You might notice confused looks or a shift in body language. If success for the board is making a decision based on return on investment, run the ROI and make a recommendation. Take out unnecessary elements, colours, lines, boxes and decoration. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Then you can be prepared for more in-depth questions that may arise. When it's time to put together your board of directors, you need to know exactly what the role of the board entails. Download the full article here. If there is, call the meeting to order as we describe in detail below and go over the agenda. Running a well structured board meeting can help you get much more from your shareholders than just financial backing. Find an opportunity for you or your sponsor to talk to the Board members, for example asking feedback on the pre-reading materials. Board members want hard facts. The new Canadian factory will reduce COGS by 20% and increase our NA sales volume by 75% or. If you present an item for decisoin, the Board will (should) require a pre-read. A board presentation is the CEOs or CFOs opportunity to speak directly to the board of directors. Who leads the discussion? People cant read and listen at the same time. Dont beat around the bush. Book Review : Presentation Thinking & Design: Create better presentations, quicker. The number one way to keep your board presentation on track is to keep it concise. Etc. Then give 3 to 5 key arguments or elements that you want them to remember. In addition, they can offer suggestions and ideas to improve the company's performance.. The client dashboard gives you a hyper-focused view of your accounts, as well as a summary of paid versus open invoices. A board's role is governance, results, and strategy. She served on the board of Australian fintech, Change Financial from 2016 to 2020, and as board chair from 2018 to 2020. Then give the 3 to 5 key arguments or elements that you want them to remember. In that case, make sure to explain how your proposal for the overseas investment will also reduce the global exchange risk exposure. You don't want to wait until the end of the fiscal year or even the beginning of the new fiscal year to set dates for your next board meeting. Sustainability Responsibilities of the Board Due care In that spirit, put on your best blazer or suit the day of your presentation. Send your presentation to board members ahead of time, along with your other board packet materials. Ensure each point is high-level enough that the board will understand it, but detailed enough to give them a true picture. As we mentioned above, board presentations should be an overview of the companys performance and plans. The board matrix helps your governance committee take stock of the current board's skills, demographics, and connections. Both checking facts and getting the right feeling, requires them to investigate details. If you dont do so, they will interrupt you from the very start. If you're looking to start planning your next board meeting, we recommend starting now. It is not uncommon that the discussion starts immediately without formal presentation. Make sure to understand what they are looking for. Provide short, clear answers without elaborating on things beside the point. When it comes to a board presentation, this is the most logical way to organize: Now that youve squared away the assets for your board presentation, lets talk about how you actually present. McMillan suggests a five slides in 15 minutes style presentation, with an intro and closing slide. Free and premium plans, Customer service software. Visually guide the attention to make it clear what to look at first, second and third. Were also better at remembering what we see versus what we hear by 55% its called pictorial superiority. While you can find out a lot about board members via their bios or LinkedIn pages, youll also continue to learn more about them as you interact more with each person. The answer to this challenge is NOT to make a TED-like presentation. But if its too bare, it will take too many visuals to paint the picture. When theres a lot at stake with a board presentation, its easy to stress out and end up spending the whole time reading exactly whats written on your slides. Find out how your Board functions: Is there a formal presentation? Et voil!, theres your key message. Since Directors will have read your conclusion upfront, keep your talk short (5-15 minutes). I would nod feverishly to let presenters know I was invested in their presentation. Maintaining company resources. Often held twice a year or every quarter, the frequency of board meetings truly depends on an organization's stage. Will they interrupt your talk? This is a eight stage process. Sure, there are standard guidelines for every meeting. Board members will have many questions about the organizations security strategy during this unprecedented event. Slides are a mere visual support for your story without full sentences. Technology you want to purchase and why you want to purchase it. How do you do that? You can address it by saying something along the lines of, "You may have some concern regarding the timeline and whether its feasible given our current projects. That means knowing each board members background. The meeting may be held at the office of the company, or it may take place via video conference. The Board has invited you for a purpose. Use short, simple sentences and plain language. A robust