All the experts are agreed on this: a key part of the board's work is what happens outside of the meeting room, outside of the actual board meeting.

There are three strands to this:

  1. Connecting board members into the 'real world' of the business more
  2. Preparing for the board meeting, and doing board work in advance that doesn't need to be done in a meeting — to maximise the value of the meeting.

It can be too easy for company directors and senior leadership to become detached from the daily reality in the business. Of course, this isn't a problem in small agencies where all the directors are very hands on in the daily work, but as you grow and have management teams running things, you still need to make sure the directors and executive leadership make an effort to stay connected with what the business actually does, how it does it, and how people are doing.