Identify Board Recruitment Best Practices
Board recruitment best practice is crucial for so many organizations. I want you to develop the ideal board matrix, which consists of the personal characteristics and attributes of the ideal board. If you were starting today, what would be the personal characteristics and attributes that you would want on your board? Here’s a sample of some of those characteristics:
- Inspirational leadership
- Access to influence and wealth
- Recognize brand identity
- Having racial and gender diversity
- Being a change agent
- Being perceived as an innovative strategic thinker
- Being known as a decision-maker
- A collaborator
- Maybe someone technologically savvy
- Certainly being someone that is very passionate
Please note that in this exercise, personal characteristics or attributes are not skills. I’m not talking about the Noah’s Ark of skill sets, like CPA, lawyer, professor, doctor, et cetera. I then want you to identify the current board matrix, and what would be their personal attributes. So what are the attributes you ideally would want to have? What are the attributes you currently have? Based upon the ideal board matrix in step one, and the current matrix in step two, identify the gap or difference between what key characteristics or attributes are lacking, and which personal attributes are a priority for you.
Once you have identified those personal attributes and characteristics, begin to discuss amongst your current board and stakeholders who they might identify who possess such a characteristic or attribute. At this stage, you are attempting to identify names of people. You are not yet nominating them.
After you have conversation with your stakeholders in helping you identify potential individuals with your desired characteristics and attribute, rank them according to your specific needs, such as diversity, could be racial, could be gender, could be geography, and then begin to rank them on your specific needs for a specific skill set, like CPA, lawyer, corporate educator, et cetera. Rank each of the identified candidates based upon the last step, and invite them to meet with a member of your governance committee. Interview them to see if they have potential interest in serving on your board.
Remember, nominating individuals that current board members know is appropriate and encouraged. However, the ideal board consists of individuals that are recruited based upon agreed upon criteria of personal characteristics or attributes, and then based upon professional skills.
Board Reappointment Criteria
One of the challenges that many boards have is reappointing current board members, so let’s talk about the kind of criteria that you should be thinking about and have a board approval on for reappointing your current members. One is meeting attendance. Usually, the average is about 75%. Listen, people have business affairs to go, family obligations at times, but your board members should be attending your meetings on average about 75% of the time. Each one should be participating in a committee. They should be serving as an at-will and goodwill ambassador. They should be a cultivator and solicitor. They should be making a financial contribution. They should be motivated, passionate, and enthusiastic about your organization.
If they are not meeting those criteria, you should be having a discussion with them whether or not they really want to be on the board. Having up front, board approved criteria so when people’s terms are up, they’re going to know whether or not they’ve met the term. Now, one way of doing it is asking those board members to have a self-evaluation similar to what you did with your CEO. Ask them to evaluate themselves. Are they participating in their meetings? Are they going to a committee meeting? Are they making a contribution, too? That’s probably important to do.
Term Limits
An important issue for every board member to consider is the issue of term limits for their members. As in every aspect of organizational life, there are many opinions on both sides of the issue. Based upon my experience, I do believe that term limits are an integral part of best practices for board governance, and I strongly recommend they be incorporated into your bylaws and governance practices for the following three reasons. Serving on the board is a time consuming job, and everyone needs to occasionally recharge their batteries. They ensure that fresh ideas, talents, and new perspectives are brought to the board room. They allow for planned removal of poor performing board members whose passion has become stale.
However, every effort can still be made to keep those long serving board members involved in the organization, especially those who are well respected members whose knowledge of organizational and institutional history can be beneficial to the organization. Board members whose terms expire can still serve on a board committee without serving on the full board. They can participate in fundraising and development initiatives, and they can be part of an advisory board and called upon for their advice on a wide range of issues.
It is best to stagger board terms so that only a few members leave each year, not more than one-third at a time. I also suggest that the time of the term length being a two to three year range, and a maximum length of terms being the three to four range so that no one board member serves more than 10 years on the board.
QUESTIONS:
- Does your board have a governance committee?
- Has your board created an ideal matrix of personal attributes that would be ideal for your board?
- Would you describe your current board recruitment practices as effective?
- Does your board have an approved criteria list for reappointing current members to new terms?