to improve.

And remember: You’re the only one who knows your speech and presentation. So, if you mess up or forget to mention something, you’re likely the only one who noticed.

11. Don’t fall into the PowerPoint trap.

You’ll likely use a tool like PowerPoint to guide you during your presentation. Yet, it’s important that you don’t overly depend on it.

For instance, packing your slides with heavy text or bullet points is a surefire way to lose your audience. In fact, 40% of respondents in a 2018 study by Prezi said it caused disengagement and made it harder to retain information.

So, stick to one key point on each slide. It’s easier for your audience to remember and prevents information overload.

12. Read the room.

Even if you follow every tip listed above, you might hit a point in your presentation where there’s a disconnect between you and your audience. You might notice confused looks or a shift in body language. If that happens, that’s your cue to pivot.

If your audience seems confused, dive in a little bit deeper on your point. If you sense disagreement, tackle those concerns head-on.

Let’s say you’re proposing a new initiative for the company, and you sense some pushback on the timeline.

You can address it by saying something along the lines of, " You may have some concern regarding the timeline and whether it’s feasible given our current projects. While the timeline may seem tight, we have factored in X, Y, and Z, and, given our past initiatives, we believe this timeline will account for A, B, and C ."

A response like this can mitigate the situation while still keeping you on track.

13. Include time for questions.

As a foodie, dinner for me isn’t complete without a good piece of chocolate. Whether it’s a KitKat or a chocolate cake, having chocolate after dinner feels like the perfect ending. Q&A sessions are kind of like that. It’s the audience’s chance to ask questions and discuss the presentation.

Be ready for questions regarding the data and solutions you presented. The length of the Q&A session will vary depending on the length of your presentation, the size of the board, and other factors.

Additionally, it’s your opportunity to address any looming concerns and re-emphasize your key points. Not sure what to do if you don’t have an answer to something? Here are a few responses:

• "That’s a great question. I don’t have an answer for you at the moment, but I will follow up over email by end of day."
• "I don’t have much experience in that X [topic/department/]. However, I will reach out to X and get back to you within a week."
• "We haven’t explored that yet, but what I can tell you is …"
• "That’s a great point we hadn’t considered before. My team and I will reconvene and strategize on the best way to approach this."

When the stakes are so high, a presentation to the board can seem daunting. By incorporating these tips into your strategy, you can remove the stress and focus instead on your delivery.

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As a revenue leader at large and small technology companies, I’ve spent the last 15 years of my career attending a LOT of quarterly board meetings. These meetings—once-a-quarter events that take countless hours to prepare for—can create a lot of stress.  The prep and the practice can be draining and, more importantly, distracting from your daily grind. This is all necessary because the board meeting is such a high-stakes event. As a wise mentor once told me, no one ever gets a promotion from a board meeting—but people sure do get fired afterwards.

So if you’re the executive responsible for driving revenue growth at your company, how do you make your portion of these meetings as engaging and impactful as possible? I’ve got some hard-earned advice on that front, as well as suggestions for five key, must-have board slides—customized for leaders at B2B, software-as-a-service companies–that will help you give a great presentation and preserve your sanity.

Size matters—and so does consistency

I’ve been part of company board meetings where the slide deck was 30 total slides. But I’ve also been in meetings and where decks ran more than 150 slides. You’ll need to gauge what level of detail is right for your organization, but my general rule is to cut your slides until it hurts the narrative of the deck.

You should also strive for consistency. You’ll want to deliver the same sets of metrics and details in each quarterly meeting, so that directors and executives can make apples-to-apples comparisons of key data.

One caveat: The world is evolving and the idea of “cohort data” is thriving.  As businesses evolve and new models like consumption- or payment-based pricing become more common, you may need to adjust certain metrics over time, particularly if you are a B2B SaaS company.

Deliver the goods

From the delivery point of view, I’ll share a couple of ideas. The first is fairly well known: Don’t present slides; present the story. Board members are skilled at thin slicing through data and composing their questions ahead of time. Don’t feel the need to present every nuance around your data–get to the point.

The other piece of advice here is to look ahead. First-time attendees at board meetings often lean toward the look-back, which is probably not where you should be focusing most of your energy. Read through your presentation and see how much is forward-looking versus backward-looking. Suffice to say, the majority should paint the picture of what you’re going to do, not what’s happened. The board received a board flash from the CEO right after the quarter closed and has now read the deck. What you’re here to do is share the adjustments you’re making to lead the business forward.

Finally: Create an appendix. This allows your content – new initiatives, changes to go-to-market strategies, product topics—to stay front-and-center and not get bogged down by too much data. But having an appendix still allows the board to view more-detailed, quarter-over-quarter changes.

Focus on these five, must-have slides

There are five revenue-focused slides that that I traditionally build my “talk time” around during a board presentation. Some versions of these slides have been in my board decks for the past decade. These are data-rich slides, so again, prepare to discuss the story they’re telling and not the data. For example, your board members will notice if your sales velocity is speeding up and your average selling price is trending down. They can see that in your numbers–so you need to explain why that is happening.

Slide #1: Headline reel

The first slide starts right up front, after the cover page and agenda, I think every deck should start with the headline reel — the key results of what you achieved last quarter. Regardless of whether your quarter was good or bad, don’t make the board members search through the deck to find the details. Your specific, key metrics may vary, but for most SaaS companies, there are four key areas that should always make the front page: bookings, net-revenue retention (NRR), gross retention and cash burn. The board is looking to learn if the business is growing, flat, or trending down, so strive to clearly present these.

Bookings are self-explanatory — how’d we do against the plan? In the example below, I used a simple color-coding system to highlight the results and give more “tone” to the slide on how we performed. As you might expect, green is good, yellow is a warning sign and red spells trouble.

NRR and churn are next, and in my experience, the board likes to see these side-by-side. Did you exceed NRR because you booked a huge expansion deal, or did you do it steadily? Seeing these two metrics together can address that quickly.

Last is cash position.  We all like to see how efficiently we’re operating, so adding this metric provides a high-level view to the quarterly results.

Obviously, you can add other items that are critical to your company, like OKR performance, NPS etc. But I find these four are the cornerstone elements of the opening slide.

Slide #2: The detailed, five-quarter view

The next few slides provide increasingly deeper levels of detail. I’ve found that 1) being consistent on what I’m presenting each meeting, and 2) answering the question before it is asked is well received by the board.

In my opinion, this second slide is the most critical one in the deck. It presents what your results were at a deeper level than the highlight reel and shows it over a five-quarter view. Why five quarters? Because that timeframe gives you a view of year-over-year results from the same quarter, plus a look at how the last three quarters have progressed.

A few additional comments:

The ARR line of your chart can be expanded to display your detailed buckets of revenue: new, cross-sell and upsell. I think displaying the new vs. expansion sales split is critical, especially if you start releasing subsequent products into the market. This helps you see how that product adoption is going.

Logos and customer count are next: These two lines allow the reader to understand what the gross new number of customers added the quarter is, and see the total customer count (and obviously, lets you do quick math on how many customers churned).

The ASP, or average revenue per customer, and the average sales cycle come next and give a sense of the velocity of the business. Did deal volume pick up yet ASP dropped? Can I see that the cycles are moving faster? Could that be indicative of higher competitive pressure forcing higher discounts? Simply put, these three data points provide telemetry to what’s happening at the deal level.

Finally, I like to track deals over $100K (after some time, this metric may move up to $250K, $500K, etc.). Also worth reporting are deals with greater than 12-month terms. As you push upward toward more enterprise selling, a good metric of success is the number of these long-term contracts you’re signing.

Slide #3: Segments, geographic regions and verticals

This is the sales-detail slide. It breaks down any segment, geography or verticals you have and lets you evaluate how they performed.

Bookings vs. plan is the opening act here, followed by number of deals, plus the segment ASP and the sales-cycle length. I’d suggest you split this between new business and expansion business, so you can have visibility on how both sides of the business performed (especially if you have a single AE that sells both new and expansion – viewing it this way lets you see where you’re winning and what needs attention).

Slide 4: Pipeline

What BoD deck would be complete without a sales pipeline slide? What’s necessary here is looking back at the quarter you just finished and focusing on your conversion rates. Adding in these results from the quarter before is useful too–it lets you start seeing a trend.

Specifically for companies that sell to SMB markets or run cycles that close in less than 90 days, the in-quarter, create-and-close stat is a useful metric. This data point helps you see how many deals get opened and closed within the 90-day quarter.

And you don’t want to leave out the current quarter–your board will want to see how the pipe looks to get a sense of this quarter feels. And for bonus points: Some CROs put their top deals on this slide, creating an ask for board members for connections, intros and other help.

Slide 5: Sales-team health

The last critical slide concerns team attainment. This is your “sales-health” slide. There are two critical elements of health – what percentage of AEs are attaining quota and how are we hiring versus the plan.

AE attainment is the barometer for the company psychology . . . are we a winning team or losing team?  And I have a saying—winning is infectious. Not only does the selling org celebrate, but the whole company knows when sales is beating quota. This vibe travels fast. When your team is greater than 50% of quota, then the culture is winning.

I like to show attainment for the current quarter and at least the prior two quarters. But that’s only true in context of the hiring plan. Back to winning psychology: If your entire sales team is above quota, but you’ve only hired 50% of your planned headcount, it probably means you don’t have enough quota on the street. So while the sales team is succeeding, the company is likely missing quota. This is no-bueno for CRO job security.

Worth considering – show your hired headcount vs planned headcount, with extra credit for showing ramped headcount versus the plan.

In my experience, I’ve unfortunately been behind the amount of quota at the street level versus what the plan is, so this slide keeps me honest. If you see a company that is substantially behind its hiring plan, that’s a company that is missing targets.

Finally, some of you may notice what’s noticeably absent from these slides: CAC, magic number, lifetime value, and Rule-of-40 type metrics. I admit, these could be included here, but I 1) consider this data to be more financially focused and less sales-related, and 2) that would have forced me to write a blog post about the SIX key slides every sales leader needs.

That’s a wrap! In conclusion: For most B2B SaaS companies, these slides stand the test of time. But I’m interested in the critical, desert-island metrics you look for that I may be missing, so please email me at [email protected] with any additional data you think deserve to be on this top-five slide list.

This article first appeared in TechCrunch .

The information contained herein is based solely on the opinions of Bill Binch and nothing should be construed as investment advice. This material is provided for informational purposes, and it is not, and may not be relied on in any manner as, legal, tax or investment advice or as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any fund or investment vehicle managed by Battery Ventures or any other Battery entity.

This information covers investment and market activity, industry or sector trends, or other broad-based economic or market conditions and is for educational purposes. The anecdotal examples throughout are intended for an audience of entrepreneurs in their attempt to build their businesses and not recommendations or endorsements of any particular business.

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Give a Winning Board Presentation

February 27, 2023

Presenting to the board can appear to be challenge.  But at the same time it’s a great opportunity to stand out and impress: you can showcase yourself with your board presentation. In this article you have ten specific tips to improve your board of directors presentations.

One of the biggest challenges when you present to the board is knowing at what level to present.  how much do you need to give background  how much detail is needed do you need to address every objection  for these reason, people often struggle to make their presentations to the board work..

The most important thing to understand is that board members want answers, not problems .  They are not there to mark your homework; their job is to make decisions based on your expert advice. 

Presenting to the Board is a core business skills.  And it’s a skill you can learn.  Over the last 15 years we’ve coached hundreds of people to be brilliant presenters at board meetings. 

Do please call us and we’ll tell you about our presentation coaching – it’s fast and good value.

To help you master the skills of a high-stakes presentation, our coaches have shared their top ten lessons for creating and delivering killer c-level presentations.  Their advice is based on over 15 years of successfully coaching senior managers globally.

Learn how we can help – schedule a free consultation now

 Top ten tips for how to present to the board

Let’s review each of these tips in more detail:

1. Your board wants answers, not problems

Imagine being a board director. You have big responsibilities. Your brief is wide and you regularly need to make decisions based on limited knowledge.  When someone presents at a board meeting you assume that you are listening to an expert.  You want them to give you advice.  What you don’t want is someone who sits on the fence and says ‘on the one hand – on the other hand…’ without reaching a conclusion.

As a presenter you need to do the hard work for the directors so that your presentation to the board of directors lays out clearly what the issues are, why they are important and what should be done. If you are very good you will also look at alternative approaches and argue why those will not work. You may also assess risks. 

By taking this approach you show that you understand the issues and that the board can rely on your good judgement. 

2. Keep your presentation to the board short

Most board directors are very busy and have a huge amount on their plate.  When giving a board presentation your job is to make it easy for the board to make decisions .  You’ll find that you will be most successful if you say less, and say it better.  What do I mean by that? Don’t waste time stating the obvious. You do not need to tell them that climate change is important or that the war in Ukraine has increased energy prices. 

You will look more impressive when you present if you build on the board’s existing knowledge rather them telling them stuff they already know. 

Read more about our award-winning executive presentation coaching and how it will help you impress in front of the board.

3. Your presentation should get to the point quickly

What do you say in the opening words of your high-stakes presentations? How do you grab attention and show that what you are saying will be valuable to the board?  If you want to impress you want to quickly lay out why you are there and what you are looking for from the board members.

The quicker you get to the meat of the topic the better.   Do not start with extensive background and never leave the punchline to your closing words. 

I f you lay out your ‘ask’ at the very start of your presentation then each board member will listen more attentively to what you are saying and better understand how everything you say points to your conclusion. 

Only bad board presentations leave the ‘ask’ to the end.

Another way to make your board feel comfortable is to start by talking about things in which they believe. For example, if you start your presentation by stating that the world is flat, you will alienate most people. Instead, you want to get your board members nodding along with you towards the start of your presentation – so long as you are not stating the obvious.

4. Tell the board their decision is important

As we said above, your board members are busy people . To get the result you want, you should put their decision in context.  For instance, what would be the result of delaying a decision? What is the impact on the bottom line of the right decision?  How big a risk is making the wrong decision? 

These are the sort of questions you want to address relatively early in your presentation. If you tell your board the danger of failure is important, high risk and expensive, you’ll grab their attention.

For example, one client recently was presenting to the board to get final budget approval for a major office move.  She was worried that the board would simply end up discussing who would get the corner offices and what colour the chairs would be.  So, to show them how important their decision was, she started: “This £50m decision is one of the biggest decisions this board has made.  And it impacts the lives of our 2,000 colleagues.”  After that, nobody would dare get lost in trivial detail.  Find out how intensive executive presentation coaching will help you become a powerful confident presenter.

5. Your presentation is often won before the board meeting

Surprises at board meetings are high risk. In reality, the biggest board decisions are generally agreed well before the board meeting. You should use your board presentation for final sign-off and approval only.

For example, how many board members or key people can you speak to before your board meeting?   The more people you consult and listen to before the meeting, the better you will succeed.  If everyone on the board feels they have been involved and agrees with what you are presenting, you will be more likely to carry the board with you. 

If people have raised objections in your discussions before the board meeting, then address those objections in your presentation.  People want to be heard and appreciated.

6. You are the expert when presenting to the board

While many of the board may be strong, daunting figures, they are unlikely to be experts in your specialist area.  You are presenting because you have expertise . If you don’t know more than them, then you are not the right person to be presenting, or you are looking at the wrong thing.  You should be educating the board members – they should learn from you. 

7. Minimise use of visual aids in high level presentations

You can waste a huge amount of time preparing PowerPoint.  But PowerPoint slides usually reduce your impact in board presentations .  Instead, put your efforts into a high-quality board note and a short, punchy summary talk.

Some things you should work on for your next board meeting presentation:

– Use language that makes your board comfortable.  For example, what’s most important to them? Is it sales, profits, margins, safety, cash flow?  Talk about what matters to them. 

– What metaphors do they use in the board? Do they talk about driving the business? Do they talk about nurturing and growing the company? Or do they talk about battling the competition and fighting market conditions? When you use the board’s own favourite metaphors, you will be speaking their language.

8. Use stories and examples when presenting to the board

One of my favourite sayings for pitches and presentations is: “Facts get forgotten, but stories get repeated”. A good story is usually more compelling than the most convincing numbers. Yet too many board presentations fail to apply the power of a compelling story.

A good story in your presentation to the board can be a multi-tool. It can do many jobs at once. A powerful story can help bring to life a complex idea. A story can make it easy for a board member to understand what drives your recommendation and a strong story will give the board member something they will remember and repeat.

Find out how intensive executive presentation coaching will help you become a powerful confident presenter.

9. Make your boardroom presentation easy for the board, and fun

One common mistake when presenting to the board is to make your presentation too long and too complicated.  Just because you are smart and your board members are smart does not mean that your board presentation needs to show how much work you have done. Complexity is off-putting. The human brain loves simplicity . A boardroom presentation should be made simple for your audience.

Having worked on hundreds of successful board presentations, we are often surprised how simple the best presentations are. But turning complex presentations into simple presentations is hard. Anybody can fill a presentation with detail. It takes real skill to convince your board with just a handful of smart ideas and cast-iron logic.

