Self-assessment by the board is an essential behavior of leadership that boards that are highly effective make use of to ensure long-term oversight. It requires the board members to take a step back and honestly reflect on their effectiveness. This allows the board members to tackle problems that could otherwise result in frustration and friction.
There are many ways to conduct a self-assessment of your board including interviews and surveys to facilitated discussions. The best method to use is dependent on the size of the board, the available resources, and the level of detail you’d like to include in the assessment.
When you have decided on the method, make sure to clearly define what you plan to accomplish by the process. Do you want to enhance accountability, improve governance, or align the governance of your organization with its goals? Once you’ve decided this, you are able to select an evaluation tool.
Some tools allow you to try this article about safeguarding business a virtual data rooms security mastery compare your results with other health systems or hospitals and others focus exclusively on the governance practices of your organization. Regardless of what you select it is important to ensure that the tools used are impartial and don’t call out the individual directors. This will provide a safe environment for honest feedback.
Many boards utilize a peer-review procedure, which requires directors to evaluate each one another. This is a productive and beneficial process, but it is essential that the process stays secret. Some directors might be reluctant to criticize a director for fear of negative consequences. In this scenario, it is often better to let the facilitator look over the responses to determine what insights are important to share with the board.