Your Board Already Knows the Numbers — They’re Deciding If You’re the Problem

Read time: 2.5 minutes

How to Demonstrate What Your Board Evaluates in the Course of Their Business

1️⃣ Boards will evaluate your ability to exercise judgement, not only your performance.
When you miss your targets, you may have an explanation, but you will not be forgiven if your thinking was flawed.
Fix: Communicate the decision you made as the conclusion and limit your superfluous explanation.

2️⃣ When you provide too much detail, it creates doubt by overwhelming your audience with background.
Fix: Keep your communication concise, structured, and to the point.

3️⃣ Using hedge language ruins your credibility.
If there is uncertainty in the words you use, there is uncertainty that will be projected by you as a leader.
Fix: Say what did not work, what stops here, and what we will do going forward.

4️⃣ A defensive posture reduces trust in you as a leader.
Explaining why things happened does not create confidence in you now.
Fix: Concentrate on what we are going to do moving forward.

5️⃣ Clarity communicates to your leadership.
The best CEOs are leaders who provide clarity during difficult situations.
Fix: Communicate and make decisions using an explicit decision-first process.

💡Key Takeaway: 

When things are going well for the board of directors, they will not judge you. But if something goes horribly wrong, your board will evaluate everything about that incident, including whether it will place further capital with your company.

Every board meeting is held to answer one question: "Would we trust this CEO with additional capital today?"