10. Prepare your boardroom presentation rigorously

Test your presentation on other people.  Show it to your boss. Ask people to pick holes in your arguments.  Be tough on yourself.  Keep working at it and fixing it until you are completely happy.  And practise it out loud.  Not to memorise it, but to check if it is good enough.  You should be fixing and changing your presentation up until the last minute.     

For you to be successful in your high-stakes presentations, you want to be well prepared.   So many people bring in a coach to help them prepare. That way you can stress-test your ideas, rehearse and improve your presentation , then go into the board feeling confident that you are ready. 

How do you do this?  Call us.   We spend our lives polishing board presentations.

How to be brilliant at boardroom presentations

Get some expert help. if you want to really impress when you next pitch to the board of directors, then get in touch. we’ve been helping executives present to the board for over 15 years. hundreds of businesses have benefitted from our fast and efficient coaching expertise., call louise angus, our client services director, for a no-obligation chat about how we can add value to your board-level presentations., transform your presentation skills with tailored coaching.

We can help you present brilliantly. Thousands of people have benefitted from our tailored in-house coaching and advice – and we can help you too .

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7 Things to Include in Every Board Deck

Why do many executive teams loathe board meetings?

At Insight, we work closely with executive teams to drive growth, scale operations, and achieve better and faster results through Onsite, our team of 130+ dedicated operators in sales/customer success, marketing, talent, and product/tech. As a result, we have attended and prepared for many board meetings.

Board meetings are invaluable. They are the ultimate time and place to evaluate strategic progress, refine or revise goals and timelines, and receive insight from experienced people who are invested in the company’s success. These meetings can be a time to reflect on progress and celebrate wins and milestones.

But often, executive teams dread the quarterly board meeting. They are a lot of work, they necessitate business scrutiny, and they might even reveal issues.

Compounding this dread is that founders and company leaders are rarely told what to include in the board agenda and materials, and what makes a presentation valuable for both management and the board. Crisp, open, thoughtful, and productive board meetings build positive relationships between the board and executive teams. However, board meetings that waste valuable time can undercut the board’s confidence in management. We summarize our best practices for productive board meetings here.

Board meetings are a CEO’s strategic weapon

Effective board meetings clarify priorities; they allow leaders to spotlight results, highlight challenges, and discuss key strategic issues. The best management teams and board members hold each other accountable and truly want to review company progress and improve where possible.

CEOs and management teams get the most out of board meetings when they arm directors with the information required to ask smart, pertinent questions. And the exceptional teams focus on the places where those questions — and the answers — will have the highest impact.

Seven must-haves for your board presentation

While every company is different, the software companies that run the best board meetings have common approaches and provide similar information in their presentations. At a minimum, include these seven things in your board presentation decks.

1. Establish and stick to stated objectives

Too many of the worst board meetings begin with an agenda, but not with objectives. That is a big point of difference. An agenda is merely the data that gets presented. Objectives are what you want to get out of the time together.

Before every board meeting, the CEO should complete this sentence, “This meeting will be a success if we…”  “…get through the agenda on time,” is not an ideal response.  “Agree on a budget,” or “Set baseline goals and metrics” are much better.

2. Include a “State of the Union” from the CEO

Board meetings are most effective when organized around top priorities and issues. An update from the CEO on key accomplishments, challenges, and how the company plans to address those challenges helps orient the board. With a 360-degree view of the business, the board can provide sound advice and guidance.

Avoid the temptation to speak in phrases. “Good” is not a number. Include data. Real measurable outcomes aligned with key performance indicators will help the board – and the management team – make good decisions. It’s also important, as part of the CEO report, to include and review action items, including any from the previous board or leadership meetings.

This is also the time for the CEO to ask for guidance on key decisions. Asking for the board’s point of view on challenging decisions ensures that the board agrees with the decision and is invested in the outcome.

3. Don’t shy away from non-financial numbers

Board members can add the most value when they have access to the rich data that informs management decisions, not just the requisite financial statements. So, while you may summarize, also provide the metrics you use to monitor progress. That way, board members can help you be sure you’re measuring the correct things, in the best way.

Board members can share how your measures stack up against other businesses and help provide greater context to the data. When in doubt, hand it out. If you don’t have data on something, it may be worth discussing that as well.

Data such as financial statements, HR metrics, sales and marketing data (e.g., bookings growth and customer success metrics), and product management and development metrics (such as product roadmap milestones) are all useful for board members.

Board meetings are more effective when the materials – especially data information – are sent 48 hours in advance. To assist with productive board meetings, Insight Onsite has developed a template board package that includes the metrics that are important for effective board discussions. Your investor should be able to provide this sort of guidance.

4. Functional summaries matter

A one-page summary by function with key highlights from the quarter, near-term priorities, and current challenges lets the board quickly see what’s happening by department.

The executive team leaders in a software company (product, engineering, marketing, sales, customer success, HR, and finance) should present a dashboard of key metrics, current priorities, and progress against previously discussed priorities. Good CEOs have leadership team meetings where functional heads know the constraints and priorities of their colleagues. Where this doesn’t occur, the board meeting is a good forum to disseminate information so everyone may understand the situation. When the team has a complete view, priorities can change, cooperation can grow, and teams can be more effective. By getting visibility into these functional priorities, your board may be able to help the process along.

5. Review strategy

A board’s role is governance, results, and strategy. Too often strategy gets lost amidst the approval of board minutes and the dissection of business metrics.

CEOs should discuss market dynamics, competitive moves, environmental factors, new relevant regulation, talent retention, M&A, and company direction. The board meeting is an opportunity to get a broader perspective and review industry dynamics that may impact the business. Discussing the probabilities of different scenarios is a core responsibility of the board.

6. Spotlight your team

People are the most important asset of any business. As any good manager knows, recruiting, hiring, training, and developing the best talent is what separates great teams from the rest.

Leadership and execution are hard work for company leaders. By giving functional leaders a chance to display their potential and be acknowledged by the board for their accomplishments, the CEO ensures that leaders are motivated and aligned.

Understanding and displaying their senior leaders’ potential and performance in a board deck calls out key team members and helps keep the organization focused on talent development.

7. Seek out direct feedback

Good board meetings include time alone with the CEO for the board to provide the CEO with confidential feedback, and for the group to collectively review executive team composition, highlight capability gaps, and discuss succession plans. The board is able to provide observations and proffer help.

The CEO job is lonely. The board meeting time represents an opportunity to discuss concerns behind closed doors and obtain input. The CEO should view this time as one of the key benefits of board meetings. The collective capability of the board is focused on improving the company. Take the chance to tap into this experience and knowledge.

Board meetings done right

When prepared and delivered well, board materials help leadership teams focus on what matters and allow board members to prove their value. As you prepare your presentation and run your board meetings, follow the rules. Be honest, support your plans and presentations with data, and most importantly, seek and solicit feedback from board members. Rather than dreading the work board meeting preparation can take and seeking perfunctory sign-off, view this time as an opportunity to get the advice and investment every company needs to deliver outstanding performance. Our list of seven must-haves will get you most of the way there; the quality of the dialog will do the rest. 

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Board of directors presentation: The all-in-one guide

Learn how to craft a persuasive pitch, deliver your presentation with confidence.

Raja Bothra

Building presentations

When it comes to presenting to your board of directors, it's not just another run-of-the-mill presentation. You're facing a unique audience with high expectations and critical decisions to make.

In this guide, we'll delve deep into the art of creating impactful board of directors presentations. Whether you're a seasoned presenter or just starting out, these insights will help you shine in front of your board members.

Art of presenting to your board of directors

Presenting to your board of directors is a skill that can significantly impact your organization's success. It's a chance to convey your ideas, strategies, and achievements in a way that aligns with the company's goals and values.

Board of directors: The pillars of governance

The board of directors, often referred to as the "board," plays a crucial role in steering the company. They are responsible for major decisions, overseeing company performance, and ensuring it stays on course. Understanding the dynamics of the board is key to a successful presentation.

Board members: Your audience

Your board members are a diverse group with varying backgrounds and expertise. They bring their unique perspectives to the table. Addressing their specific needs and concerns is essential to a successful presentation.

Slide design: Crafting visual impact

In board presentations, slides are your canvas. Use them to create a visual narrative that complements your verbal communication. Avoid overcrowding slides with text. Instead, focus on concise, visually appealing slides that enhance your message.

Board meeting dynamics

Board meetings are structured events where presentations are made, decisions are taken, and strategies are discussed. Understanding the flow and purpose of a board meeting is crucial to your presentation's success.

Purpose of a board of directors presentation: Why do we need one?

Why present to the board.

Every board of directors presentation serves a distinct purpose. Whether it's a quarterly performance update or a strategic proposal, your presentation should align with the board's needs and expectations.

The long-term value proposition

Remember, your presentation should not just be about the here and now. It should convey the long-term value your strategies and initiatives bring to the company.

How to structure an effective board of directors presentation

A well-structured presentation is like a well-organized roadmap. It guides your board members through your ideas, helping them understand and appreciate your perspective.

1. Title slide :

• Start with a compelling title that summarizes the purpose of the presentation.
• Include your company logo and the date of the presentation.

2. Agenda :

• Create a slide that outlines the agenda for the presentation.
• This helps set expectations for what will be covered.

3. Introduction :

• Begin by introducing yourself and your role within the company.
• Provide a brief overview of the presentation's purpose and goals.

4. Company overview :

• Present a concise overview of your company, including its history, mission, and key achievements.

5. Financial highlights :

• Share key financial metrics and performance indicators.
• Use charts and graphs to visualize data for easy comprehension.

6. Operational updates :

• Discuss recent operational developments, such as product launches, market expansion, or cost-saving initiatives.

7. Market analysis :

• Provide insights into the industry landscape, market trends, and competitive positioning.

8. Strategic initiatives :

• Detail any strategic initiatives, projects, or goals your company is pursuing.

9. Risk assessment :

• Identify and assess potential risks and challenges your company may face.
• Explain your mitigation strategies.

10. Financial projections :

• Present future financial projections, including revenue forecasts and expense estimates.

11. Recommendations :

• Offer recommendations or decisions that require the board's input or approval.
• Clearly state the desired outcomes.

12. Q&A session :

• Dedicate a slide to transition into a question-and-answer session.
• Encourage board members to ask questions and seek clarifications.

13. Conclusion :

• Summarize the key points of your presentation.
• Express gratitude for their time and input.

14. Next steps :

• Outline the next steps or actions expected from the board following the presentation.

15. Closing remarks :

• End with closing remarks and thank the board for their attention.
• Reiterate your commitment to the company's success.

16. Appendix (Optional):

• Include any additional data, charts, or supporting documents in the appendix.

Do's and don'ts on a board of directors presentation

Presenting to a board of directors is both an art and a science. Knowing what to do and what to avoid can make or break your presentation.

• Rehearse : Practice makes perfect. Rehearse your presentation to ensure a smooth delivery.
• Keep it concise : Avoid lengthy, meandering explanations. Keep your presentation concise and to the point.
• Engage your audience : An engaging presentation can help board members understand complex topics better.

Don'ts:

• Overload the slides : Avoid overcrowding slides with too much information.
• Copy-paste content : Your presentation should never be a copy of existing documents.
• Lack of preparation : Don't go into a presentation without thorough preparation.

Summarizing key takeaways

• Unique audience expectations: Board presentations are distinct, requiring understanding of the board's unique audience with high expectations and decision-making authority.
• Impactful communication: Craft presentations that effectively convey ideas, strategies, and achievements aligned with the company's values for maximum impact.
• Board governance insights: Recognize the vital role of the board in steering the company, making significant decisions, and maintaining its course.
• Diverse board members: Acknowledge the diverse backgrounds and expertise of board members; cater to their specific needs and perspectives for success.
• Effective presentation structure: Structure presentations thoughtfully, including key elements like agenda, company overview, financial highlights, strategic insights, and a focus on engagement while avoiding common pitfalls.

1. How should I approach discussions and decision-making in the boardroom after my presentation?

After your presentation, discussions in the boardroom are crucial for reaching a consensus and fine-tuning the decision. It's not uncommon that the discussion starts immediately without formal presentations. Be ready to engage with board members, answer questions, and provide additional information if needed. Keep the long-term value and risks in mind during these discussions, as board members generally watch over the long-term value of the company. Your role in the boardroom is not only to present but also to actively participate in the decision-making process.

2. What are some tips for engaging board members during a presentation?

Engaging board members during a presentation is essential for a successful outcome. Here are some tips:

• Craft visually appealing slides that support your content.
• Use bullet points to present key arguments or take-aways.
• Encourage questions and open discussions to foster engagement.
• Keep the presentation concise and focused on what really matters.
• Avoid going into the details of things beside the point.
• Make sure your presentation is based on selected details and numbers that are relevant to your proposal.

3. How should I handle questions and answers (Q&A) during a board presentation?

Handling Q&A during a board presentation requires finesse. Be prepared to answer questions, even if you don't know the answer, but be honest if you don't have the information at hand. Don't take questions lightly, as they can influence the board's decision. Additionally, don't make up information. If necessary, offer to follow up with a detailed response after the presentation. Q&A is an opportunity to provide clarity and ensure the board members understand your proposal.

4. What should I include in the slides of my board of directors presentation?

The content of your presentation slides is crucial. Each slide should contribute to the narrative of your presentation. Use visuals, bullet points, and concise text to convey your message effectively. Your slide deck should be more than a mere copy of the presentation. It should be a visual aid that supports your spoken words. Ensure that your slides align with the purpose of your presentation and the key arguments you want to present. Don't overload the slides with unnecessary information; instead, focus on elements that you want the board to remember.

5. How can I make my board presentation more impactful and memorable?

To make your board presentation impactful and memorable, consider these strategies:

• Craft an inductive story that captures the board's attention from the start.
• Structure your presentation based on the three typical parts: introduction, key arguments, and conclusion.
• Prioritize information quality and unanimity in your presentation.
• Ensure your presentation revolves around what really matters to the board.
• Use connectors for your computer to ensure everything goes as you expected during the presentation.
• Finally, don't forget to express gratitude for their time and attention at the end.

Create your board of directors presentation with Prezent

In the world of board presentations, having the right tools can make all the difference. Prezent, an AI presentation software designed for enterprise teams, can help you create compelling board presentations that are on-brand, engaging, and effective.

With Prezent, you can:

• Craft visually appealing slides that resonate with your board members.
• Save time and effort in creating and sharing presentations.
• Ensure 100% compliance with brand guidelines.
• Collaborate with your team in real-time, even for overnight presentations.

Presenting to your board of directors is a skill that evolves with experience and preparation. Whether it's your first presentation or you're a seasoned presenter, following best practices and leveraging tools like Prezent can help you deliver presentations that leave a lasting impact on your board members. Remember, it's not just about the content; it's about the art of persuasion and engagement.

To further enhance your boardroom presentations, consider incorporating a well-structured Board of Directors meeting presentation template . This valuable tool can guide you in organizing your thoughts, ensuring clarity in your message, and maintaining a professional and polished appearance. So, next time you step into the boardroom, armed with your carefully crafted presentation and utilizing a Board of Directors meeting presentation template, keep in mind the insights and tips shared here. With the right approach and a touch of finesse, you can master the art of presenting to your board of directors.

Are you ready to make a real impact with your presentation to the board? Try our free trial or book a demo today with Prezent!

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Preparing a Board Deck

Bryan schreier.

We tend to get started with companies at the Seed or Series A Stage—before board meetings come into the picture. But in the life cycle of every startup, there is a time when board meetings become formal. Often, this is catalyzed by the next investment round or the addition of an independent board member. It’s a position we’ve been in a few times. The following is a summary of our thoughts on structuring the first few board meetings at early-stage startups. While we focus on “decks” it’s important to note:

Board decks don’t actually have to be decks. Qualtrics, Domino, and Thumbtack employ Amazon-style ‘memos’ that communicate the same information through text. It really comes down to the most efficient and effective mode of communication for the management team.

Prepare just enough

The goal of a board meeting should be to maximize the value you get as a founder, while minimizing the amount of time you spend preparing. Of course, if you don't prepare at all, you'll have a hard time keeping your board focused.

That's why a good board deck is so important. It may sound odd that the presentation can contribute so much to the success of a board meeting. But consider this: A board's job is to give advice, help solve problems, reinforce best practices, and so on. When all of this is on topic, it can help guide you through the company-building process. When board members are left to explore whichever topics they choose...look out.

Focus on calibration

The primary difference between company meetings and board meetings is that your employees spend every day at your company, which even the most committed board members can’t do. That means you’ll need to effectively and efficiently calibrate your board every time you meet.

Hopefully, you invited these people to your board because they have relevant experience in areas where you need help. The calibration will be worth the effort if it enables you to leverage the skills and experience in the room to help you think through problems in a different way.

