Board of Directors 101: How to Run a Meeting

Josh Kopelman recently pointed out an excellent post by Guy Kawasaki on the Art of the Board Meeting. Kawasaki's recommendations are to the point, and right on. These three recommendations in particular struck home, so I wanted to share them:

1. 360-degree views are too big for a board meeting. Focus on this 30-degree view:

• What's going right?
• What's going wrong?
• What do you want the board to do?

2. Don't surprise your board.

• If it's bad news, call everyone in advance to inform them 1:1 and let them vent/cool down privately.
• If it's a new idea or change in company direction, get a discussion going in advance so that you don't have to do a hard sell during the meeting.
• Don't ever assume that the board has read the 60-page document that you emailed them the night before.

3. Build a balanced board, and let your CEO lead its meetings. Kawasaki presents a handful of established archetypes, from the Customer to the Jerry Maguire, that together build a strong support team.

For more information, just head over to Kawasaki's original post. Thanks to Josh for the link!