onboarding processincluding essential information and briefing materials, quality discussions with key people, and a "road map" for getting up to speedcan greatly accelerate a new director's integration and contribution to the board's work. board of director responsibilities: 1. Only repeat the conclusion and headlines of your narrative with a few selected details. Privacy Policy. Write down the answer to that question. Directors are not seeking entertainment. Introduction. As such, a well-put-together and engaging presentation is one of the best tools available to you in terms of cultivating a mutually beneficial and open dialogue. Follow-up on unresolved issues or any unanswered questions from the previous meeting. Clients receive 24/7 access to proven management and technology research, expert advice, benchmarks, diagnostics and more. The new Canadian factory is our bridge-head for a North American expansion over the next 20 years. Download. This is very difficult for a complex subject, but it is essential. Use short, simple sentences and plain language. The board report should present the data along with a summary of the key takeaways from that information. Since Directors will have read your conclusion upfront, keep your talk short (5-15 minutes). See you in October! Write down the answer to that question. The first step in giving a brilliant board presentation is to cover the topics that board members actually care about. It needs to be sparse, and simply identify the topics youll cover in the following slides. It feels the natural thing to do, but its wrong. Time is money, especially in Board Meetings. 1.1 This paper identifies key activities undertaken by the Human Resources Directorate and the performance of the Trust in relation to staffing related matters during the last twelve months. A board of directors is a particularly demanding audience because time pressure, information quality and unanimity are more important than in any other management team. Bring clients, products or employees to life with pictures. Find out. Pre-reads are self-standing documents and therefore must have a narrative in full text. Best of luck running your next board meeting! Here are a few responses: When the stakes are so high, a presentation to the board can seem daunting. So, on the slides, put keywords, rather than long sentences. Think of this process as an advantage. That may be a little extreme, particularly when youre recapping an entire quarter or year, but in our experience, 30 minutes is a good time frame for a presentation. The key is to close strongly, leaving the board confident in your plan and abilities. Its easier for your audience to remember and prevents information overload. See pricing, Marketing automation software. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(53, '013286c0-2cc2-45f8-a6db-c71dad0835b8', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); Get expert marketing tips straight to your inbox, and become a better marketer. Download now and impress your audience. Tech reporter John Brandon argues in Inc. that no presentation requires more than seven minutes. and A Board of Directors is a particularly demanding audience because time pressure, information quality and unanimity are more important to them than to any other management team. The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits provides lots of resources, including a model of Responsibilities and Position Descriptions for Nonprofit Board Members. PowerPoint can undermine Corporate Strategy. Details of weights given to each criteria. Typical Board questions are : And understand their background. This may look like discussing KPIs or reviewing goals and outcomes. In order to give flavour to your narrative, add some data to prove your point. When you understand their priorities, you can put together a presentation that speaks directly to them. Deputy Professor at Instituto de Empresa. Download this template to get: 9 board level slides that you can customize based on your unique context. It feels the natural thing to do, but its wrong. And gradually add further detail. Hiring and firing of senior executives (especially the CEO) Establishing compensation for executives. Subscribe to the Marketing Blog below. Information that reaches the Board might be biased in many ways. Summarize the points youve made, and be clear about anything you have requested. In my opinion, these pre-reading documents should never be a copy of the presentation slides. This is a completely editable PowerPoint presentation and is available for immediate download. The bulk of the information, goes into the attachments, possibly as Q&A. Use your sponsor as sounding board throughout your preparation and consider talking to some Board members. It also allows them to provide feedback on the company's strategies. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. A primary goal of these meetings is to be as effective as possible, so bear in mind there's no sense in calling a board to gather for items that should be cleared otherwise. Focus on providing short, clear and correct answers. How to make a business presentation impactful, HBR How to present to senior executives, Forbes How to present to Senior Executives, INSEAD A Toolkit for Fair Process Communication. Board of Directors. Its critical that security and risk management leaders supply board-relevant and business-aligned content that is not hampered by overly technical references..