Self-Assessment of the Board is an essential board function that provides an excellent platform for analyzing and discussing governance strengths and weaknesses. The board can utilize it to step back and honestly assess its own effectiveness. This will result in better governance.
Making a board assessment effective process requires planning and time as well as involvement of the board members. The first step in determining the scope of the evaluation is to determine the audience for the evaluation. It could encompass the entire board, specific committees, and/or individual directors. A well-designed plan will define the evaluation method. Common methodologies include surveys, interviews or facilitated discussions. Once the scope and methodology for evaluation are established, it’s time to begin designing and distributing questionnaires.
Some boards choose to conduct the assessment internally and some choose to hire an outside consultant. A third party consultant can help to ensure a thorough and impartial analysis, which is vital Board Self-Assessment in the event that you don’t have the time or resources necessary to do the evaluation yourself.
While it is crucial for board members to assess their own performance, it is equally important for boards of nonprofit organizations to focus on the group as an entire. It is easy for board members of nonprofit organizations and their facilitators to get engrossed in evaluating individual responses, and forget about the board as a whole.
A successful self-assessment is able to help boards clarify expectations, discover weaknesses in the composition of their boards and align knowledge of the board with the organization’s strategy, address concerns from investors regarding turnover and diversity and enhance the effectiveness of board procedures and practices. More and more, public companies are releasing the results of their board evaluations in their proxy statements.