If you chair a Board think of how you will make sure a new Board Member feels welcome and contributes real value from day 1. If you’re a new Board Member think about how you’ll fit in, contribute and be listened to from day 1 too. These are not trivial questions ! 

Most companies with well functioning Boards have processes for onboarding new Board Members. While most focus on industry and sector specific training, they have more trouble when it comes to the softer skills: how to influence decisions formally and informally, discharge duties and rights in a way that maintains open and collegiate relationships with other Board members, Management, Colleagues, and Investors. 

As Boards at last become more open to the diversity of the world they represent, they welcome new members from all walks of life. 

A well functioning organisation has a Board that will support the executive management team without infringing, that will set meaningful agendas for itself and the rest of the company, will seek diversity in recruitment, gather adequate information and question assumptions to make informed decisions at all times. A well functioning Board will work as team and represent the organisation to all constituencies, inside and outside. 

To do this well, all members of the board need training with the softer skills. 

Those new to Board membership need it as well – at the best of times, there can be a forbidding quality to the most open and collegial of Boards.
And finally, Boards themselves as a collective benefit from training with the skills required to function well as a team.

Over my years in Private Equity, I had to assemble Boards literally from scratch with a specific mission (develop/turnaround and sell within a set timeframe). These years of hands on experience have taught me methods that deliver the kind of healthy climate and team spirit any Board should strive on. 

The same methods and experience, gained under the time pressure Private Equity is famous for, also enable faster onboarding of new members in service of a Board team that really fires on all cylinders from the get go. 

Why business coaching ?

A growing number of organizations recognize the value in building a coaching culture that offers employees at all levels the opportunity to grow their skills, enhance their value and reach their professional goals.

Investing in coaching pays off: Coaching can shift your organization’s culture by moving away from a command and control leadership style to collaboration and creativity.

Organizations with strong coaching cultures report that 61 percent of their employees are highly engaged, compared to 53 percent from organizations without strong coaching cultures. Organizations with strong coaching cultures also report above-average revenue growth in relation to industry peers.*

*Source: Building a Coaching Culture with Millennial Leaders (2017)