Board Self-Assessment is a critical board function that offers a useful platform for analyzing and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of governance. The board can take advantage of it to step back and honestly assess its own effectiveness. This will lead to better governance.
A successful board assessment process requires planning, time and participation of board members. The first step is determining the scope of the assessment. This could be the whole board, specific committees and/or directors individually. A well-designed plan will define the method of evaluation. Common methodologies include surveys, interviews, or facilitation of discussions. Once the scope of the evaluation as well as the methodology have been determined, it’s time to design and distribute questionnaires.
Some boards opt to conduct the evaluation internally, while others hire a third-party consultant. A third-party consultant can ensure an objective and thorough analysis, which is vital if you do not have the time or resources to do the evaluation yourself.
It is essential that board members evaluate themselves. However it is also crucial that nonprofit boards focus on the whole. It is easy for nonprofit boards and their evaluation facilitators to get caught up in assessing individual responses and not pay attention to the board as a whole.
A successful self-assessment is able to help boards clarify expectations, reveal deficiencies in the composition of the board and align knowledge of the board with the organization’s strategy, address concerns from investors regarding diversity and turnover, and increase the efficiency of their board practices and procedures. In their proxy statements, public companies publish the results of their boards’ evaluations.
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