Achieve better board management with a world-class Office of the CEO
Dear Office of the CEO: avoid a Sam Altman-OpenAI board fiasco by deepening your CEO-board relationship.
Deliver an exceptional board experience for your internal team and the board itself. The payoff is huge - you avoid uncomfortable oversight and you enjoy more strategic, insightful discussions on where to lead your company.
Otherwise, the downside is tragic - your CEO might lose their job and the entire Office of the CEO team suffers a hit to their own personal reputations. Don’t pull an Open AI. So what board services should you provide in the Office of the CEO?
Board Prep
The Chief of Staff or a very senior Executive Assistant coordinates the creation of board meeting materials, well in advance of the actual board meeting. This can include interfacing with your finance, strategy, operations and business leaders to source the data and content that will go into the board deck.
Ask for what you need, weeks in advance. You will clean the data, update charts, perform analysis, propose a narrative arc and prepare a first draft for the CEO’s review. Then come several rounds of edits and reviews with the stakeholders mentioned above. This ensures that your company narrative is strong, strategic and compelling.
Buckle up, you might get up to v15 of the deck, depending on how many drafts you go through. The best board decks anticipate and handle all potential objections and questions from the board. Recall past questions and comments from board members, and be sure to preemptively address them.
Do you need to address new AI technology, a faulty product recall, or company culture? Ask yourself - are there any holes in our story, or is it water tight? Board prep can be stressful and time intensive on top of the daily responsibilities, so make sure you carve out extensive timeblocks to get it done. Avoid treating this like a last-minute school project that’s due the next day.
Board Meetings
Of course, the CEO is the main company attendee of the board meeting. The Chief of Staff or Executive Assistant can also be invited into the board meeting itself, and select committee meetings on a case by case basis. Approval sessions are rarely attended by the Chief of Staff and Executive Assistant. Board meeting minutes are the responsibility of the company secretary.
As the meeting progresses, be alert, notice who is saying what, and take a temperature check of the room. Ask yourself: is the conversation frosty or is it warming up quite nicely? Has one of the board members changed their tone or demeanor from your last board meeting? What’s the overall tenor of the discussion: contentious or collaborative?
Board follow-up
Immediately post-board meeting, schedule a brief meeting with the Chairman of the Board and the CEO. Review each agenda item and discuss whether it was appropriately discussed and handled in the board meeting itself.
Hold an internal debrief meeting with the Office of the CEO. Review what worked and what didn’t. Look at the meeting minutes and determine how you might adjust your company’s strategy in light of what was discussed.
Do you need to put more attention on sales, team or AI? Do you need to create better relationships with specific board members who asked tough questions and seemed uninspired or even antagonistic in the board meeting itself? Make a plan to improve your next board meeting, and keep on improving your CEO-Board relationship.
And there you have it. The typical Office of the CEO responsibilities to the board meeting, pre, during and post.
Connect with Mackenzie Lee, Cedar CEO, on LinkedIn here to learn even more board tips and tricks.