Take a step back

Preparing a board deck is also an opportunity for you, the founders, to take a big step back. This is incredibly important to do. And if you don’t, no one else will.

Treat board meeting prep as an opportunity to pull yourself out of the day to day and take a look at your company as if you were sitting on the moon viewing the earth: Are you executing? Are you innovating? Are you hiring? Are you building a management team? Are you growing the customer base? Are you doing so according to the last plan you laid out? And is that plan still good enough to win or do you need a new plan and new targets?

Don’t overthink it

This may sound like a significant undertaking for a three hour meeting that happens four to six times per year—and it definitely is if you build a presentation from scratch every time. It’s important, instead, to report to the board leveraging the materials you use to run the company. The Holy Grail is a board pack that is assembled by your assistant who simply prints the cover sheet(s) from weekly management-team reports and staples them together. Then you have no overhead and, even better, perfect alignment between the board and the management team.

Share materials early

Distribute the board materials one to two days in advance and ask your board members to study the material ahead of time so you can spend the meeting discussing rather than presenting.

Structure the meeting

Following is a general structure for an early board meeting/deck. We've seen our founders riff on this, and you can see some feedback from those CEOs below. In fact, Dropbox—where we partnered from the seed stage—has used this basic format from those early days onward, even as a public company today.

Big Picture: 15 minutes

• CEO update.
• Highlights since last meeting.
• Lowlights/challenges since last meeting.
• Where the company needs help (e.g. hiring, customers, partnerships, product, and marketing).

Calibration: 45 minutes to 60 minutes This is where you “tell the story” of the company. It is very easy to add chart after chart. What is much harder is picking the fewest number of correct metrics/charts to properly frame the current status of the company for board members. Unfortunately we’ve attended many board meetings where things looked great, but they actually weren’t. Those companies were sharing the wrong charts, and therefore not telling the story correctly and leaving the board ill-equipped to help. Here are some examples of exhibits to consider including:

• Financial performance and updated forecast (quarterly)
• Marketing performance vs. awareness and lead generation targets
• Revenue/sales performance vs. targets
• Product engagement metrics (signups, downloads, activations, engagement, retention)
• Product delivery / launches
• Quality of customer experience: every company should have a simple way of measuring this (NPS is commonly used but often misinterpreted, and needs to be contextualized) Note: All of this should be hard to create the first time but then simple to update moving forward.

Company Building: 30 minutes

• Forward-looking org chart: show current team and positions to be filled over the next six months.
• Product roadmap: include major launches and achievements since last meeting; provide a view on where the company is heading.
• Engineering and technical update: include major launches and achievements since last meeting; surface challenges and where help is needed.
• Growth team update: performance against Growth Team KPIs.
• Corporate marketing update: execution on positioning, brand, messaging, and PR.
• Business development: list of top 10 needle-moving partners the company wants (vs. inbound partner interest) and progress on each.
• Operations (if appropriate): performance against KPIs; surface challenges and where help is needed.
• Monthly Waterfalls for each of: revenue, burn, cash balance, headcount.

Working Session: 30 minutes per topic

• Topic 1: deep dive in a particular functional area, deep dive on a large partnership opportunity, deep dive on a business challenge, etc.
• Topic 2: deep dive on quarterly company goals, product challenges, etc.

Closed Session: 15 minutes

• Feedback to Founders, formalities, stock option grant etc.

The Secrets to a Successful Board Presentation

November 17, 2014 / Blog board presentations, presentation tips

As you know, delivering a presentation can be challenging. You have plenty to prepare and accomplish before facing the audience. You need to prepare your talking points and make sure your data is well represented through visual aids.

Since there’s a lot at stake, you might feel a lot of stress and pressure to achieve the best outcome. However, this feeling usually doubles when you’re expected to address a corporate board. For a lot of professionals, board presentations can be a fear-inducing event since there’s very little room for error.

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Board members have the power to make or break the ideas you put forward. If you’re successful, the decisions they make as a result of your presentation has the potential to propel your career forward. Despite the anxiety you feel because of it, board presentations are a wonderful opportunity. To make the most out of it, you need to prepare well-developed ideas backed up by hard facts and data.

As public speaking expert Lisa B. Marshall writes ,

Members of boards are generally very smart, experienced, and successful professionals. …They usually grasp ideas and issues very quickly and ask penetrating questions. In addition, board members are often very busy and don’t like to waste time. They want and expect concise presentations as well as crisp and accurate responses to difficult and complex questions.

If you want to make sure that your ideas survive their scrutiny, you need to be in control of what you say and show them. Here are a few tips that might help you unlock the secret to a successful board presentation:

Craft your core message carefully

Board members aren’t very interested in long discussions. They want to see a presentation that’s well-structured and straight to the point. For that, you need to set a clear direction for your presentation. It’s important to identify and craft your core message. This will be the main idea behind your presentation. The anchor that will keep your presentation from floating wayward .

Ask yourself some key questions to make sure you’re on the right track. What are you trying to say? What are the members expecting from you? Why did they invite you to speak in the first place? Do they want to hear a status report? Are you requesting funds for a new project? The word “craft” suggests careful attention to details, so make sure you consider every information you may have available.

Keep your talking points short

Board members often have busy schedules, and you won’t have a lot of time to explain everything and go into detail. If you want to complete the presentation you planned, you need to make sure that you get straight to the point. Draft your report and include only the things that are pertinent for the members to know. Any detailed explanations can be written on an accompanying report or handout. According to  Norbert Kubilus of Tatum CIO Partners , it’s wise to keep your presentation under the allotted time. Try to shoot for at least 3/4 of the schedule to give yourself plenty of time to address questions.

Create visuals that are clear and concise

The slides you present should highlight the message you’re delivering. Like your talking points, your visuals should be clear and straight to the point. Unless you want your audience to tune out, it never helps to dump all your information and data on a PowerPoint presentation. One way you can keep your board presentations engaging is by investing time on creating visuals that are clear and concise. Use images and illustrations to bring life to your points . Translate your data into charts that are easy to comprehend. You can take a look at our portfolio for examples.

Give yourself time to rehearse

It never hurts to practice your board presentation, especially if you’re feeling pretty nervous about it. Rehearsals will help you feel more comfortable once you’re finally in front of the board members. After practicing the way you speak and present yourself, you’ll feel a lot more in control of the situation you’re in. Rehearsals are also good for memorizing your talking points . If you don’t want to bother with cue cards, practice as much as you can.

Aside from practicing your talking points, you should also consider how you’ll address possible questions . It’s common for board members to interrupt presentations to ask for more details. Try to identify which questions you’re most likely to get and start practicing how to answer them.

Be ready to improvise

With most presentations, your role as presenter is to address and inform the audience. The scenario is quite different when it comes to board presentations. As Stephanie Overby writes , “presenting to the board is less about you addressing an audience than it is about the audience addressing you”. Your role here is to present ideas that will be useful for the board. That means that you’ll have to address questions in the middle of your presentation, or that you might have to go back to a previous slide to provide details. Sometimes, you might also get a question you don’t have the answer for.

You can’t possibly prepare for everything that might happen, so stay alert and be ready to improvise . Make sure you know every aspect of your presentation well. Study the data you have, even if you can’t include everything in your slides. If you’re faced with a question you can’t answer, be honest about it. Acknowledge that you don’t have the answer and that you’ll follow up with them as soon as you can.

While a board presentation can be nerve-racking, it’s also a great opportunity that can forward your career. Make the most out of it by preparing as much as you can. Follow these tips to fine-tune every aspect of your presentation. Careful planning can help you achieve the best outcome possible.

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Best Tips on How to Present to the Board of Directors in 2022

Top tips for nailing your presentation to The Board 👨‍💻️

13 min read

Table of Contents

You would hope that most people who sit on Boards of Directors know their stuff. They are experienced, proven, successful business leaders (sure, that might not always be the case… but as a rule). So, you need to have your act together whenever you go in front of them. You probably don’t need us to tell you that. You might well be feeling some trepidation at the thought – that’s probably why you’re reading this article. Well, don’t worry, we can help you improve your board presentation skills.

Whether you present to the Board regularly or have one big opportunity to get in front of them and show your stuff, you’ll want to do the best job you possibly can and create an impactful presentation. So, read through our top tips for presenting to the Board and you’ll know exactly how best to approach your presentation. Knowing what you need to do will bring confidence… and that’s half the battle!

We’ll take you through what you need to do to in terms of preparation, what you should consider when it comes to the content of your presentation, and some top tips for delivery.

Here’s our list of tips for nailing any presentation to the Board:

Be well prepared (make sure you have all the materials and information you will need)

Know your audience

Ask to see the full agenda

Don’t use jargon

Know the exact points you want them to remember, use data and benchmarks, make your slides look decent, get your materials right, do not read from notes.

Smile, don’t be afraid of humour

DO NOT go over time

Be ready to answer questions.

So, let’s take a look at each of these points in more detail….

Be prepared

Remember, if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. Don’t wing it. Presenting to the Board is important – even if you’re the CEO and do it regularly, you will almost always be presenting to the Board with a very specific and important goal in mind. Maybe you need to get approval, buy-in or sign-off for an initiative, or you’re hoping to secure investment for a project. Whatever the purpose of your presentation, if you’re in front of the Board, it’s important and worth doing properly.

So, make sure you prioritise this presentation and make the time to properly prepare for your next board meeting. Try not to leave this until the last minute. Ideally, you’ll do your preparation far enough in advance to allow time for you to put it down for a few days and then revisit it with fresh eyes. That’s a great way to double check your key messages are clearly coming through.

And here is exactly what you should do to prepare…

Do your homework on all the Board Members – know their experience and their expertise. And, if you’ve never met them before, make sure to find a photo of them so you can put faces to names and bios.

Knowing their backgrounds and experience will help you craft a presentation that doesn’t patronise or assume knowledge where it isn’t. You can also subtly direct particular parts of your presentation to the most relevant Board Members to help engage them and ensure you have their attention.

Ask to see the full agenda for the Board Meeting

It’s a good idea to know the context you are presenting in so you can get a sense for how the Board Members might be feeling. What are you following? Will they been exhausted from looking at spreadsheets or will they be relatively relaxed after a coffee break? Know your context and present accordingly.

Unless you are 100% confident that everyone in the room will understand it, avoid jargon. And remember, it’s important to explain any technical concepts in a relatable manner in order to keep them engaged. Board Members will be from a variety of backgrounds and experiences (that’s what makes a good Board) so you cannot assume everyone has the same level of knowledge of your area. Don’t take the risk of losing their attention or obscuring your meaning by using language they may not understand.

When planning your content, summarise your presentation and decide what the crucial points you want to get across are. If the Board Members only remember 2 or 3 points about your presentation, what would you want them to be?

When you’ve boiled down what you’re saying to those most important points, look back over your presentation and double check they are coming across loud and clear. Consider making a summary slide and ending the presentation on a reinforcement of those key points.

As it’s often said, it’s hard to argue with facts… so infuse your presentation with as many as possible, especially if you’re trying to win buy-in for something. Back up what you’re saying with data, stats or metrics and key performance indicators. If you make a point about performance improvement, show the data that demonstrates that. If you’re offering a growth projection, show the data that supports that hypothesis.

Then make sure you present that data in an interesting way. Data visualisation is an important skill to have and can help you transform presentations and bring numbers to life. Consider using graphs and diagrams instead of flat figures. This can really help the more visual people in your audience absorb the point you’re trying to make.

Remember, if you’re presenting data, don’t just show the stats without offering some analysis or a conclusion. What does this data tell us? What have you learnt from it? Does it drive any decisions or actions?

Also remember to give the board context for each data point. Is that a good or bad performance? It’s no good showing a conversion rate, for example, without giving any sort of indication as to how that compares to expectations or industry averages. Try to include benchmarks for reference.

You’d be surprised how many people don’t give this the focus it deserves. This is particularly important if you’re going to be one of a series of presentations during the Board session. If you’ve spent the time to make your slides look engaging, then it’ll help you stand out.

If you have slides with a list of bullets, think about how they can be presented in a more visually engaging way. A list of bullets could become a grouping of different icons or images, each illustrating your different points with some supporting words underneath.

It’s worth getting a proper design brain to help you with this. Even if you just ask them to input on a few slides in your deck, you can then take the design improvements they’ve made to those slides and extend the same principles across the whole deck.

Spending time to make your presentation deck look good will not only help engage your audience and get your point across; it also shows that you have put the work in and are taking this seriously. That level of effort won’t go unappreciated by The Board.

No doubt there will be a Board Pack or Board Report you need to contribute to. Get that ready as far as you can in advance. If you do send materials in advance, do assume they’ve been read by the time it comes to your presentation, and don’t just repeat what was in the papers – that’ll feel like you’re wasting the Board Members’ precious time and that will annoy them.

This might seem obvious, but it’s worth noting here so you remember to factor in enough time for this. Some people like to practice in front of a trusted colleague, family member or friend, others are more comfortable in front of the mirror. Either way is good.

How you practice and how much does really come down to personal preference, but just make sure you get to the point where you’re confident in your delivery and you don’t have to struggle to remember what comes next.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that there is such thing as over practising. You don’t want to don’t kill all energy from your presentation and get to the point that you’re just reciting it like a robot!

We’re all for writing down what you want to say – it’s always better to be prepared and have properly thought through what you need to get across and how – but that doesn’t mean you should read it. The secret is to write what you’re going to say and then to learn it.

You can either write a full script, or some detailed notes. If you’re writing a script, it’s extremely important to write as you speak. Don’t think of this as an article or report – it’s a script to be spoken – so worry less about punctation and more about the flow of your words. Try speaking your ideas first… and then write them down.

If you don’t think you can pull off a natural enough delivery of a script, then don’t write one, write notes instead. But then you must practice and practice delivering the presentation based on the notes you have read – this will eliminate ums and errs and hesitations and ensure you have a smooth delivery where you’re confident of everything you’re saying.

Smile, use some humour if the context is right

Make your presentation at least mildly entertaining. People always remember presenters that made them smile, or even laugh. But it’s a fine balance – don’t rock up with a full comedy set, or launch into some physical slapstick humour, whatever you do.

If you opt for some humour, make sure you read the room. If little jokes are not landing, then ditch the rest, they might not be in the mood. And if you know your Board of Directors have zero sense of humour, then just stick to smiling and being upbeat – don’t try for laughs that aren’t there!

And, of course, don’t roll out the gags if the subject is particularly grave or if you’re presenting a cost reduction strategy that involves redundancies.

Give some height to your presentation – establish yourself as someone worth looking up to! It’s all too easy to slouch in a chair – standing up will help you keep a straight posture and look confident.

Standing up will also help open out your diaphragm and enable you to project your voice more successfully. Sure, if you’re in a small room you don’t want to be bellowing at them, but you want to have a straight posture and speak clearly.

If you’ve been given a time to keep to, KEEP TO IT. Board meetings will be busy and have pretty packed agendas. Nothing will annoy Board Members more than you coming in and putting their agenda and timetable out of whack.

This, again, comes down to practice. You need to run through it a few times – remembering to keep a natural and considered pace – so you’re confident you can keep it to time.

And if they haven’t given you a set time, then just be aware that brevity is a good thing. Be mindful of people’s attention span and consider what has come before you on their agenda. If they’re likely to be a bit frazzled from an intense couple of hours, you’ll need to keep things as concise as you can or risk losing them.

Make sure you leave time for a Q&A! Read through your presentation imagining you are a Board Member, try to think of any questions you’d ask. Now either work the answer to those questions into the presentation or be prepared with a considered answer for a Q&A session at the end.

Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know the answer to something. It’s best to say quickly and firmly that you do not know the answer, but you will find out and get back to them. That’s much better than launching into a flustered bumble of BS. A savvy Board Member will spot that a mile off.

Also make sure you answer the actual question asked. So, listen carefully and if you’re unsure what they’re asking, repeat back your understanding of the question to check before answering. Don’t launch into an answer unless you’re very clear what they want to know.

So, those are our top 14 tips for nailing your presentation to The Board. In a nutshell it’s all about being prepared, practiced and confident (which comes from the first two).

One final important tip is to try and enjoy it! Board Members are people like you and I, don’t be unduly worried or intimidated. Enjoy the limelight and good luck!

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Compliance Best Practices: Presenting to a Board of Directors

Best practices to help you dazzle during your next compliance presentation to the board of directors.

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Some executives we talk to find giving a compliance presentation to the board of directors a nerve-racking experience, while others seem to take it in stride. Whether you like your time on center stage or prefer it be over with as fast as possible, these 10 guidelines will help you to present data in a way that does more than just satisfy board members’ fiduciary responsibility about risk mitigation. They will allow you to illustrate how compliance can be a vital part of a vibrant, forward-looking growth strategy.

Best Practices When Giving a Compliance Presentation to the Board of Directors

1. do organize your data and put it in context.

