A well-organized meeting of your board of directors will allow you to make informed and ethical decisions. The board needs to be able to read documents, participate in discussions and reach a common understanding on difficult issues. The meeting should be properly documented, allowing for future reference and also to ensure compliance. It can be a challenge to navigate, but making sure the board is making the most of its time and resources is crucial for the success of your company.

Board work can be both exciting and exhausting. To keep meetings productive, it’s essential to avoid these common mistakes.

1. Recalling discussion points from the previous meeting

Reliving the discussions of the previous board meeting will take up time and distract you from the most important agenda items. You won’t be able meet the board’s meeting goals if you get sidetracked with new discussion topics. If you must discuss a topic that wasn’t originally on the agenda, then have the group agree to bring it to the close of the meeting and make the commitment to review and reconsider whether the topic should be researched further or added to the next agenda or delegated to the task.

2. Sharing too much information

Board members need to be well-informed. However, the board’s agenda should be at a level that can foster constructive discussion and stimulate questions, not be an exhaustive explanation of each piece of information that is available for board review. It may sound a bit like playing a pre-school teacher however it allows the board to focus on the most important decisions and ensures that they are dealing with the issues when their decision-making abilities are at their peak.

running a board meeting