By Julie Garland McLellan on December 29, 2010
Three common issues that can hamper even skilled, ethical and intelligent directors: conflicted relationships, committee thinking and shareholding!
By Julie Garland McLellan on December 15, 2010
Many directors of Government owned enterprises take up the role because they want to have an effect on the organisation and, through the organisation, on the society they live in and will bequeath to their children. Even directors who do not profess a burning sense of mission will admit to a deep sense of responsibility for organisational and societal outcomes. Only directors who can apply their passion in a board-appropriate manner will successfully manage to influence events and corporations. Few directors receive any training in how to do this.
By Julie Garland McLellan on November 19, 2010
This blog post explores the use of detailed board minutes and the risks of inadvertent disclosure.
By Julie Garland McLellan on November 5, 2010
This post examines some of the differences in thinking between managers and directors. It explains how to assist when a novice director needs help in making the required changes to their thinking.
By Julie Garland McLellan on October 11, 2010
Boards need to discuss horrible ideas: the idea that your product might no longer be relevant to your target market, the idea that your staff might prefer to work elsewhere, or that your technology might leave you unable to deliver goods and services. These are not issues that management like to talk about and, indeed, [...]
By Julie Garland McLellan on July 31, 2010
Recent calls by the governance advisory community for the individual voting record of each director to be disclosed to shareholders are missing an important aspect of boardroom dynamics – joint and several liability.
By Carter McNamara on May 21, 2010
Why a Policy for Making Decisions? How often have you heard Board members assert that they’d made a decision, when they really hadn’t — all they had done was talk about a topic for a long while? Or, how often have some Board members or the Executive Director asserted that a decision had been made, [...]
By Carter McNamara on May 10, 2010
When you ask Board members if they’ve been trained, it’s not uncommon that they’ll answer, “Yes”. But many times, they’ll be wrong. Board Orientation Board orientation is about the unique aspects of the organization. It might include introductions and team building among Board members, overviews of the organization’s products and services, celebration of the organization’s [...]
By Carter McNamara on April 4, 2010
A common question about Boards is “How many members should we have?” Usually that question spawns a range of answers. For for-profits, some answers might be “The less members you have, the less the Board will be a pain for the CEO” or for public corporations, “It depends on requirements of Sarbanes Oxley.” For nonprofits, [...]