During your board of directors presentation, let them know you’re on top of the data, and using it to drive forward-looking policies that help the company become better at what it does. Your primary aim should be to tell a compelling story that’s reinforced with data—not to present every metric that you’ve measured over the last quarter. Pare down the information into clear and concise summaries, such as how many hotline calls you’ve had, how many have been resolved, or where and why you’ve launched new policies. Be sure to highlight trends, hot spots, or areas of significant change—and include context that can help demonstrate the “why” behind the numbers.

2. DO have a message

While it is important to deliver a key set of metrics in each report, it’s also important to paint a picture for the board with your data. This demonstrates you understand how to steer compliance, not just manage it.

Questions to ask yourself: What is it you’re trying to say? Do you need to report on bad news, and what’s being done about it? Are you reporting on little news, which should be a cause for demonstrating your effectiveness?

No matter what you’re reporting, find the story that’s in the data. Perhaps you’re making a point for more compliance investment – where does the data support that the investment would have a strong return?

3. DO use clear and simple visuals

You may love spreadsheets and PowerPoints, but they can be boring ways to present information if not carefully considered. If you present slides with too much too much text and too many numbers, charts, and tables, the board will tune out and merely passively receive your information. You want them to be actively consuming it, so that they are inspired by what you’re saying.

If you have an administrative assistant prepare your materials, be sure to give the presentation an executive touch – streamline and cut anything that’s not necessary for the board. You can explain what they’re seeing, so that you don’t have to put everything into your visuals.

4. DO be brief

Compliance is your field, not theirs. While you can prepare a longer talk, save some details for the Q&A, when you can dive deeper into the topics that interest your board to demonstrate your depth of knowledge. (Want to anticipate some of the questions they may have? Download our guide to the most frequently asked questions during compliance presentations to the board of directors).

5. DO report the warts

Don’t omit or downplay problem areas. To exercise effective oversight, the board should be aware of all significant risks, incidents, and missteps. These happen in every company, no matter how effective compliance is—and your board knows that. They will get suspicious if their executive in charge of risk tells them that there is no risk.

After sharing the bad news, provide a solution that has a corrective action plan, and engage the board in dialogue about their thoughts. Since some board members reside on multiple boards, they may have already seen something similar and have good suggestions or feedback for your corrective initiative.

5 Don’ts When Giving a Compliance Presentation to the Board of Directors

1. don’t live in a vacuum.

Provide a frame of reference for the board by leveraging benchmarking data, including industry averages, current best practices, and your own company’s past successes. Benchmarking is one of the easiest and clearest ways to show that you’re on top of your job, and put your results in context.

If you don’t currently benchmark, it’s a good time to make the case for why you should: Make it clear that regulators and enforcement agencies will compare your company to others in the industry if you do come under investigation. Communicate that benchmarking should be a standard practice, and will provide valuable fodder for future discussion on program results, progress, and resourcing.

2. DON’T pretend to know it all

It’s okay to say, “I don’t know.”

Admitting that you’re not sure of an answer to a question—even during a moment as important as your quarterly compliance presentation to the board—is preferable to taking a wild guess or meandering around your mind for a vague answer. If someone asks you a good question you don’t know the answer to, let them know it’s an excellent question, that you’ll find the answer to it, and that you’ll report back to them about it. Then do exactly that.

You can’t and shouldn’t know the answers to all the questions you might be asked . Being prepared for what you don’t know is part of being well prepared.

3. DON’T wing it

Speech trainers always have their clients practice speaking. If you prepare mentally, but haven’t actually talked through your presentation, you could be setting yourself up for disaster.

Plan your talk, and then give the talk to your empty office. Or your spouse. Or dog. Time it. You can even record it if you’d like, to see how you sound and appear. This can be almost as nerve-wracking as an actual presentation, but the preparation and the self-knowledge will go a long way to helping you appear capable and confident.

4. DON’T  confuse professional with boring

It should go without saying that a compliance presentation to the board–even one you know well–should be done professionally. Appropriate dress, careful language, and engaging conversations that avoid getting too personal are all expected.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t bring a sense of humor or a little personal flair into your board of directors presentation. The board doesn’t want a stiff, too-polished report. Be prepared enough to present your data and conclusions in a conversational way that is friendly and accessible, not stiff and corporate.

You’re not presenting to a judge, but to colleagues—so finding that sweet spot between professional and conversational can make the data you’re presenting more memorable and bring your presentation to life.

5. DON’T  cut time from Q&A

Your board will—and should—have questions, so leave them time to ask them. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate your acumen and effectiveness while engaging in a more interactive forum.

Check out our list of 45 frequently asked questions during compliance presentations to the board . Prepare responses to those questions, and be able to drill down into any irregularities, trends, or key incidents to communicate what’s happening.

Make sure you’re up to speed on current events–up to the day of your presentation. Consider if any of them might impact your company and, if so, what you’re considering to stay out ahead of the issue, and out of the headlines.

45 FAQs during compliance presentations to the Board of Directors

Be as prepared as possible and anticipate the questions you’re likely to receive using our free eBook, 45 Questions Your Board Will Ask About Your Compliance Program.

Download the eBook

Related resources.

Private: Board of Director FAQs

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The Board’s Perspective: What Can’t be Measured, Can’t be Managed

Private: How to Tell your Board of Directors an Effective Compliance Story

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How to Give a Killer Presentation

• Chris Anderson

For more than 30 years, the TED conference series has presented enlightening talks that people enjoy watching. In this article, Anderson, TED’s curator, shares five keys to great presentations:

• Frame your story (figure out where to start and where to end).
• Plan your delivery (decide whether to memorize your speech word for word or develop bullet points and then rehearse it—over and over).
• Work on stage presence (but remember that your story matters more than how you stand or whether you’re visibly nervous).
• Plan the multimedia (whatever you do, don’t read from PowerPoint slides).
• Put it together (play to your strengths and be authentic).

According to Anderson, presentations rise or fall on the quality of the idea, the narrative, and the passion of the speaker. It’s about substance—not style. In fact, it’s fairly easy to “coach out” the problems in a talk, but there’s no way to “coach in” the basic story—the presenter has to have the raw material. So if your thinking is not there yet, he advises, decline that invitation to speak. Instead, keep working until you have an idea that’s worth sharing.

Lessons from TED

A little more than a year ago, on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, some colleagues and I met a 12-year-old Masai boy named Richard Turere, who told us a fascinating story. His family raises livestock on the edge of a vast national park, and one of the biggest challenges is protecting the animals from lions—especially at night. Richard had noticed that placing lamps in a field didn’t deter lion attacks, but when he walked the field with a torch, the lions stayed away. From a young age, he’d been interested in electronics, teaching himself by, for example, taking apart his parents’ radio. He used that experience to devise a system of lights that would turn on and off in sequence—using solar panels, a car battery, and a motorcycle indicator box—and thereby create a sense of movement that he hoped would scare off the lions. He installed the lights, and the lions stopped attacking. Soon villages elsewhere in Kenya began installing Richard’s “lion lights.”

• CA Chris Anderson is the curator of TED.

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7 Tips to Make Board Meeting Presentations Productive

Board meeting presentations are unique and different from other business presentations for many reasons, such as their high-stake nature, strategic importance, experienced and diverse audience invested in the organization’s growth, limited meeting frequency, and the long-term impact of decisions. That’s why these presentations need an out-of-the-box approach to design and deliver them. 

Board meeting presentations can be a huge turning point in your career – they can help you hone your leadership skill set and grow in your role. However, crafting an effective and impactful presentation is indeed a herculean task as you feel under immense pressure to get it done right. 

To help you unburden yourself and reduce your worries, we have provided a few tips to make your next board meeting presentations engaging and productive. Implement these tips and ensure success!

Importance of Board Meeting Presentations

Though board meetings are organized less frequently, their importance and influence extend beyond the boardroom, ensuring governance and driving the company’s success.

A well-structured presentation can make the meeting more fruitful, saving valuable time for board members. Let’s discuss the importance of these presentations in detail.

• They foster accountability and transparency, bringing all board members on the same page.
• They facilitate problem-solving and informed decision-making.
• They help visualize the areas of strategic importance that need urgent attention from the board.
• These presentations let you communicate and explain critical situations and seek approval or guidance from the board members.
• Through these presentations, you can showcase the financial performance and health of the organization, which makes it easy for the board members to make necessary adjustments and set the strategic direction for the future.

What Topics Should be Included in Board Meeting Presentations?

Due to the high-stakes nature of the meeting and the time constraints of the board members, you would certainly not want to ruin the meeting by including anything irrelevant or less important in your presentation. So, we suggest you make your presentations crisp, valuable, and thoughtful by incorporating the following topics-

1. Business Performance Highlights

With this template, you can provide a bird-eye view of your overall business performance without putting information overload on your audience. Bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs, and area charts have been incorporated into this deck to let you present data related to annual/quarterly revenue growth, market share, profit margin, sales growth, customer churn rate, customer acquisition cost, etc. It helps top management get a glimpse of what went well, what needs to be improved, and how to proceed further to overcome challenges and grab opportunities.

2. Challenge and Solution

This beautifully designed template will help you draw the audience’s attention to the challenges and roadblocks you faced while working on a specific project and the solutions you implemented to deal with them. You can also highlight potential risks associated with marketing plans, initiatives, and strategies you look forward to executing in the next month/quarter and possible ways to mitigate them. This set of slides will allow you to seek management’s thoughts and viewpoints to convert challenges into opportunities.

3. Industry Trends

Include insights about the latest industry trends and developments in your board meeting presentations to acquaint decision-makers with the market dynamics, shifts in consumer behavior, emerging technologies, etc. It empowers them to uncover patterns and make informed decisions regarding making changes in the product strategy, implementing new initiatives to improve user experience, or investing in new technology to stay tuned with future trends.

4. Competitor Analysis

Showcase your company’s market position with respect to its competitors using this graphic-rich template. You can highlight the market dominance, product offerings, weaknesses, operational strengths, etc., of the organizations selling similar services or products in the market you operate. You can shed light on the gaps left by competitors, which your company can bridge through its offerings to get an edge. You can also depict the resources you need to stay ahead of the curve.

5. New Opportunities

Untapped market segments, underserved customer needs, new business-friendly international trade policy, etc. – there may be lots of growth opportunities for your company. You can highlight all those opportunities that align with your company’s strengths, expertise, and competence and ways to embrace them. You can also depict the need for employee upskilling, new technology implementation, and reforms in existing processes to empower the organization to tap into new opportunities.

6. Future Planning

You can present the firm’s future plan for expanding business in new geographies and markets, strengthening investor relations, outsourcing business operations, etc., in a visually impressive manner using this template. You can also show your product launch plan and preparedness for inculcating new trends in operational processes.

7. Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

This template empowers you to present the KPIs and reflect on the success of your initiatives in achieving organizational goals. You can also portray metrics and KPIs for recruitment drives, marketing campaigns, customer services, risk management, revenue growth, etc., to provide board members with a quantifiable measure to track progress and figure out variances.

Besides these, according to your presentation’s objectives, you can include slides highlighting the recap of the previous meeting, governance and compliance, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives, etc.

Best Practices for Making Board Meeting Presentations Productive

1. know your board members.

Understanding and knowing the board members’ backgrounds and interests will help you create a precise presentation that addresses their concerns. For example, if your audience comes from a finance background, they will be more focused on the costs, operating margins, risk-to-return ratios of a project or initiative, etc. If they come from a technical background, their focus will be more on the scope, work breakdown structure, the viability of design and architecture ideas to execute a project, etc.

In case your audience is from a diverse background having a different focus, you must create a well-rounded presentation to tackle each one’s concerns.

2. Develop a Powerful and Focused Agenda 

An agenda gives a perfect head start to your board meeting presentation.

As a presenter, a well-created agenda slide helps you in two ways- first, it lets you stay on track and avoid tangential discussions, and second, it helps you not miss important points. It also provides a snapshot to the audience as to what they can expect in the next 40-45 minutes, which encourages their participation.

To make your agenda more effective, you must keep it short and organize it in a hierarchical structure. Keep the most important items at the top of the agenda.

3. Send the Agenda and Other Materials Beforehand

Send the agenda, demos, reports, and all other materials and supplemental information to each board member in advance (at least a week before) for their review. It helps the audience stay on the same page, prepare well, and provide feedback or comments before the presentation day. It also enables them to bring more context to the meeting. 

As a presenter, you also get the benefit of sharing an agenda in advance- during the presentation, you can jump straight to the main points, skipping minute details. It saves more time for productive and fruitful discussions.

4. Prepare Your Presentation According to the Board’s Process

Owing to the less time in the boardroom, board members form important consensus and opinions before the meeting. During the meeting, they prefer to discuss the key points to finalize the consensus and make the decision. That’s why, unlike other business presentations, board presentations don’t have standard guidelines. Some of them are designed in such a way that allows discussions as the points come up. While others allow discussions at the end. 

Understand the board’s process first and then prepare your presentation. Get to know if the presentation should be formal, if the audience discusses the points in the middle or end of your talk, if you will be allowed to participate in the discussion, etc.

5. Keep the Presentation Short

As board members are responsible for the overall growth of the company, they have to look into all aspects of it – be it finance, operations, HR, etc. As a result, they have little time for your presentation. If you want to make the most of every minute of their time, avoid beating around the bush and keep your presentation concise and complete, factual and persuasive, substantiated and simple.

Here are a few tips to keep your presentation short-

• Summarize the essence or crux of your talk in one or two sentences.
• Make your narrative inductive instead of deductive.
• Include statistics, numbers, and data that support your key message.
• All details and bulk information must go into the attachment instead of the presentation.

6. Use Relevant Visuals

Not all types of visuals can represent your particular statistics or data with excellence. For example, if you want to showcase percentage data of the whole (let’s say, sales volume of different business units in a specific country), you can visualize it impactfully using a pie chart instead of a bar graph.

So, you must be thoughtful while choosing the visual for data visualization. Also, keep in mind not to brim slides with too many visuals, as it will only increase the cognitive overload. For example, image 1 portrays the information clearly through a table diagram. Contrary to this, image 2 makes it difficult to read and understand the information due to the inclusion of too much text and visuals (table and map) in the same slide.

Image Source

7. Focus on the Long-Term Results

Board members are more interested in gaining insights into how your initiatives, plans, or initiatives will help the organization accomplish its goals and create value for the stakeholders. So, as a presenter, your discussion must focus on the bigger picture, the end results, and the long-term impact.

Consider the following questions to prepare an outcome-focused presentation-

• What’s your proposal/idea/recommendation, and why should the board members consider it?
• How will your proposal or idea impact the organization in the long term?
• What are the potential risks and challenges in the implementation of your idea/proposal, and how can they be mitigated?
• Do you have enough data to support your points?
• Conclude your presentation within time.
• Add a CTA (call-to-action) to your conclusion.
• Within the week, send the meeting minutes to all the attendees (even to those who didn’t attend). It must include key decisions made, agreed-upon action items, and to-do’s.
• Rehearse your presentation well to avoid jitters and ensure confident delivery.

From preparation to follow-ups and sending meeting minutes, you must take care of many things to make your board meeting presentation successful. All your efforts may go in vain if you miss out on any crucial aspect. So, go the extra mile to spruce up your slides and spark engagement and collaboration with your talk.

The above tips will ease your presentation creation worries and give you the right direction to impress your audience. So, follow them and get appreciation in the boardroom!

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15 tips for delivering a successful presentation to the board

What do you do when everyone thinks they're the smartest person in the room, and all of them are counting on you for answers here's how to give a presentation to the board..

• Robin Gareiss, Metrigy

Over my career, I have had the good fortune to present to all types of audiences -- from major keynotes where the lights are so bright, I couldn't see the 10,000 people in the audience, to classroom settings with 50 or 100 people, to meetings with a handful of people in the room.

My favorite type of presentation is in a boardroom, where a group of insightful, engaged and typically smart people gather to learn, to set strategies, dream of new opportunities and make tough decisions.

While boardroom presentations are my favorite, that's not to say they are easy or stress free. The stakes are always high during a presentation to the leaders of a company, regardless of the topic. Consequently, it's no surprise that telltale signs of anxiety (heart racing, sweaty palms, sleepless nights, etc.) are in full force when these meetings loom.

But nerves can work in your favor if you remember the first rule of giving a talk: The amount of time and effort you put into planning and practicing directly correlates with a successful outcome. Here are some best practices I've learned that will allow you to use that healthy level of nervousness to sharpen the content of your presentation and help ensure success.

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1. Know the audience and the logistics of the meeting

Before starting work, ask who will be in the meeting and get biographies and photos of each person. Understand their areas of interests, their education and their expertise. You're there for a reason, so you need to ask, "What can I offer that they don't know already?"

