How to Conduct a Board Self-Assessment

Board Self-Assessment is among the most important leadership practices that high-performing nonprofit boards practice to ensure that they have a long-term, effective governance. It requires the board to take a break from the day-today routine and reflect on its effectiveness. This allows the board members to discuss problems that could otherwise result in frustration and conflict.

There are a myriad of ways to conduct a board self-assessment including interviews and surveys to guided discussions. The best method depends on the size of the board, available resources and how deep you’d like to include in the assessment.

Once https://novalauncherprime.pro/corporate-communications-policy-importance/ you decide on the method, make sure you are clear about what you want to accomplish by the process. Do you want to increase accountability, improve governance, or align the governance of your organization with its goals? Once you’ve determined this, you are able to select an evaluation tool.

Certain tools let you evaluate your results against other health systems and hospitals while others concentrate solely on the governance practices of your company. It is important to ensure that the tools you select are unbiased and don’t discriminate against directors. This will create a safe environment for honest feedback.

Many boards also employ the peer review process, which requires board members to assess their colleagues as directors. This is a useful and efficient process, but it is vital that the process is secret. It isn’t easy for some directors to criticize the other director, if they are worried that it will come back on them. In this case, it’s often better to have the facilitator review all of the responses and determine what insights are relevant to communicate to the board.