Governance and Leadership
is your Board 'Fit to Fight'?

There is a clear link between leadership and corporate governance.  Not least, the Chair of a Board has to lead the discussions but more importantly, the values and standards demonsrated by the Governing Body set the tone and culture for the organisation itself.  The impact of their decisions and individual and collective actions shape the very culture of the organisation.

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While leadership is the focus of How to Climb a 12 Foot Wall, Bob Pearce has studied Corporate Governance at Masters level, as a practitioner in a number of public and private organisations and is currently studying for a PhD in the subject. 

 

External Reviews of Governance are recommended for all companies, the charity governance code recommends that large charities such as Independent Schools and academy trusts undertake external evaluations every 3 years. Board evaluations have become increasingly common in other sectors and, according to the UK Corporate Governance Code, the chair should consider having a regular externally facilitated board evaluation, in FTSE 350 companies this should happen at least every three years.

 

If you would like to discuss a Governance Review of your organisation, please contact Bob Pearce using the 'contact me' button below.

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A further quote from the Jeffrey Sonnenfeld article (2002), although it refers to American business, I believe the sentiment is still valid:

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"I can’t think of a single work group whose performance gets assessed less rigorously than corporate boards. In 2001, the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) surveyed 200 CEOs serving as outside directors of public firms. Sixty-three percent said those boards had never been subjected to a performance evaluation. Forty-two percent acknowledged that their own companies had never done a board evaluation."

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This lack of feedback is self-destructive. Behavioural psychologists and organizational learning experts agree that people and organizations cannot learn without feedback. No matter how good a board is, it’s bound to get better if it’s reviewed intelligently.