There are also important logistics to inquire about. Basic questions you or your assistant should ask include the following:

• Is the meeting virtual or in person (or more likely these days, a combination of both)?
• What are the coordinates (physical address, virtual bridge, start and end time)?
• Is it OK to arrive early, and if so, can we get set up with our presentation ahead of time?
• Will there be a breakfast or lunch meeting that I should plan to attend?
• What is the dress code?
• Are there any preferences or requirements for technology (i.e., slide size, adapters, etc.)? Will I drive the presentation from my laptop, or do we need to send it to someone (and who) prior to the meeting to load into a broader deck?
• What format of a session does the audience expect (e.g., PowerPoint versus interactive virtual whiteboard)?
• Will I have assistance in facilitating, note-taking and capturing of follow-up action items?

2. Determine what the board needs to hear

Before jumping into the content of your presentation, it's good to know what the audience (in this case, the board) defines as a successful outcome. If it's possible to ask right up front, that will help guide the entire presentation. You could perhaps even survey attendees ahead of time to capture their goals, needs, challenges and anticipated outcomes.

For example, if success is about board members and/or C-level executives learning about a new technology under consideration, the job is to educate them. If success for the board is making a decision based on return on investment, run the ROI and make a recommendation.

At this point, you should estimate how much time you'll need to make the presentation successful and block out the time on your calendar.

3. Create and confirm an agenda

Based on the information gathered, create an agenda that details what the presentation will cover. Place time estimates for what will happen, when, and add extra detail about each section in the agenda document. Ask a colleague for a peer review of your presentation agenda before sending it to the board of directors for approval or revisions, if that step is required. Then, revise if needed and get started on the content.

4. Know your data

No matter what you're presenting, data and metrics are key. You can be incredibly smart and experienced, but your recommendations and insights will hold more weight and be more authoritative if they are backed by data. The data may require primary research, it may rely upon existing dashboards or it may come from third parties. But it needs to be part of your presentation.

5. Create the visual

There are many types of presentations you can create, and the proper one depends on the context. You can do a traditional PowerPoint presentation or consider whiteboard apps such as Miro to deliver your visual display. If the presentation is virtual, consider using technologies that enable interactivity -- i.e., Slido for polling, Prezi for placing you as a speaker in front of your content, or even capabilities such as Zoom or Webex's raise a virtual hand feature for questions. Overall, make sure the presentation follows these guidelines:

• Keep it straightforward. Use the presentation to make key points, but the true content should be in what you say.
• Keep it visual. Showing rows of words typed on a screen isn't adding anything to the talk track, so use visuals to enhance your message.
• Keep it simple. Don't cram too much on each slide or screen. In general, each slide should support one or two key points.

Once it's complete, make sure a colleague reviews it, which brings me to the next point.

6. Find your toughest critic

Run through the presentation with someone you consider to be a tough critic. Don't let your feelings get hurt if that person comes back with some harsh criticism -- that's good! Better now than in the boardroom.

Ask the critic to come up with tough questions, as well. That helps you prepare for what someone might ask you, and it gives you confidence that you've prepared for the tough interrogation.

7. Practice, practice, practice (in front of a mirror)

Regardless of how many times I present, I always practice for a big event. Literally, I practice out loud in front of a mirror, so I can see how I would look to the board. Am I projecting confidence or uncertainty? If the latter, it's time to reassess the content.

A good rule of thumb for presentation preparation is as follows:

• Run through the presentation first with your internal tough critics.
• Make revisions and then practice a day or two before the meeting.
• The night before, practice a third time in front of a mirror again, and get a good night's sleep. Sleep is very important to success. In addition, avoid drinking alcohol the evening prior to a big presentation.

8. Send the presentation -- wait, scratch that

Many speakers recommend sending presentations ahead of time. I disagree. When sending ahead of time, the board members don't have the benefit of context. They don't know what that picture might mean, or what point that chart supports. Worse, they come to the wrong conclusion.

I prefer sending a detailed agenda ahead of time and potentially supporting documents (research studies, product information, background on a project, etc.). But my recommendation is to send the presentation after you've given it, so the audience has the right context. Also, there might be questions that you'd like to address or clarify in the presentation before sending it. You can then address any issues prior to sending to the board.

9. Dress for success

This is a tougher decision than it should be. At first glance, you would think a suit is the right apparel for a board meeting, and most of the time, it is. But I've also arrived in a suit to meetings where board directors are wearing jeans and sweaters -- and then I feel too overdressed. It's acceptable to ask in the logistics meeting what the dress code is so that you align yourself with the "feel" of the room. Without that information, I would always dress up as a sign of respect and seriousness of the task at hand.

10. Arrive to the meeting early

Given any number of issues that could cause delay (traffic, car trouble, security upon entering the building, etc.), arrive an hour ahead of the scheduled start time.

11. Visualize the outcome

Several times before any big presentation, close your eyes and visualize the outcome: You're done with the presentation and the board members are shaking your hand saying, "Great job! That was fantastic. I learned a lot. I trust you to lead this project."

12. Bring an assistant

If budget and permissions allow, having an assistant in the meeting is incredibly valuable to track follow-up items, take notes relevant to your role, handle any technical issues and to provide any other support needed during the meeting.

13. Control the flow

It's important to stay on schedule, but you also want to allow flexibility, including time for questions. This is a balancing act. I typically like to allow interruptions at any time because if someone is hung up on something I said, they may not listen to anything else until that question is addressed.

14. Display confidence -- and humility

The practice sessions should inject confidence in your ability to deliver a stellar presentation. Remember, if you're there, you're there for a reason. You should have confidence. But that confidence shouldn't spill over to arrogance. In fact, it's important to have humility, as well. If you don't have an answer to a question, it's perfectly acceptable to say: "That's actually a great question, and I'm not sure of the answer. But I assure you, I'll have it for you after this meeting." Or, "That's a great question, and I don't have a hard-data answer, but I can give you an opinion on it."

15. Follow up promptly and measure success

Once the session is over, the quicker the follow-up, the better. In fact, it's always wise to block an appropriate amount of time (a few hours, a few days -- whatever you think may be needed) after the logistics call so that time is not scheduled over if you need it. Then, ask how it went and whether you achieved the predefined success criteria.

About the author Robin Gareiss is CEO and principal analyst at Metrigy, where she oversees research product development, conducts primary research and advises leading enterprises, vendors and carriers. For more than 25 years, Robin has advised hundreds of senior IT executives, ranging in size from Fortune 100 to Fortune 1000, developing technology strategies and analyzing how they can transform their businesses. Read more about her experience here .

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How to Run a Board Meeting that’s Engaging and Productive

Associations   •   Board & Committee Meetings

Board chairs who are well-versed in parliamentary procedures ( Robert’s Rules of Order ) and actively spark collaborative discussion are often the most successful in the boardroom. By pursuing a sufficient understanding of board meeting management best practices, board leadership can guide their fellow members toward forward-thinking strategies that promote organizational progress. Knowing the nuances of how to run a board meeting is a key part of this.

Your board meetings are when your team comes together to collaborate on your organization’s goals and strategize how you can make progress toward those objectives. From mission-driven organizations to for-profit boards, regularly coming together to have these discussions is crucial for your organization’s continued growth and success.

Board members lead busy lives outside of the boardroom. To get the most out of their time together, it’s up to board leadership to fully understand how to run a board meeting that keeps everyone focused to arrive at the right decisions. To help, we’ll take a deep dive into these topics related to board meeting management:

Commonly Asked Questions about Board Meetings

Board meeting management best practices, how to spark collaborative board meeting discussions, how board meeting software can help.

At Boardable , we work with all types of boards, including those at mission-driven organizations, corporations, and everything in between. Boards face unique circumstances that can’t be navigated with generic approaches. Using our direct experience, we’re confident you’ll be able to run more efficient board meetings—all it takes is a bit of extra guidance. Let’s kick things off with the basics!

To refine your approach to board meeting management, you’ll need to have any lingering questions answered first . A solid foundation of knowledge will empower you to confidently move forward when implementing new approaches and building an engaging atmosphere . Here are a few common questions that board leaders often have about how to run board meetings.

What are the steps to conduct a board meeting?

The order of board meetings varies depending on what needs to be accomplished. However, most follow the same basic structure. When following Robert’s Rules of Order, here is the typical order of business that boards follow when conducting meetings:

• Call the meeting to order. The presiding officer kicks off the meeting at the designated start time.
• Call roll. The board secretary calls roll for all attendees, including presiding officers, staff members, and guests. If a quorum is not present, the meeting cannot occur.
• Approve the agenda and previous meeting’s minutes. The chair moves to approve the agenda and then the minutes. At this point, attendees can request additions, amendments, or deletions. If there are no objections to either motions, the agenda and minutes are approved.
• Officer and committee reports. Reports are generally for information only. No motions are necessary unless the speaker presents specific recommendations for action.
• Old Business. The board goes over unresolved items that have been previously discussed and are ready for formal approval.
• New Business. Board members discuss any additional items pertaining to the organization’s needs. Action items are assigned.
• Adjourn the meeting. When there is no further discussion or the designated end time approaches, the chair moves to adjourn the meeting.

Take a look at the following graphic from  our complete guide to board meeting minutes . It helps visualize this exact process in a formal and organized manner.

Given the varying priorities across different organizations, you’ll naturally need to customize your approach. A general outline of a typical meeting’s stages, like the above, will help you plan your meeting. When implemented, you’ll have plenty of time to ensure all important agenda items are covered.

What do you say to open a board meeting?

The chair calls the meeting to order with a simple statement. They should say something along the lines of:

“Good [morning/evening], everyone! It’s [state the date and time], and I’d like to call the meeting of [organization name] to order.”

The officer then addresses any items of personal or perfunctory nature. This could include welcoming new members , thanking retiring members, and welcoming visitors.

Some officers like to change up their approach to energize the boardroom. Try opening with a success story to reiterate the organization’s mission or emphasize current initiatives. Say when a staff or fellow board member goes above and beyond or when the organization achieves a major goal.

A chair should only open a board meeting when a quorum is present, unless it’s unclear if it’s met until after roll call. Your governing documents will indicate how many attendees must be present to legally conduct business.

What should be discussed at a board meeting?

The most productive discussions are focused on the right agenda items for your organization. When laying out your meeting, center your board meeting discussions on these core topics:

Organizational Performance. Run through any major updates on the organization’s performance since the board’s last meeting. Talk about whether you’re moving in the right direction and where you stand in relation to goals. This is your chance to talk about milestones and major achievements, as well as areas where the organization has fallen short.

Future Strategies. After reflecting on performance, collaborate on how the organization should adjust its approach in order to promote progress. The bulk of any effective board meeting should consist of discussing strategies and determining an execution plan. Consider any roadblocks and develop ideas for overcoming them.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Assign KPIs to assess strategies your board wants to put in place. KPIs should be quantifiable, aligned with your goal, and realistically achievable. KPIs vary between organizations and companies , but common examples include client or donor retention, staff turnover rate, and acquired revenue. Concrete metrics like these will help measure your strategies’ success.

Overall, your board should deliberate strategies and approve plans of action, providing ongoing support to the organization as it grows. Keeping your discussions focused on the right topics ensures every moment is maximized during your board meetings.

Running your board meetings with a bit of intentionality can go a long way. There are some simple practices you can master to make meetings go more smoothly. Remember, the more your attendees feel their time and expertise are being respected, the more engaged and invested they will be in the board meetings’ outcomes.

Create Focused Agendas.

Your agenda is the driving force in your board meetings. As described in our complete guide to board meeting agendas :

“At the foundation of every good meeting is a solid meeting agenda. It sets the tone for your meeting and determines how engaged (or disengaged) your board members will be. With some simple planning, your [organization’s] board can drastically improve the effectiveness of its meetings. However, it takes more than just creating a simple governance checklist and calling it a day.”

Develop powerful agendas that set your board meetings up to be productive, collaborative, and engaging with a few key steps. Here are strategies for creating clear roadmaps that cut down on side conversations and get down to business:

• Note if a topic is meant to inform, seek information, or arrive at a decision. Knowing the end goal of each item upfront makes it easier to achieve it. Otherwise, your board could arrive at the desired conclusion without realizing it and unnecessarily continue the discussion, consequently wasting time.
• Begin with your most important items. Turning the agenda upside down like this enables leadership to receive feedback and spark discussion when everyone’s minds are fresh. Not only will this lead to energized meetings, but it may also encourage people to be more punctual since they won’t want to miss the interesting conversations.

When you’ve taken the time to develop a dynamic and thorough agenda, stick to it . Start on time, hit all essential discussion items, and end on time. Be sure to send the agenda to attendees in advance, giving them plenty of time to prepare and bring insightful thoughts to the table.

Get to Know Your Board Members.

Get to know your board members’ interests, discussion styles, and preferences to improve overall board management.

A well-structured board consists of a variety of backgrounds and personalities. For instance, some will talk first and think later. Others will think first and talk later. You need to know who you need to encourage to speak and who you may need to encourage to stop talking!

Take time outside of the boardroom to get to know your board members. The chair, executive director or CEO, and any other board leadership should meet with each member periodically to allow the kinds of conversations that are difficult in a group setting.

Just like your leadership, inspire your board members to get to know one another by interacting outside of the boardroom. Annual board retreats and regular get-togethers can promote camaraderie, leading to natural conversation during your formal board meetings.

Follow Up With Minutes and Next Steps.

So, you just had a great meeting with lots of productive decisions and discussions. Now what? Start by promptly sending minutes out to attendees (including those who were unable to attend)—ideally within the week.

The most productive board meetings result in a number of follow-up tasks and action items. Meeting minutes don’t just keep a record for posterity—they capture the to-do’s and summarize what the board agreed to accomplish before the next meeting.

Review your minutes, and designate tasks to the correct board members. It’s up to the board chair or administrator to check in periodically on progress between meetings.

To help, Boardable’s Minutes Maker feature allows for easy dispersal of your minutes. Publish them and instantly distribute them to all attendees. Save a record in your Document Center, or email a PDF to meeting guests. With extensive security precautions, you can rest easy knowing that all confidential information is protected.

Then, use the Task Manager to delegate tasks and assign due dates. Board members will be able to see all their assignments directly on their dashboards, and administrators can follow up when deadlines approach.

RELATED: Record clear and concise minutes for each of your meetings by following the tips in our complete board meeting minutes guide .

Evaluate Your Meetings at Least Once a Year.

By understanding what’s working well and what’s falling short of expectations, you can then use your board members’ feedback to understand how to run more effective board meetings.

At a couple of meetings every year, give every board member two sticky notes. At the end of the meeting, ask board members to give you a “+” (what part of meetings is going well) and a “-“ (what needs improvement). On their way out, have them put their comments on poster paper next to the door.

Alternatively, turn to technology to get the job done! Send out a survey or use polling tools to gauge your board members’ opinions about your board meetings. Get the most helpful feedback by asking open-ended questions or having board members rate different qualities of the meetings on a numbered scale.

It should go without saying that active participation from board members with a range of perspectives naturally results in innovative insights. Let’s think about some ways that we can encourage robust discussions, the kind that really get to the essence of the goals you want to achieve.

Finding new ways to energize board meetings isn’t easy, but with the following tips, you can keep everyone engaged and committed to furthering your work.

Ask Thought-Provoking Questions

Ask questions to draw people out and better understand the underlying assumptions of their arguments. Use non-threatening phrases like, “Can you tell me more about that?” or “Why do you say that?”

Sometimes views that oppose each other on the surface have more commonality when you delve into them to reveal their underlying assumptions. Asking questions can help the group come to a consensus so everyone fully accepts and understands decisions.

Here are some additional questions that can inspire discussion:

• What needs our immediate attention going forward, and how can we support each other in taking the next steps?
• Where do you see this organization in a couple of years? What can we do today that will make the most difference in the future?
• What was your favorite event with the organization so far?
• Has there been a mission moment or volunteer that has stuck in your mind?

These kinds of questions not only give you a sense of what motivates your board members, but they can also help identify areas that need attention. If your meeting attendees can’t or don’t want to answer some of these questions, it may be a sign that engagement is suffering.

Change Up the Atmosphere

The last thing you want is a bored board. Changing the atmosphere up every once in a while can energize your team, effectively boosting engagement and productivity. Beyond requiring active participation, here are a few tactics for getting your board members to willingly join in and provide their input:

• Meet in a different place. You can meet at a program site or at a restaurant for breakfast or lunch. A change of scenery can stimulate new ideas and discussion, effortlessly energizing board meetings. Changing the time of day from an evening meeting to a breakfast gathering can inject energy into conversations, too.
• Feed your board members. Most board meetings occur in the evening after many members have put in a full day’s work and would normally be eating dinner. Why not combine social time with food at your board meetings? Consider having one meeting per quarter catered if it’s in the budget. If not, have each member bring a dish to share. While they’re eating, board members have a chance to get to know other members that they might not otherwise talk to.
• Make education fun. Board education and development can be difficult to implement on an ongoing basis. There are ways to make it fun though, including tapping into the expertise of board members. Ask for volunteers to put together a presentation of relevant topics of importance, or, if there’s room in the budget, consider bringing in outside speakers who have the skills to help your board.

