Self-assessment of board members is a vital management practice that top-performing boards employ to ensure long-term governance. It requires the board to step back from their day-to-day activities and review its effectiveness. This lets the board be proactive and tackle areas that could become major sources of discontent and friction.
There are a variety of ways to conduct a self-assessment of your board from surveys and interviews to discussion groups that are facilitated. The best method will depend on the size of your board, the resources available and the depth you’d like to add to the assessment.
If you choose to conduct the assessment be sure to establish the goals of the assessment. Do you want to increase accountability, improve governance, or match governance with organizational objectives? Once you’ve decided you can then select an evaluation tool.
Some tools allow you to analyze your results against other hospitals and health systems and others focus exclusively on your organization’s governance policies. It’s crucial to ensure that the tools you choose are impartial and do not single out directors. This will create a secure environment for honest feedback.
Many boards also utilize a peer review process that allows board members to review their peers as directors. This is a beneficial and productive process, but it is important that the process remain private. Certain directors might be hesitant to criticize an individual director for fear of repercussions. In this situation it is typically better to let the facilitator read the responses to determine which insights are important to share with the board.
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