High performing boards

by. Anthony Demangone

Many board members, regardless of industry, view themselves as moderately effective, at best.

But some board members see themselves as highly effective.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see how those highly-effective boards spend their time?  Thanks to McKinsey & Company, you can.

They surveyed nearly 800 directors from multiple industries. And here’s what they found:

  • “Effective” boards spend more time on the job. Roughly 40 days a year, versus 19 day for those directors who see their impact as moderate or lower.
  • “Effective” boards spend more time on strategy, such as what drives value, the allocation of resources, talent management and how the board itself functions.

This graph does a nice job summarizing their research:

I urge you to take a look at the study and dig in. But here’s a great exercise. Look a the graph above. for each category, rate how your board is doing on a scale of 1-to-10. (Ten being the best score.)

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