Board & CEO Engagement

Dwayne Wescombe
Nov 25, 2018
2 min read

The relationship between a Board and its CEO is THE most critical relationship in any organisation. If this relationship is not working then the organisations' effectiveness will be significantly hampered - even the very long-term existence of the organisation could be at risk.

While there are many factors that contribute to the Board/CEO relationship I strongly believe the very first steps in ensuring this relationship is strong is to have a Board and a CEO who: 1) Are fully engaged with the organisation; and 2) Who understand and respect their respective roles.

The engagement of a Board is primarily driven by its President and its own internal Governing documents – but this is a topic in its own right and will be covered another day.

The engagement of a CEO is, in the first instance, driven by the CEO’s own passions, personality, interests, experience, resilience and background. In the second instance, it is the Boards responsibility to create an environment that ensures the CEO’s ongoing engagement. A badly managed environment can diminish a CEO’s engagement very quickly. Again this is a topic for another day.

The four quadrants described below (also see diagram) describe the 4 extremes and the outworking of each scenario.

Board and CEO Disengaged - No growth - No strategic direction - Strong minority groups rising to power - Organisational atrophy - Little to no accountability - Going through the motions - Organisation-wide unrest OR apathy - Organisational disarray - Complacent staff - Unhappy clients

Board Engaged – CEO Disengaged - Board displaces the CEO role - Goals set with no operational input - CEO blocks/opposes Board - Governance by micromanagement - Minorities sympathetic to Board rising to power - Board not accountable to the organisation

CEO Engaged – Board Disengaged - CEO displaces the Boards role - Governance by observation - CEO not accountable to Board - Goals set without Board input - Inadequate diversity in decision making - Minorities sympathetic to the CEO rising to power - An environment for unethical behaviour

Both CEO and Board Engaged - Strong strategic direction with operational input - CEO partnering with Board - Governance by leadership - Board & CEO accountable to each other - Clear communication to all stakeholders - Strong diversity in decision making - Organisational growth

While I have seen, worked with or experienced Boards that clearly fall into each of these quadrants I openly acknowledge it’s not usually this clear-cut and levels of engagement are a sliding scale.

At the end of the day, the Board is responsible for ensuring the Board/CEO relationship is strong. To ensure this all Board Members should: - Be engaged with the organisation - Understand the role of a Board; - Understand the roles and responsibilities of directors; - Be inducted onto the Board; - Understand the organisations governing documents; and - Understand the legal framework in which the organisation operates.