Board Communications Part 2

Effective Board Communications

As I stated in part I of this series of articles, CxO-level executives, board, and advisory council members should become expert communicators. They should enroll in courses at the best universities and/or get the best possible training from communication experts. They should do it on a personal level, just as they do with other forms of business education. 

I also firmly believe that boards and advisory councils should provide expert-level training to their members because that will optimize the effectiveness and potency of the work they do.

Now, let’s look at three different dimensions and crucial parts of any board member role:

Intra-Board Communications

Boards and councils should have clear communication guidelines for their members. Board members and advisors who have been well trained in effective communication, working on established and clear strategic and communications frameworks will get far more done in the same amount of time than otherwise.

Even though most boards have members representing different and occasionally diverging interests, many fruitless or needlessly long discussions can be minimized if the internal processes are well established and properly communicated.

Having crystal clear rules that all members are aware of is as important as is clear and well-understood information flows, reporting structures, organizational charts, and strategic directives.

Board and committees’ members and advisors must understand those rules and procedures in order to maximize their effectiveness, while allowing for the best possible environment in which they can deliver the greatest and most positive impact.

The Communications basics outline in my previous installment of this series of articles should be fully applied to maximize your ability to communicate with your fellow board members. 

Communicating with the organization

Having a harmonious and productive non-executive body is one important pillar but interacting well with the rest of the organization is obviously crucial to success. 

Boards and councils need a stream of operational information that is up to date, reliable and clear, upon which they can base their work. Assuming the correct processes, tools and structures are in place, best effective communications practices are required to ensure the rest of the company clearly knows what information is needed, in which format and when. Standardized formats and a direct communication flow must be well understood by all members and by their interfaces. Moreover, clear and concise language that accurately defines the attributes of the required information will increase productivity and trust among the various parties.

The same goes for the outward flow of information, from the Board back into the executive team. Impactful guidance requires clear, concise, and direct communications. Standardized reports that trim unnecessary verbosity out, while keeping the key details, represent a best practice that should be exercised.

Again, being an expert communicator will increase the ability of the board member to have a positive impact on the company, while keeping unproductive – and, sometimes, confusing – language out.

As I stated before, content and form are always important and judging the right balance between them for any given communication is both art and science, something that expert communicators tend to do better than those who are not.

Communicating externally

More and more corporate board members and advisors are having to adapt to new and expanded roles that include communicating directly with company’s stakeholders. This is not only as speakers on behalf of the organization but also to better understand the rising requirements for corporations to grasp relatively new but increasingly important topics as Diversity and ESG. 

Board members must become spokespeople for the company and help spread the corporate messages to an ever-growing contingent of stakeholders.  This article – written by my former colleague and Board communications master, Vivian Lines – has some brilliant advice and ideas.

Once again, superior communications skills will yield superior results for board members while avoiding potential dangers of misinterpreted statements. 
Presenting oneself and one’s corporation in a structured, engaging way, aligned with the corporation messaging, is vital in an age of complex communications flows that are frequently plagued with misinformation and misinterpretations by whole new groups of stakeholders who are not well versed in business parlance.

Like with so many things in life, it all comes down to training and developing your skills as a person. Communication should be viewed as any other key business discipline and that means treating it as a technical ability that must be properly learned and trained to be as effective as possible. How to communicate well is just as important as the information that needs to be conveyed.