Board meetings don’t have to stick to the same structure or location. In fact, changing things up every once in a while can re-energize your team and spark higher participation levels. It might take some experimenting, and success will depend on what strategies work with your unique board.

Add a Parking Lot to the Agenda

Getting sidetracked by new discussion topics that pop up during the board meeting will eat up time and distract board members from the most important agenda items. Mitigate this by including a parking lot at the end of your agenda, where you push random topics that are worthy of discussion but not a top priority.

This part of meeting conduct requires a lot of discipline and a commitment to the agenda items. Get agreement from the group to be able to put items that are not relevant to the discussion in the “parking lot” and discuss them later in the board meeting. Be sure to fulfill your promise by revisiting the parking lot and assessing what should be researched further, added to the next agenda, or delegated as a task.

Keep Routine Items Short

Long reports and other routine items can quickly drag a board meeting down. The more you drown members in details, the more likely it is that they’ll check out. As a general rule of thumb, spend about 25 percent of the meeting on reporting and the “have to’s.” This leaves the majority of the meeting to discuss strategic direction and other critical issues.

For instance, cut down on reports by encouraging officers and committee chairs to share simple bullet points regarding what the whole board needs to know. At the meeting, board members can ask questions and make comments instead of listening to a minute-by-minute account of leaders’ work and committees’ proceedings.

A consent agenda helps immensely here. It organizes standard and non-controversial board action items away from the rest of the agenda so that they can be approved as a group.

These agenda items require board approval, but because they’re not controversial, they don’t require discussion. This may include the minutes of the last meeting, standard committee reports, the CEO’s report, or informational items. One motion, a second, and a vote approve these items quickly.

With so many elements to balance, running board meetings can quickly become overwhelming, and time can slip away before you know it. That’s where board meeting software comes in.

Dedicated board meeting software like Boardable Spotlight makes it easy to facilitate and communicate between your regularly scheduled board meetings. Built to meet the needs of for-profit and mission-driven boards, our end-to-end solution offers everything you need to keep board members focused and engaged—whether they’re attending virtually or in-person.

At a glance, here’s how Boardable Spotlight can help empower your team:

• Easily invite board members to join. Boardable Spotlight makes it simple to invite people to join board meetings. After inviting everyone, attendees will gain instant access to corresponding documents and all meeting details like the date and time.
• Create a clear agenda and record concise minutes. Plan your board meetings and with our intuitive Agenda Builder . Then, safely share it with attendees, and pull it up within Spotlight during the meeting to take notes. Quickly capture ideas, tasks, and decisions while streamlining board voting procedures during the meeting without shuffling between multiple tools and browsers.
• Enable video conferencing. Leverage our video conferencing tools, and stay connected with board members no matter where they are. Already using Zoom? No problem! Meeting organizers can integrate with Zoom and schedule meetings directly within Boardable Spotlight. That way, you can eliminate separate meeting links and access codes.

Boardable Spotlight brings together all the functionality your organization needs to meet regularly, collaborate seamlessly, and document decisions, so you can spend less time on board meeting logistics and more on fulfilling your mission. You won’t need a second monitor, a separate video conferencing app, or multiple open tabs to conduct highly productive meetings.

Ready to develop an outstanding board of directors with powerful board software? See how Boardable can help you empower your board. Start free now .

From sufficient prep work to timely follow-up, there’s a lot that goes into running board meetings. If any part of meeting preparation is lacking, it can affect the quality of the entire meeting.

Remember, meetings are your primary opportunity to gauge board members’ thoughts and get the best strategic guidance possible. Making the most of every moment is crucial for setting your organization up for success and making strides toward your mission.

While a successful board meeting looks different for every organization, many corporations and mission-driven organizations find success in the common strategies we covered. Taking extra steps to improve your board meetings will ultimately spark collaboration and contribute to a healthy, productive environment. In no time, you’ll notice that board members are much more engaged in conversation and willing to put in the necessary time and effort to reach your goals.

Solutions for Board Members

We know that what happens after a meeting is also critical. Keep post-meeting momentum going with a centralized hub your team can access before, during, and after meetings to promote autonomy and collaboration.

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Inform and empower your board of directors with these 10 tips for your next compliance presentation 

Phillip Winterburn Principal, Product Marketing and Strategy, Ethics October 11, 2022

Table of contents

• Best practices

1. DO organize your data and put it in context

2. do have a message, 3. do use clear and simple visuals, 4. do be brief, 5. do report the warts, 1. don’t live in a vacuum, 2. don’t pretend to know it all, 3. don’t wing it, 4. don’t confuse professional with boring, 5. don’t cut time from q&a, compliance kpis worksheet.

Giving a compliance presentation to the board of directors can be a nerve-wracking experience. Whether you look forward to it or you’d like to wrap the experience as quickly as possible, these 10 guidelines will set you up for success.

Showcase your data in a way that does so much more than simply satisfy your board members’ fiduciary responsibility about risk mitigation. Set the stage for powerful storytelling and illustrate how business growth depends on ethics and compliance.

Compliance Best Practices: Presenting to a Board of Directors

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Determine what key performance Indicators (KPIs) you need to measure so you can report out on your program’s performance and progress over time. Download our  Compliance KPIs Worksheet  today. 

Best practices when giving a compliance presentation to the board of directors

The purpose of a board meeting is to impart insight, wisdom, and knowledge, so leadership can make informed decisions. When time and attention are limited, consider using the  DIKW pyramid  (demonstrating how deep understanding of a subject emerges, passing through four qualitative stages: data, information, knowledge, and wisdom) as a framework for what you communicate and when. During your board of directors presentation, the goal isn’t to present every compliance program performance metric you’ve encountered over the previous quarter; rather, the goal is to tell a compelling story and present strong information, fortified by data, but not wholly reliant on it. Resist the urge to unleash a tidal wave of metrics and instead, pare down your information into concise and clear summaries.

For example, present how many hotline calls you’ve received and how many of them have been resolved. Highlight:

• Areas of significant change
• Relevant context demonstrating the “why” behind the numbers

Every board meeting is an opportunity to convey specific and intentional messaging. Before compiling your presentation, you need to consider what your most important information is, focusing on one or two topline messages. Once you identify the most important items, structure the story that will consistently amplify that message throughout the presentation.

The importance of delivering a  key set of metrics  in every report can’t be understated. But if those metrics aren’t paired with a comprehensive story, then you’ll never be able to properly demonstrate your command of compliance efforts. No matter what metrics you’re presenting, make sure you take the time to find the story living in your data.

If your presentation’s goal is to make the case for more compliance investment, focus on the data that supports your claim and demonstrate exactly how that additional investment would deliver a strong return.

Nothing can kill a presentation faster than too many words, charts, tables, and slides. If your goal is to capture the attention of your board of directors, you need to prepare your information in an easy-to-digest manner. No matter how much you love spreadsheets or PowerPoint, your audience’s attention span must remain your top consideration.

Keep your board interested by spending some energy on the style of your presentation. They’ll remain engaged and active if you consider how you’re communicating important information. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and the same is true in a board presentation; spend some time to find impactful imagery that supports the key message for that section of the presentation and doesn’t detract or distract from it. Give your presentation an executive touch by streamlining anything that isn’t necessary for the board to know. Use your notes to unpack what they’re seeing, rather than relying solely on your visuals.

Remember that compliance is your area of expertise, and your board of directors may ignore some areas that are important to you, while obsessing over topics you barely even mentioned. Save some time for a Q&A after your core presentation to allow for some deeper dives. You may find that saving a few important details for the Q&A will help you demonstrate your depth of knowledge, when your board is the most engaged. It is not the board’s responsibility to translate your presentation into key learnings and takeaways. You are tasked with clearly and concisely communicating the implications of your core message.

Don’t let your presentation omit or downplay problem areas. In order to be effective, the board needs to understand all significant risks, incidents, and missteps. No matter how effective a company’s compliance efforts are, mistakes will happen — and your board knows that. Avoid suspicion by faithfully reporting a comprehensive picture of your compliance program, warts and all.

After reporting on the problem areas, provide a corrective action plan. You’ll be able to engage your board in a dialogue about their thoughts and further strengthen your  compliance culture . Think of this as an opportunity for everyone present to learn from each other and remain receptive to feedback and suggestions. Your board possesses unique and valuable real-world experience, and given the chance, they might surprise you with profound alternative perspectives. After all, some board members sit on multiple boards and may have some applicable real-world insight if they’ve experienced a similar issue elsewhere.

5 don’ts when giving a compliance presentation to the board of directors

One of the easiest ways to contextualize your results and demonstrate your subject matter expertise is to use benchmarking data. Provide a frame of reference for the board by including:

• Industry averages
• Current best practices
• Your own organization’s past successes

If you don’t currently have access to benchmarks through your  compliance management software , this is a great time to make the case for why you should. Communicate how benchmarking should be a standard practice and will provide clear topics for future discussion on resourcing, progress, and program results. Make the need for benchmarking crystal clear by emphasizing how regulators or enforcement agencies will compare your company to others in your industry if you do come under investigation.

Even if every impulse tells you otherwise, you are allowed to say, “I don’t know.”

Even in a moment as important as your quarterly compliance presentation, admitting you’re not sure of an answer to a question is preferable to taking a wild guess or stumbling to find a vague answer. If a board member throws you a curveball and you don’t know the answer to their tricky question, communicate that it is an excellent question, you’ll find a thoughtful answer to it, and you’ll report back later.

There is no way to anticipate every question that will be thrown your way, but by demonstrating your eagerness to find the right answer, you’ll appear more knowledgeable than if you simply rushed to answer. Being prepared for what you don’t know is a crucial part of being well prepared.

The quality of your rehearsal matters more than quantity of time you spend practicing, so learn the value of  deliberate practice , rather than mindless repetition. Intentionally and deliberately rehearsing your presentation will help avoid disaster.

Plan your presentation and then refine your delivery by giving your presentation to your empty office, your spouse, or even your dog. If a living audience isn’t available, try recording your presentation and listen back. This simple act can help you polish your performance and identify any troublesome spots. Active rehearsal will also help you shake off the nerves that accompany public speaking; you’ll know where your tricky transitions, difficult statistics, or unfamiliar names are before you stumble in front of the board.

Even though a compliance presentation is a professional endeavor, it need not be boring. You’ll start with appropriate dress, careful language, and all other tenants of professional demeanor, but then you can invite a little humor or personal flair to your presentation. You can be conversational, friendly, and accessible, while remaining professional and polished.

Remember that you’re presenting to colleagues, rather than a judge and jury. Your presentation will be much more memorable and impactful if you find that sweet spot between professional and personable. Need more science to justify making your presentation more engaging? Narrative psychology supports the human need for connection via storytelling and personalization, “Transformation IS storytelling. While data and business cases are important for getting board approval, the story behind that data and what it can unlock in the future is what makes the case compelling. Behavioral science suggests that both data AND emotion are necessary to make change stick and that a personalized approach can make the listener feel both heard and seen.”

Source:  The key to successful transformation? Share the true story behind it 

Your board will have questions for you, so make sure you leave time for Q&A. Don’t rush this opportunity to demonstrate your effectiveness and compliance acumen; bake in some additional time for an interactive forum. Stage a mock Q&A by anticipating what questions you might be asked and prepare your responses. This exercise will help you drill down into any irregularities, trends, or key information to communicate.

Want some extra credit here? Stay up to speed on current events and any related headlines that might impact your company. If you know a board member never misses an issue of a particular business publication, make sure you don’t miss it either. Up to the day of your presentation, continue to check in with the news.

It never hurts to know more about your board, as both business leaders and individuals. Research the other boards they sit on, their unique career path, and any important milestones from their tenure. Human nature fixates on recent pain and problems, so if you know their scars then you can better prepare for their hot button issues and related lines of questioning.

Don’t know where to start, but you want to understand the cultural health of your organization? Are you looking to refine the KPI’s you already track like into resolution times, substantiation rates, or employee ethics investment? Download this interactive  Compliance KPIs Worksheet  to determine which metrics to measure and track over time.  

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Best Practices for Documenting Board Meetings

Accurate and exhaustive documentation of board meetings is vital for promoting transparency, accountability, and good governance in any organization. Establishing a clear policy outlining purpose, scope, and responsibilities sets the foundation for effective documentation. Preparing thorough meeting agendas and assigning a designated recorder guarantees capturing of all key discussions, actions, and decisions. Using standardized templates and including relevant supporting materials facilitates transparency and accountability. Following optimal practices for documenting board meetings enables organizations to maintain trust with stakeholders and comply with regulatory requirements, and understanding these principles is pivotal for organizations seeking to optimize their documentation processes and drive informed decision-making.

Table of Contents

Establish a Clear Policy

Every organization should establish a clear policy for documenting board meetings to certify transparency, accountability, and compliance with regulatory requirements. This policy should outline the purpose, scope, and responsibilities for documenting board meetings, verifying that all stakeholders are aware of their functions and obligations.

The policy guidelines should specify the type of information to be recorded, such as meeting minutes, resolutions, and actions items. It should also outline the format and structure of meeting documentation, including the use of templates and standardized reporting. Meeting protocols should be established to certify that meetings are conducted in a fair, orderly, and transparent manner. This includes guidelines for notice and quorum requirements, voting procedures, and conflict of interest disclosure. By establishing a clear policy for documenting board meetings, organizations can verify that their meetings are well-documented, efficient, and compliant with relevant laws and regulations.

Prepare Thorough Meeting Agendas

With a clear policy in place, the next step in documenting board meetings is to prepare thorough meeting agendas that facilitate effective and efficient discussions. A well-crafted agenda serves as a roadmap for the meeting, guaranteeing that all necessary topics are covered and that the discussion stays on course. To achieve this, it is vital to define clear meeting objectives that outline the purpose and desired outcomes of the meeting. This will help guide the agenda's content and structure.

In terms of agenda formatting, it is recommended to use a standardized template that includes crucial elements such as the meeting date, time, location, and list of attendees. The agenda should also clearly outline each topic to be discussed, including the presenter's name, the topic's objective, and the allotted time for discussion. By following a consistent agenda format, boards can verify that all necessary information is captured and that the meeting flows smoothly. A thorough and well-structured agenda is critical to documenting board meetings accurately and efficiently.

Assign a Designated Recorder

Assigning a designated recorder is vital to guaranteeing accurate documentation of board meetings. This individual should have a clear understanding of their function and responsibilities, including capturing key discussions, actions, and decisions. By doing so, the recorder can provide a precise and exhaustive record of meeting notes, enabling effective tracking of progress and informed decision-making.

Recorder Role Clarity

Clear designation of a recorder certifies that board meetings are accurately documented, facilitating efficient reference and decision-making processes. This clarity is vital to verify that the recorder understands their responsibilities and can perform their function effectively. The recorder's primary responsibility is to capture the discussions, actions, and decisions made during the meeting. They must be aware of the meeting dynamics, including the tone, pace, and flow of the discussion, to accurately reflect the proceedings.

To achieve this, the recorder should be familiar with the meeting agenda, have a good understanding of the organization's goals and objectives, and be knowledgeable about the board's decision-making processes. They should also be able to identify and highlight key points, action items, and decisions made during the meeting. By clearly defining the recorder's role and responsibilities, organizations can verify that their board meetings are well-documented, and their records are accurate, complete, and reliable.

Meeting Notes Accuracy

The accuracy of meeting notes relies heavily on the skills and attention to detail of the designated recorder. To certify accuracy, it is vital to assign a qualified recorder who can capture the essence of the discussion without bias or omission.

• The recorder should aim to provide a verbatim transcription of the meeting, capturing every word spoken, including discussions, decisions, and action items.
• An audio recording of the meeting can serve as a backup to verify that no important details are missed or misinterpreted.
• The recorder should have a thorough understanding of the meeting's objectives, attendees, and key agenda items to provide context to the notes.
• To maintain objectivity, the recorder should avoid editorializing or summarizing the discussion, instead concentrating on capturing the raw content.
• Finally, the recorder should review and proofread the notes carefully to verify that they accurately reflect the meeting's proceedings.

Use a Standardized Template

Employing a standardized template for documenting board meetings can substantially simplify the process, certifying that all necessary information is captured and presented in a uniform manner. This approach verifies meeting consistency, as all relevant details are systematically recorded and organized in a consistent format. The template benefits include improved readability, easier review, and enhanced compliance.

A standardized template also helps to reduce errors and omissions, as it prompts the note-taker to capture all required information. This leads to more thorough and accurate meeting records, which are vital for informed decision-making, accountability, and transparency. In addition, a consistent template facilitates efficient storage and retrieval of meeting documents, making it easier to access and analyze historical records. By adopting a standardized template, organizations can streamline their board meeting documentation process, saving time and resources while maintaining the integrity of their records.

Capture All Key Discussions

Capturing all key discussions during a board meeting is vital for accurate documentation. This involves creating a thorough meeting minutes summary, which highlights the pivotal points raised and discussed during the meeting. Additionally, it is imperative to clearly outline the key decisions made, guaranteeing that all stakeholders are informed and aligned.

