Labcast: How to Run Effective Board Meetings
February 21, 2013
This week’s Labcast features Part II of the discussion between OpenView Venture Partner, Firas Raouf, and Pascal Levensohn, Managing Partner at Levensohn Venture Partners, on the keys to building and managing effective boards of directors.
According to a recent OpenView survey of expansion-stage CEOs and board members, the ability to run effective board meetings is among the greatest factors that will determine the success or failure of a board of directors.
The key points that CEOs need to bear in mind to host effective board meetings, the survey found, include:
- Engaging board members individually before meetings to discuss meeting materials, answer questions, and ensure alignment on the top two or three strategic topics.
- Ending meetings with a clear consensus around the top action points and strategic topics, and following up afterward with a meeting summary and conclusion.
- Developing a consistent meeting agenda, re-stating that agenda at the beginning of each meeting, and reasonably sticking to it
- Distributing meeting material, operational reviews and corporate financials to the board at least a week in advance of the meeting
This week, in the second part of our series on boards of directors, OpenView Venture Partner Firas Raouf continues his discussion with Pascal Levensohn, Managing Partner at Levensohn Venture Partners, to focus on how to run effective board meetings (listen to Part I here). Specifically, they discuss:
- Best practices for running board meetings
- The responsibility of the CEO before, during, and after the meeting
- The responsibility of the other board members before, during, and after the meeting
- How to address board members’ bad habits
- Managing investor board members
Make Your Board Meeting Extraordinary
Listen to the full podcast by clicking the link below.
Labcast 100_ Firas Raouf Interviews Pascal Levensohn About Running Successful Board Meetings
You can also listen to Part I of the podcast here.
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- Understand the value that an effective board of directors can provide
- Assess whether or not it is time to change your current board
- Recruit and assemble a high-performance team
- Establish a clear management rhythm to engage your board effectively