Improving the performance of directors

Category: Editorial

Richard Winfield - editor I have a particular interest in the development of company directors and the behaviour of boards of directors. It is my belief that if we can improve the conduct of board meetings within British companies we can significantly improve the performance of the British economy. No doubt the same applies to many companies in other countries.

The greatest failing is the focus on the past. It is certainly important to understand the current situation and this can be done by looking at recent, but historical, figures. However, it is really only deviations from plan that are of interest and I am increasingly meeting organisations that use 'dashboards' to summarise essential information.

Although it is interesting to understand what caused the results that are being considered – and to ask penetrating questions – the fact is that they are history. They cannot be changed, whereas the future can be. Board meetings should focus on strategy and the review of current plans for achieving it. Very often in practice there is little time left for this once the past has been dissected.

In addition to board meetings, another challenge for directors is the transition from manager to director. There is a term for this now: 'onboarding'. Many directors are promoted with no real training, coaching or mentoring to help them into their new role. The courses that are available for directors tend to focus on legal responsibilities and strategy development. These are important, but the real challenge is in a change of identity, especially for those many directors who are promoted within their own organisation. Not only do they have to change their relationship with their colleagues and teams – possibly while continuing in their existing management role – but they have to learn to view the organisation from a different perspective and to scan and filter the external environment in a different manner. This is an ideal opportunity for coaching or mentoring to facilitate the transition.

Non-executive directors face a different challenge. As outsiders they will find it more difficult to obtain some of the background facts and to grasp some of the issues. However, they have a very important independent role to challenge the executives and to oversee corporate governance issues. A few high profile corporate disasters in the USA recently highlighted what happens when this fails; an unfortunate consequence of which has been the imposition of additional legal responsibilities that now restrict the freedom and competitiveness of American companies.

The first solution to this is in the recruitment of non-executives. In the UK the Higgs Report made recommendations to improve the effectiveness of non-executive directors, including that they should receive formal training for the job – music to my ears of course!

I was privileged recently to attend a talk by Sir Derek Higgs, who was an old boy of my school. Last week I attended another talk, this time by David Jones. The Times ranks David Jones as number 33 in the Power 100 and yet many people have not heard of him. He was responsible for rescuing the British clothing retailer NEXT from bankruptcy and building it into a major corporate success now worth £3.5 billion. Not only that but he did it whilst suffering in secret from Parkinson's Disease.

Jones has written an autobiography, Next to Me, from which all royalties are donated to the Cure Parkinson's Trust. It is a very readable account of how great things can be achieved with a soft skills approach to leadership. Near the end of the book Jones puts forward his own suggestions for improving the performance of non-executive directors – including that they should be paid better! His comments are included in this week's Coaching Notes.

In last week's Coaching Notes Andrew Halfacre recommended a presentation by Steve Jobs as a demonstration of how to use PowerPoint type (obviously Jobs did not use the Microsoft product!) tools to good effect. In the Useful Links below I have included two other superb demonstrations of the use of text and graphics.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.

He coaches directors and boards in transition:

new and potential directors, effective boards,

mergers andacquisitions, corporate retreats,

change programmes.