10 tips for running effective board meetings

A critical part of investor involvement and due diligence is serving on the boards of directors.

When I was reporting to the board of a public company, the make-up of the board was the same as it is at an early stage startup.

When I was a CIO, I presented information and strategy for my piece of the business. I was curious to see how the meetings were run when I sat in on them. I joined the board of a startup before moving to Ridge. I've served on six boards and spoken with hundreds of people.

Board meetings give tremendous value to their creators. They can be tedious tasks that members dread or a disorganized mess. They can run too long, lack the right content, need too many follow ups, or fail to drive enough action.

Remember that board members have a fiduciary duty, and will not always agree with you on how best to move forward.

People are frustrated when they can't speak up and be heard. Getting the most out of your board meetings is dependent on having a clear process in place that allows for focused work to get done efficiently.

There are a number of quick tips to make your board meetings run smoothly.

Planning and consistency are critical

The board deck should be distributed several days in advance. The process may be driven by the founder in the early stages. Key updates from other leaders will be needed as the company grows.

Give your key stakeholders the chance to add content at regular intervals if you start early. Before the meeting, give your agenda to the board members so they can see it. Follow up promptly and include a recap of action items to make sure everyone knows what's expected of them. A clear set of actions is needed. Hold people accountable by keeping a record of what they have done.

Keep the meeting on track

If a conversation lasts too long, move it to a parking lot for an offline discussion. This is a good time to report, talk about where you need help, and plan. You don't want a whiteboard session if you enjoy healthy debate.

Let employees present

Have a key engineer come in to give a product update, or have the sales lead responsible for a major customer win come in and talk about what happened.

Many employees who don't have regular opportunities to interact with the board consider it a huge career boost to get face to face credit for an important accomplishment. Make space for the person who is best suited to talk about the success story.