Maintaining a fresh, dynamic and engaged Board is one of the most important tasks any Board can have.
And part of that is planning proactively for Board renewal.
Don’t just wait for someone to say they’re leaving – as much as possible, keep across your fellow Board members’ intentions as far as their terms, renewals, or any potential mid-term resignations are concerned.
This is particularly important if you are the Board Chair, part of the Executive Sub-committee, or a member of a Nominations Sub-committee that leads Board renewal processes.
I always recommend starting your Board Succession Planning six months (and, no, that’s not a typo!) from the time you intend to appoint your new Board members.
That will give you the time you need to be thorough and considered in the three critical stages of good Board succession planning.
The first of those stages is the preparation stage.
This is when you stand up your Nominations Sub-committee and ensure you have all the documents, policies, procedures, etc in place to guide your Board member recruitment process and enable it to run effectively.
Your Board Skills Matrix is a particularly important tool in Board succession planning, and now is the time to ensure it reflects all the key attributes and skills you want to see around your Board table going forward.
Stage two is the planning stage.
This is when you reconfirm with your current Board members whose terms are coming to an end, who intends to renominate, and what vacancies you will have.
This is also the time when you use your up-to-date Board Skills Matrix to assess what gaps you will have if/when any of the current Directors step down.
Once you have a clear picture of the skills you are needing to recruit to, now is also the time to start thinking about who you know who might make suitable Board candidates, and where you might go to find others.
Stage three is where we press the GO button, and the rubber really hits the road.
I usually recommend starting this stage at least three months prior to you planned Board appointments date.
This is when we kick off all our recruitment activities – advertising, shoulder-tapping, receiving applications, interviewing, shortlisting, referee-checking, etc.
Your constitution will likely require a formal process to vote your preferred candidates onto the Board, so make sure you don’t forget to do that step too.
Once you have undertaken all your recruitment activities and confirmed your new Board members, don’t forget the all-important onboarding, orientation and induction activities – another area I see many organisations fall short on, unfortunately.
This is the formula I use when I work with organisations on their Board succession planning, and I always find it works really well.
So, by following the steps I have outlined above, I can just about guarantee you will end up with an energised Board, all refreshed and raring to go!
And if your Board needs my help with this, do get in touch with me at megan@mjbconsulting.net.au, or book in a zoom chat with me HERE, and let’s talk.
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