Meeting Minutes Summary

A thorough meeting minutes summary is essential for effectively documenting board meetings, as it provides a concise overview of all key discussions that took place during the meeting. This summary serves as a valuable reference for board members, stakeholders, and minute takers, guaranteeing that everyone is on the same page.

• Identify and highlight key topics and themes discussed during the meeting
• Capture all action items, tasks, and responsibilities assigned to specific individuals or teams
• Record any votes taken, including the outcome and any abstentions
• Note any important deadlines, milestones, or timelines mentioned
• Clarify any ambiguous or unclear points raised during the discussion

Key Decisions Made

Key decisions made during the board meeting must be accurately documented to certify all stakeholders are aware of the outcomes and implications. This includes capturing all key discussions and deliberations that led to the decisions, as well as the decision rationales. The documentation should clearly outline the key decisions, including any actions items, responsible parties, and deadlines.

The meeting minutes should provide a concise summary of the board deliberations, highlighting the key points discussed, and the decisions made. This will affirm that all stakeholders, including board members, management, and external parties, have a clear understanding of the meeting outcomes. Additionally, documenting decision rationales provides transparency and accountability, allowing stakeholders to understand the reasoning behind the decisions.

Document All Decisions and Actions

During board meetings, a multitude of decisions are made and actions are taken, each with significant implications for the organization. It is vital to document all decisions and actions to guarantee transparency, accountability, and clarity. This documentation serves as a reference point for future decisions, allowing the board to track progress and make informed decisions.

• Document all decisions, including those made by consensus or vote, and record the names of board members who voted for or against a motion.
• Capture the rationale behind each decision, including the key factors considered and the potential risks and benefits.
• Identify the responsible parties for implementing each decision and the associated timelines.
• Use verbatim recordings or decision trees to visualize complex decisions and facilitate easier understanding.
• Verify that all documentation is accurate, concise, and easily accessible to board members and stakeholders.

Include Relevant Supporting Materials

Three crucial documents that complement board meeting minutes are reports, presentations, and other supporting materials, which provide valuable context to the decisions made and actions taken. These meeting materials offer an in-depth understanding of the topics discussed, enabling stakeholders to grasp the rationale behind the decisions. By including relevant supporting materials, board members and stakeholders can access a wealth of information, including data, research, and authoritative opinions, which informed the board's decisions.

Document attachments, such as financial reports, committee reports, and other relevant papers, should be included as part of the meeting minutes. These attachments provide a paper trail, enabling stakeholders to track the progression of a particular issue or decision. Additionally, they facilitate transparency and accountability, as they demonstrate the board's diligence in considering multiple perspectives and data points before making a decision. By including relevant supporting materials, boards can guarantee that their meeting minutes are thorough, informative, and transparent, ultimately enhancing the decision-making process and promoting good governance.

Review and Approve Minutes Promptly

Prompt review and approval of board meeting minutes are crucial to verify their accuracy, completeness, and timeliness. This confirms that the minutes reflect the discussions and decisions made during the meeting, and any errors or omissions are addressed promptly.

To facilitate timely review and approval, consider the following optimal practices:

• Designate a specific timeframe for review and approval, such as within a week of the meeting, to confirm prompt action.
• Establish a clear process for circulating minutes to board members, taking into account meeting frequency and the need for timely review.
• Use a standardized minute format to guarantee consistency and ease of review.
• Allow board members to provide feedback and corrections electronically, such as through email or a collaborative document platform.
• Set a deadline for approval, such as by the next scheduled meeting, to guarantee that minutes are finalized and available for reference.

Store and Retain Records Securely

In compliance with regulatory requirements and ideal practices, board meeting records must be stored and retained securely to verify their integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility. This involves adopting robust storage solutions that safeguard the protection of sensitive information from unauthorized access, theft, or loss.

Data encryption is a critical aspect of secure storage. By encrypting meeting records, boards can safeguard against cyber threats and confirm that only authorized personnel can access the documents. Additionally, cloud storage solutions offer an added layer of security, providing automatic backups, redundant data storage, and secure access controls. Boards should consider partnering with reputable cloud providers that offer robust security features and comply with industry standards for data protection.

When storing and retaining records, boards should establish clear retention policies, outlining the duration for which records must be kept and the procedures for secure disposal. By adopting these prime practices, boards can confirm that their meeting records are stored and retained securely, maintaining the trust of stakeholders and complying with regulatory requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can non-board members attend board meetings and observe.

Non-board members can attend board meetings as observers, but it's vital to establish clear guest privileges, guaranteeing confidentiality and minimizing disruptions, while also promoting transparency and stakeholder engagement.

How Long Should Board Meeting Minutes Be Retained?

Organizations should retain board meeting minutes for a duration that meets record retention and compliance standards, typically ranging from 3 to 10 years, depending on jurisdictional requirements, industry regulations, and internal policies.

Are Electronic Signatures Acceptable for Meeting Minutes?

Electronic signatures are widely accepted for meeting minutes, as digital authentication and signature validation technologies guarantee the integrity and authenticity of signatures, providing a secure and efficient way to validate approvals and decisions.

Can Board Members Request Changes to Approved Minutes?

Board members can request minute revisions, but changes to approved minutes should undergo a formal approval process to maintain document integrity and transparency, guaranteeing accurate reflection of decisions and actions taken during the meeting.

Do Meeting Minutes Need to Be Publicly Accessible?

Meeting minutes should be publicly accessible to promote meeting transparency and facilitate public disclosure, guaranteeing stakeholders have access to accurate and timely information about board decisions and actions.

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• Understand the most recent advances in the pharmacology and toxicology of anti-neoplastic drugs
• Be familiar with the diagnosis, evaluation, and management of hematologic malignancies
• Identify strategies for taking the board examinations
• Understand the epidemiology of malignant diseases and management of the medical complications of malignancy
• Comprehend the principles of management of gynecologic and other genito-urinary malignancies
• Identify the latest advances in cancers of the lung, the breast, and the gastrointestinal tract
• Recognize principles of new developments in biologic therapy of cancer
• 66.00 ABIM MOC 2
• 66.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
• 66.00 Completion

COURSE OVERVIEW

COURSE CONTENT This online course is divided into 3 modules:

Hematology Sessions:

• Session 0:  Anemias, Porpyrias, Red Cell Enzymes, Clotting and Cellular Morphology 
• Session 1: Hypercoagulable States, Consumptive Thrombohemorrhagic Disorders, Acquired Disorders of Coagulation, Qualitative Platelet Defects, ITP and Hemolytic Anemia
• Session 2:  White Cell Disorders, Bone Marrow Failure, Sickle Cell Disease, HIT/VITT, Limb Ischemia, Hemoglobinopathies, and Hematologic Complications of Pregnancy

Hematologic Malignancies Sessions:

• Session 3: Lymphomas, CLL, ALL, CML, Plasma Cell Disorders, and MGUS
• Session 4: AML, Bone Marrow Transplantation, Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Pharmacology

Medical Oncology Sessions:

• Session 5: Breast Cancer, Renal Cell, Bladder and Neuro-Oncology
• Session 6: Lung Cancer, Prostate, Testicular, Mesothelioma, Ovarian and Endometrial Tumors
• Session 7: GI Oncology and Sarcomas

The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Physician CME Credit 

The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences designates this live activity for a maximum of 66.00   AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s) ™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Available Credit

COURSE MATERIALS | COURSE ACCESS

When you register for the HEMONC Best Practices course, the registration fee includes:

• Access to high-quality ON-DEMAND  Educational Session and Board Review Session video presentations
• Access Online to the Course Materials (course electronic syllabus)
• Access to Archived Session Recordings until Wednesday, December 31, 2025
• All content can be accessed from any computer, mobile device, or smartphone
• Earn CME Credit and MOC Points

ON-DEMAND REGISTRATION FEES

GROUP REGISTRATIONS

• For group registrations, please contact the FINA Logistics Conference Services Team at [email protected] . 

PURCHASE DISCLAIMER

• Please note that the Ethos CE system is designed to track individual learning. The learning system does not permit shared login; any attempt of this activity will be monitored, and your subscription will be at risk of being suspended at GW's discretion.
• Please note that you must complete this on-demand course, so you can claim your CME credits and/or MOC points. 

CANCELLATION POLICY

• Registration tuition fees are non-refundable after purchase.
• A registrant who does not complete the course is still responsible for payment.
• If you have any registration inquiries, please contact our team at [email protected].

ATTENDEE INQUIRIES | FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

• Please contact the FINA Logistics Conference Services Team at [email protected] , if you have any questions.

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EY Center for Board Matters - How to achieve enduring board effectiveness (PDF)

We provide a framework to help boards achieve effective governance that positions their companies for strategic success and drives long‑term value..

• The right framework can help boards effectively fulfill their oversight role, position their companies for strategic success and drive long‑term value.
• A strong mission and clear engagement model along with effective information practices are foundational pillars for board effectiveness.
• Boards that strive for effective composition, operations, dynamics, decision-making, and evaluations can achieve effective governance.

I n a world of constant change, a company’s board plays an important role in helping move it forward amid rising complexity, innovation and periodic crises while remaining true to its purpose and values.

Knowing that the business, operating environments and stakeholder priorities will continually change in subtle or seismic ways, boards must help steer companies in the right direction. Boards can execute this critical responsibility by adopting proven approaches to drive, measure and achieve their own effectiveness to better oversee their companies’ strategic success and drive long-term value.

Download the PDF

The EY Center for Board Matters has developed a comprehensive approach and framework for understanding and enhancing board effectiveness. The framework includes a series of elements that must be intact for board performance to flourish. Two of these are foundational “effectiveness” pillars that guide the work to be done by the board. These flow through five “systemic” layering elements that embody the board’s operating environment. With a strong mission and engagement model supported by effective information practices, boards have a solid foundation for effective performance. The systemic board governance elements encompass the operating model and principles of an effective board.

Click on the framework elements to discover evidence of board effectiveness.

Board effectiveness pillars

Two foundational pillars guide the work to be done by the board.

EY Center for Board Matters. We support board members in their oversight role by helping them address complex boardroom issues. Find out more.

Board mission and engagement model

The board’s fundamental mandate is to provide insight, foresight and oversight on mission-critical issues that drive the company’s governance as it advances its strategy, operations, financial performance, and stakeholder engagement to drive long-term corporate value. Guiding this mission are the board’s own values.

Effective board members honor core traditional leadership values and skills, such as strong ethics and integrity; diligence and conscientiousness; an executive-level ability to communicate with, inspire and empower others; and a commitment to progress. Besides these qualities, effective board members have curiosity and a continual learning mindset, a forward-looking entrepreneurial energy and clear mission to provide oversight, insight and foresight on mission-critical issues.

In today’s business context, such mission-critical issues are expanding the traditional purview of the board and demanding oversight of complex, fast-evolving external risks and opportunities like those related to climate change, cybersecurity, and shifts in the political and social landscape. Companies, and increasingly their boards, are being called to weigh in on policies and positions related to the company’s values that may challenge its relationships with stakeholders. The board plays a significant role in overseeing that the company’s strategy, operations and policies are aligned with the company’s stated purpose and values.

Effective board directors must do the work to be as well prepared as possible, stay abreast of governance issues, and look to continually improve their performance. Of course, boards cannot do these things without efficient and effective engagement with each other, management, advisors and key stakeholders. Key engagement goals include communicating with, inspiring and empowering others as well as providing effective guidance to management.

This board effectiveness pillar is also anchored by the idea that boards can achieve higher levels of effectiveness when they develop a shared mission, engagement model and vision for excellence that they document in the company’s corporate governance guidelines.

Writing down and communicating these standards provides a clear North Star that guides boards in progressing the company’s purpose, strategy, performance and long-term value, regardless of circumstances. The engagement model documentation should also describe the board’s engagement model around policy and include details about when the board will weigh in, when it will vote on various topics, which policy-setting elements require board insight, and when it must be consulted before management can act. This clarifying model is critical to a high-functioning board and forms the foundation of the work to be done.

Evidence of an effective board mission and engagement model

• The board’s corporate governance guidelines articulate the board’s purpose, values and core engagement strategy and practices.
• Every board member can consistently state the board’s mission and the company’s purpose, strategy and long-term value proposition.
• Board members and management are in clear agreement about the mission-critical company issues that demand board oversight. 
• Each board member individually embodies core traditional leadership values and skills, including ethics and integrity, diligence and conscientiousness, executive-level communication skills and a commitment to progress.
• There is clarity as to the company’s core policies and when and how the board engages to oversee them.

Information infrastructure

Effective boards are rooted in the diligent design and maintenance of reliable and efficient information practices that provide timely access to the highest-quality information and people (e.g., advisors, stakeholders, customers) needed to identify, illuminate and address evolving mission-critical issues.

Boards should be specific with management about their information needs so that management is not overburdened with immaterial questions and potentially driven to expand board materials to include tangential information or excessive detail.

An effective board information infrastructure delivers in a timely way board meeting materials that are complete, accurate, clear, and concise. Tailored benchmarking can provide insight to boards on how their company compares with others, including the operational gaps and resource allocation needed to improve. Current and forward-looking information about complex and emerging issues should be presented in understandable forms, including graphics where appropriate and helpful.

Boards should regularly ask, “What information can we get – from whom and in what form – that will help us more clearly identify, understand, analyze and act on mission-critical issues?” They should not randomly reach out to management for information but look to the company’s corporate secretary to help manage information requests in a way that is mutually effective for boards and management.

It can help to develop a board reporting and notice matrix that lists the matters that require board oversight (mission-critical issues) and those that do not (management matters). It’s also important to address how matters in the gray area should be handled. For example, in what circumstances does management need to notify the board, and should that happen promptly or at the next meeting? This kind of matrix can provide the backbone of an effective information infrastructure and a foundation for a rational board decision-making matrix (see below).

Boards should never rely solely on management for their education and information. Broader and more strategic engagement, both inside and outside the company, is necessary for boards to obtain the information they need. Boards should ask for reporting on customer, supplier and other key stakeholder behaviors, trends and related economic headwinds and opportunities. Board members should also get into the field to see firsthand how the business operates and bring direct insights back to the boardroom for discussion.

Consultation with independent advisors is increasingly important on emerging and complex issues. Also, it has long been understood that board members, with their rich and diverse backgrounds, are expected to provide their perspectives, stay informed and bring insight and information to the board and the company.

Evidence of effective board information infrastructure

• Board meeting materials include a cover memorandum that succinctly describes in a clear narrative form all items on the board agenda.
• Technical documents, such as financial reporting, equity compensation plans, merger agreements or other material contracts, are fronted with a one- or two-page (max) executive summary of material terms.
• All board materials are presented with draft resolutions clearly specifying the matters the board or its committees are being asked to act on.
• Boards and management are diligent about how they engage with each other to share information, respecting established communications channels and security issues. 
• Neither the board nor management feels unduly overburdened with information overload or requests for information, respectively.
• The board regularly hears perspectives from third parties on critical issues and complex matters.

Systemic board governance elements

These elements encompass the operating model and principles of an effective board.

With a strong mission and engagement model supported by effective information practices, boards have a solid foundation for effective performance. The following systemic board governance elements encompass the operating model and principles of an effective board.

Board composition, structure and leadership

Making effective determinations about the competencies, backgrounds and experiences needed on the board is key to building a strong board, keeping in mind that diversity across multiple dimensions is essential to board effectiveness.

Based on an understanding of the companies’ strategies and emerging mission-critical issues, key stakeholder demands, and increasing regulatory scrutiny of board effectiveness, boards should develop and maintain, in collaboration with senior management, a competency map (or board skills matrix) that identifies and scopes the skills and type of experience needed on the board. This analysis, which should have a forward-looking orientation, enables a more accurate and objective determination of effective board composition, size and committee structure.

The best board members have traditional leadership values and skills, such as strong ethics and integrity; diligence and conscientiousness; an executive-level ability to communicate with, inspire and empower others; and a commitment to progress. Besides these qualities, board members should demonstrate curiosity, a continual learning mindset and a forward-looking entrepreneurial energy. They should be well prepared, stay abreast of governance issues and look to continually improve their performance.

Board size is largely dependent on the competencies needed on the board and should therefore be flexible and change as necessary based on the circumstances. Every director should understand and acknowledge that board seats are not open-ended guarantees: His or her presence on the board will be based on the board’s needs for his or her individual competencies and performance on the board. Processes for director refreshment and on- and offboarding directors should be clear and timely, and board succession planning should be evergreen.

In view of the board’s collective competencies, boards should strategically allocate member talent across committees. Due to regulation and exchange requirements, boards have established audit, compensation, and nominating and governance committees and financial services-regulated risk committees. Today, more boards are establishing other standing committees to absorb some of the work overload faced by existing committees and/or to drive focus on strategic issues. Our research indicates that the most common additional committees are executive, finance, risk, and compliance committees. Additionally, ad hoc committees can be very useful in nimbly addressing important shorter-term board matters.

