Board Dynamics

The days of boards recruiting directors for their names only are long past, and director responsibilities have grown exponentially in recent years. Board Dynamics: How to Get Results from Your Board and Committees has been updated to offer practical advice on making boards run more efficiently, how to have productive meetings, how to communicate with each other and management constructively, and how to become more engaged in the governance process. Complex interactions of the board are more than just the sum of their parts: this handbook looks at the "moving parts" and the whole of the system that is corporate governance in action.

Among the duties of effective boards:

• Improving management's plans by asking divergent or challenging questions
• Recommending new business contacts to management
• Ensuring the organization's future by taking the long term view
• Nurturing growth by championing innovation
• Ensuring the accuracy of the organization's financial reports through thorough scrutiny
• Adding credibility to the organization's decisions through due diligence and independence
• Hiring the right CEO and giving that person regular performance improvement feedback
• Providing the right mix of incentives that aligns management with delivering share value
• Removing non-performing officers
• Focusing the organization's attention on strategic imperatives