Running a board meeting is an art form, in which proper distribution of roles and responsibilities among the participants plays an important role. The leader of the meeting plays an important role since the final result depends on his or her charisma and ability to organize the work process. Even many people from the world of corporate management are interested in the question of who runs a board meeting. We suggest you broaden your horizons and learn more about the peculiarities of meetings and the distribution of roles between its participants.
Who can lead a board meeting?
A chairman is chosen to preside over the meeting. It can be either the majority shareholder or the CEO, the main thing is to show your leadership qualities and ability to organize the work at the board of directors level. It is also equally important to be able to cope with the duties of an executive.
A list of the most typical duties of a meeting manager includes:
- Supervising the organization of the board meeting. Of course, most of the duties of preparing for a board meeting fall to the organizers and the board secretary, but it is the chairman’s responsibility to oversee their activities.
- Conducting the board meeting. It is the secretary’s responsibility to oversee the administrative side of the meeting, but the chairman should monitor the general atmosphere of the meetings and the behavior of the immediate participants. If necessary, the chairman can energize individual meeting participants or steer the discussion in the right direction.
- Approval of the final decision. In most cases, all decisions on agenda items are made by voting, but sometimes opinions diverge radically or discussions are deadlocked. In such cases, the responsibility falls on the chairman of the meeting, who can either accept one of the proposed options for decision or postpone decisions until the next meeting of the board of directors.
The role of the Chairman of the Board of Directors is mostly a representative one, but that does not make it any less important.
What kind of board leadership should the Chairman have?
The chairman of the board of directors should have a certain set of personal qualities and skills in order to fulfill the responsibilities entrusted to him. In particular, the list of mandatory requirements for the chairman includes:
- Leadership. The ability to organize an entire board of directors, even remotely, is highly valued among executives. So pay attention to developing the skills to attract and hold the attention of meeting participants if you want to hold the position for as long as possible.
- Calmness. Board meetings can get pretty heated at times, so a chairman like no other should be able to keep his or her composure in time to step in and set up the meeting process.
- Quick turnaround. In order to effectively control the meeting process, the chairman needs to be able to switch quickly from one issue to another. This also requires knowledge of all items on the agenda in order to provide comprehensive answers to the various questions.
- Stress tolerance. Organizing and conducting a board meeting requires a lot of mental strength to withstand a lot of stress and responsibility. The chairman of the board of directors cannot do without the ability to withstand a lot of emotional pressure.
In the modern working conditions of most companies, the role of the chairman of the board of directors has increased even more. He should not only monitor the work of the board of directors, but also the results of the entire company.