Even when committee structure is established, questions arise around whether and how to allocate certain mission-critical board matters effectively across committees. For example, risk and technology continually expand and metamorphosize. The focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters is also evolving to highlight historical long-term value drivers and illuminate new priorities. We see that boards are allocating such topics across multiple committees, with certain overall responsibilities resting with the full board.

Effective board and committee leadership is critical. Board committees themselves should select their chairs based on competencies and leadership ability. hether an independent chair or lead independent director, must be dynamic, organized and free of any conflicts of interest.

Board renewal or refreshment, like diversity, is seen as a significant driver of board effectiveness. Data shows that effective board refreshment can lead to better corporate performance and avoid board staleness or complacency.  To support effective refreshment, boards should engage in evergreen director succession planning.

Evidence of effective board composition, structure and leadership

• The board maintains, in collaboration with management, a detailed board skills matrix for internal use in assessing board size and composition.
• The board’s corporate governance guidelines and committee charters clearly allocate roles and responsibilities between the board and its committees, including on mission-critical issues such as strategy, risk, culture, compliance, technology, cybersecurity, and climate change.
• Board members periodically move across different committees, and committee structure and composition are reasonably fluid based on the company’s needs.
• Committee chairs regularly collaborate on the most effective ways to govern overarching board responsibilities relating to strategy, risk and long-term value.
• Board and committee oversight responsibilities are periodically revisited as business environments and priorities shift.
• Committee chairs report to the board when they need additional resources, refreshed competencies or workload reallocation.

Board operations

After carefully designing the right board structure, the right operating practices must be implemented for effective governance. Board and committee leaders should know what mission-critical issues they need to address and collaborate with management to develop and maintain meeting schedules and orientation programs with appropriate frequency, sufficient time and relevant content. Meeting and orientation agendas should drive scheduled meeting times rather than the other way around.

Using last year’s calendar to create this year’s is no longer an effective practice. Boards and committees should anticipate spending more quality meeting time, both in person and virtually, in discussion with – vs. hearing presentations from – management, independent advisors, employees and other key stakeholders. All directors should understand that it is their duty to come prepared to engage, discuss issues and deliberate at meetings and not simply to review board materials and hear presentations.

Time is an issue. Many boards lament that there is not enough time for board governance necessities. To help, boards should get clarity on mission-critical company issues to help reduce board scope; improve the board information infrastructure to obtain timely, high-quality, clear and concise information on current and emerging mission-critical issues from the right people; use unanimous written consents for board or committee action on routine noncontroversial matters (or in other appropriate circumstances); and/or make more time.

Evidence of effective board operations

• Board and committee meeting schedules and core agendas are formalized for the upcoming year or two, reducing scheduling conflicts and director absences, but flexible to meet board and company needs.
• Board meetings are focused on discussion and deliberation, do not run over time, and agenda items are not deferred until a future meeting or converted at the last minute to a request for unanimous written consent.
• Board members do not suffer surprises at board or committee meetings.
• Executive sessions of the independent directors, with and without management present, are reasonably planned and appropriately documented in the company’s books and records.
• All directors attend all (or a vast majority of) meetings of the board and committees on which they sit.
• The board calendar (still) includes a two-day off-site meeting for strategy, long-term value and related matters, including talent, capital allocation and budgeting, but strategic topics are also included in routine meetings. 
• Board orientation is carefully tailored to the needs of the company and the board – time and resources are not expended on “template” learning.

Board dynamics

A positive board dynamic is one of the most critical elements in achieving board effectiveness. Many also believe that consistently maintaining a positive board dynamic can be challenging. For this reason, all board members, especially board leadership, need to work to nurture and consistently demonstrate respect and trust for each other. Without a culture of respect and trust, boards cannot engage in constructive debate and instead devolve quickly into dysfunction. In their discussions and deliberations with each other, at meetings and informally, all board members should show evidence of their commitment to the board’s mission, values and engagement model through active, informed and productive engagement.

All board members should actively seek out, hear and share new learnings, points of views and ideas. Board members should be intentional about diversity so they can gain enhanced perspectives that enable better problem identification and solution, stronger innovation and reduced blind spots. To elicit broad perspectives, all directors must be receptive to differing points of view and boards must practice inclusion – making space for fresh ideas.

Board members also need to exercise practical professional skepticism and hone their skills for engaging in candid and constructive debate. Each director must call up the courage and conviction needed to raise red flags, within the board itself and with management, and obtain satisfactory answers before lowering them. All board members should have an appreciation for and seek to build a culture of continual feedback.

Achieving a highly collaborative culture requires intentionality and skill, especially since board members will have different competencies, backgrounds and personalities to meet diverse company needs. Boards should acknowledge and proactively look to avoid the potential for bias, disconnect or misunderstanding. Upgrading individual communication skills and conflict resolution is one approach. 

Informal and constructive director communications between board meetings can improve director understanding and focus; however, directors must ensure that any critical offline conversation is brought to the full board as necessary. Boards should also work to schedule social opportunities and events for board members to meet and find common interests outside the boardroom to increase camaraderie and drive diverse board member inclusion.

Positive board dynamics include the board’s relationships with management. Boards should be mindful about developing and maintaining a strong rapport with management to enhance trust, information flow, and strengthen their respective performance.

Evidence of effective board dynamics

• Director participation at meetings is balanced: No single director or group of directors dominates agenda formulation, discussions or deliberations, and no single director or group of directors is passive or disengaged.
• If interviewed, each director would state that he or she felt included, heard and respected, and that all members demonstrate respect and trust. 
• There are no “camps” or “factions” among board members or among board members and management.
• Directors say something when they see something, and the board takes appropriate action.
• The board engages in informal ways between meetings to enhance trust and build personal connections.

Board decision-making

Boards should be highly conscientious and intentional about when and how they make decisions. Leading boards develop a process to support effective decision-making, based on applicable state and relevant laws and the board’s mission and engagement model. This process should include a clearly articulated “authority matrix” or RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) model maintained in alignment with the information infrastructure practices described previously. Simple RACI mapping that highlights various board topics and defines who (e.g., full board, management, a particular committee, lead director) is responsible or accountable for making the decision and who must be consulted or informed after a decision is taken can be incredibly effective around clarifying the decision-making process.

The matrix should be detailed enough to define for management when it must seek board approval to act and what the process is to communicate relevant information on matters not requiring board decision but still part of the governance process. Boards and management should agree on when the board expects to be consulted or informed about matters not formally requiring board approval or notice.

When engaged in the decision-making process, boards should diligently assess whether they have all relevant information. They should ask whether there are gaps in their knowledge or understanding, identify and examine key assumptions, and have practices to discover and address any biases or blind spots. They should ask probing questions and demand satisfactory answers about issues before them. For highly complex or significant matters, boards should work with the CEO or other members of senior management to fully understand all aspects of the matter. And, of course, boards must comply with their organizational and governance charters, including bylaw provisions, corporate governance guidelines, committee charters and, as relevant, company agreements calling for board approvals on certain matters (such as around valuation, indebtedness, specific policy, etc.). Decisions must also be documented in board minutes, so it is clear what agreements have been achieved.

For every matter before them, boards should question and assess how well the decisions they may make align with the company’s purpose, culture, strategy, risk tolerance profile, and sustainability goals. Boards need to spend the time, access appropriate resources and consider alternative scenarios and outcomes before making final decisions.

Evidence of effective board decision-making 

• The board and management maintain a delegated authority matrix, specifying corporate business matters that require board decisions.
• The board maintains a checklist of approval requirements in its organizational documents and under relevant law.
• The board chair establishes appropriate transparency around director voting by discouraging informal decision-making discussions and overseeing that the board’s books and records are in order.
• The board does not make decisions without sufficient considerations about the quality of the information, timing, and risks and rewards.

Board outcomes and evaluation

The ultimate outcome of a high-performing board is reflected in the success and prosperity of the business itself. A board should see the evidence of its efforts manifest in company financial performance, including growth through the innovation it fosters and cost reduction from the risks it helps the company avoid.

Indeed, investors, regulators and other stakeholders are seeking greater board effectiveness and are increasingly interested in board evaluation processes and results. The final component in the pyramid includes a board evaluation process that not only results in a more effective board, but also leads to investor trust.

A rigorous and strategic evaluation, especially when facilitated by an independent third party, allows boards to more objectively examine whether individual directors, board committees and the full board have the skills, experience, judgment, dynamics, and processes necessary to act as effective stewards of their companies and what changes may be implemented to enhance board effectiveness. Board and individual director self-evaluation plus peer evaluation can enhance board and personal performance as well as unmask board and director dysfunction.

Ongoing evaluations should encourage and maintain a real-time feedback process where directors provide constructive advice and criticism on current board operations or performance. This effort can identify how certain processes could be adjusted to drive greater relevance, clarity and conciseness.

Prior to designing and implementing an evaluation process, boards should determine the specific goals and objectives they want to achieve. The process should not be used simply as a way to assess whether the board, its committees and its members have satisfactorily performed their required duties and responsibilities. Instead, the evaluation process should be designed to carefully test whether the board’s composition, dynamics, operations and structure are effective for the company and its business environment, both in the short and long term.

Leading boards use targeted questions with the goal of eliciting valuable and practical feedback about board dynamics, operations, structure, performance and composition. High-quality feedback is what enables boards and directors to see how they can better perform and communicate, with the result that the company itself better performs and communicates. Template evaluation questionnaires cannot achieve the same depth of insight as a well-drafted, bespoke questionnaire.

Additionally conducting one-on-one interviews as part of the evaluation process can elicit valuable, detailed, sensitive and candid director feedback that may not be captured through questionnaires alone. Hiring an independent third party to facilitate the evaluation can meaningfully enhance the objectivity and rigor of the process and results. Third-party specialists provide new and different perspectives that can lead to improved action item development and evaluation results.

Evidence of effective board outcomes and evaluation

• The board, its committees and each director conduct a self-evaluation annually, enhanced by third-party facilitation when needed.
• The evaluation process results in the identification of concrete actions the board agrees to take within a specified period to enhance effectiveness through the achievement of specific milestones. 
• The board’s collective competencies map to the company’s strategic and technical needs.
• The company’s disclosures around the board evaluation process enhance trust in the board.

A highly effective board of directors is a great asset to a management team and a critical component of company success. Our experience finds that boards must deliberately manage the board effectiveness pillars to be certain they are working on mission-critical elements of the business and procuring the right information to drive decisions. Also, high-performing boards carefully address each element of the systemic governance framework to establish the use of an optimized approach that directly drives board value.

Questions for the board to consider

• In overseeing management’s performance, how does the board evaluate whether management is “living” the company’s purpose and values as described in the company’s code of business conduct and ethics? 
• How does the board engage with management in rigorous ongoing analyses of material and mission-critical growth drivers, risks and opportunities relevant to the company’s strategy, operations, performance and long-term value? 
• How can board materials improve with more sophisticated and broader use of succinct narrative stories that explain the matters being presented to the board as well as decision-useful dashboards, graphics, data, key performance indicators (KPIs) and benchmarking?  
• On mission-critical issues, how does the board diversify its information sources beyond management by engaging with independent advisors to help it assess the quality of management reporting and broaden its perspective? 
• Do the board’s corporate governance guidelines provide clear standards for director qualifications, continued service, tenure, and removal? 
• Has the board discussed using additional committees to address expanding board or committee roles and oversight responsibilities, particularly around risk, technology, cybersecurity, climate change, human capital management, and material ESG matters? 
• Does the board calendar make sufficient time for board engagement with management, key investors and other stakeholders, and independent advisors?  
• Is every director consistently prepared for board and committee meetings, as demonstrated by his or her engagement and contribution? And if not, how is that feedback provided? 
• How does the board effectively leverage the support of a well-qualified, trusted corporate secretary (or other member of management performing that role) to act as liaison between the board, its committees and senior management and to help design and maintain effective board calendars, agendas and meeting materials?  
• Is the board effectively managing and leveraging diversity in backgrounds and perspectives? Is there sufficient diversity in views to promote progress in the board’s mission while, at the same, time discussions stay on track and issues are not overcomplicated? 
• Does the board regularly review its framework for effectiveness so as not to have false security in its current mission, engagement model, information infrastructure, composition, operations, and business or board “norms”? 

An effective board of directors is key to a company’s success. Using our framework, boards can evaluate and better understand the foundational pillars and apply the five key systemic governance elements to achieve enduring and effective board governance.

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• July 3, 2019

Board Orientation Best Practices

• --> Written by Lena Eisenstein

Some board members attend their first board meeting knowing pretty much what to expect. Even experienced board directors benefit by having the opportunity to attend a well-prepared, well-organized board orientation session. A board orientation is even more important for inexperienced board directors. The more information they have before getting involved, the more they will be able to contribute to the organization.

A mistake that many boards make is not investing enough time in preparing for and planning a good board orientation session. The reason is often not having enough time. But not having enough time is more of an excuse than a reason, because boards will always make time for things they consider to be a priority.

A board orientation process is central to giving board directors information, context and perspective so they don’t have to pick things up as they go.

A Good Board Orientation Process Provides Great Value

All board directors need to be as well informed about how the organization operates as possible. They need to understand as much as possible about their intended role on the board. Much of what they need to learn in the beginning pertains to the roles of board officers, other board directors and senior managers.

A good board orientation will leave new board directors feeling like they can’t wait to share the news with family and friends. They’ll want to boast about the organization and its key accomplishments. They’ll feel valued and appreciated and be impressed at joining such a professional organization. As they enter their first board meeting, they’ll be ready to make a contribution from the first day. Board directors who feel well-prepared for their new duties and responsibilities will be your most engaged and productive board members, and quite possibly your future leaders.

Board Orientation Materials

There are two things that boards need to do to prepare for a good board orientation— prepare the materials and prepare the session.

Prepare a binder of materials for each board director to take home, review, read and take notes on before the board orientation meeting. This will give them time to gather up some questions and be prepared to get answers at the board orientation.

The first few pages in a board orientation should include information about the history of the organization. Keep it short, relevant and inspirational. The binder should also include a staff organizational chart, so they can get a glimpse of operations. Another nice addition is to include program highlights, accomplishments and successes. This is a good place to drop in information about current and future initiatives.

Board members need to know and understand their duties and responsibilities. This section should include information on fiduciary duties, committee participation, board meeting attendance, board meeting preparation and other pertinent information.

The board should prepare a roster that lists current board officers and directors, along with their contact information. It’s nice to provide photos and short bios as well.

Most boards require all board directors to serve on at least one committee . Prepare a list of committees and what they do, as well as the board members who serve on each one.

Prepare a list of upcoming meetings. The sooner board directors have this, the sooner they can get the dates on their calendars. Also, add a sheet that lists upcoming events and other meetings, so they can plan for them as well.

Provide new board directors with a copy of the current strategic plan, the executive summary, and a copy of the vision and mission statements. Add financial documents such as the approved budget, and most recent financial documents and reports. The audited financial statement is of the utmost importance, as it reflects the financial stability of the organization based on the perspective of a third-party financial expert.

New board members will need a copy of the organization’s bylaws, including any amendments and governance policies. It’s also helpful for new board directors to have a copy of the board meeting minutes for the last few meetings. Also include the agenda for the next, upcoming board meeting.

Nonprofit organizations will want to spend much of their time explaining how they approach fundraising, as that is a primary activity. A fundraising one-pager should depict the regular fundraising activities, which should inspire them to get involved quickly. At this point in the orientation, it’s a good time to point out that board members are expected to give of themselves and give of their wallets to the cause.

The Board Orientation Session

The board orientation materials provide the meat and bones of a board orientation. The orientation is also a good opportunity for new board directors to meet those they’ll be working closely with in person. The board chair, executive director, nominating and governance committee chair, and development person, if you have one, should all be in attendance and take a small part in presenting the program.

Every meeting should have an agenda that includes a board orientation meeting . Orientation usually starts by giving introductions so that new board directors can connect names and faces. This is a valuable opportunity to learn who does what and what each of them brings to the table.

After introductions have been given, many orientation organizers like to show an inspirational video of the organization, including information about the past, present and future. The executive director or CEO expounds on the video with a talk about the organization’s mission, vision and strategic plans.

Because the new board directors were given a board member orientation handbook right away, they’re bound to bring some questions to the board orientations, so it’s best to allow time in the agenda for these tasks.

For nonprofit organizations, it’s beneficial to have the fundraising committee chair give a brief talk to inspire participation in fundraising. The board chair may present a brief overview of the upcoming board agenda and the most significant issues they plan to discuss. The only thing left at this point is to schedule a date for the orientation and confirm that all necessary parties can attend.

If your organization uses a board management software program like BoardEffect (and they’d certainly benefit by doing so), the orientation is a good time to begin training on the system. You can always add more sessions later on if they need help accessing certain areas of the portal. Overall, a board orientation should offer a customized experience, and it should be one that places new board directors at the starting gate and ready to run.

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