Peter Neal and Andrew Marsh of Experience Bank Group have joined forces for this latest advice column for Northern Insight readers. The topic for this special December and January double edition is on looking forward to 2021 and how to stay positive when looking at your board, its structure, its performance and how to move forward.
Focusing on the Board
Firstly, to be successful in 2021, it is imperative that an organisation focuses
immediately on its board structure and role. Too many boards are confusing
issues by being too operational and doing the job of the management/executive
team.
To be a successful board, the members should be focusing on the business and
not working in the business. This can bring difficult conversations if you already
have a board, but it will be for the long term good of the organisation. You also
need to analyse the skills of the current board – what is missing that you need
to be focusing on in the next two years? That might seem like a long timeframe
but it is where boards should be focused.
If you don’t have a board, then consider one quickly. You need to do some
serious planning, have your vision, assess your skillset need and get appointing.
Be focused on those skillsets and don’t be swayed by someone with contacts
but no experience, an extensive little black book is great in a consultant, but a
true non-executive is an experienced driver to your future.
Quality Discussions –
The Difference Between Effectiveness and Efficiency
A good board needs to be clear on the difference between efficiency and
effectiveness. Efficiency is simply the processes and timings being well executed.
Again, a better measure for the executive team.
Effectiveness is the outcome of the actions of the board. If a board is being run
properly you won’t actually feel the outcomes until further down the line as
the most impactful decisions will affect the future. If the board isn’t focused on
quality conversations about the future then opportunities will be missed.
We would encourage every board to go back and look at ideas that have been
previously parked or vetoed with a fresh pair of eyes – in the current climate
those propositions might look totally different.
Understand The Spheres of Influence
There are three spheres of influence – the inner one that you control, the middle
one that you have some influence over, and the outer one that is outside of your
control but that you can contribute to. There is then everything that surrounds it
that you can do nothing about, that you cannot control, change or contribute to.
Like BREXIT or COVID.
One you have identified what sits where in the spheres you can accept them
for what they are, focus your thinking and then you can roll forward with a plan
that is a solution despite the challenges.
We often use Edison’s reply when asked how he felt when it took him thousands
of failures to create the light bulb – I found thousands of ways of how not to
make the light bulb but I only needed one way to succeed. So, for business that
means there may well be 15 reasons to not do something but if we have one
reason why we should then let’s properly explore it! It’s more a fear of success
than failure sometimes.
