A while back I did a series of posts on board effectiveness.  In it I wrote the following about conducting a board meeting:

Actively solicit input on decisions from every board member.  Some people are oddly quiet in group meetings.  Don’t assume that means they are in agreement with everything that is being said.  Yes, it should be the directors responsibility to speak up but that doesn’t mean they will.  So don’t be afraid to call on a director and ask them what they think.  That is especially true for anybody dialing into a meeting.

I have recently come to learn an important lesson:  If the person running the board meeting is not doing this, it is critical for another board member to step in an make sure it happens.

This is especially important if the meeting is run by one of several founders and it is the other founders who are being quiet.  While it is easy to assume that co-founders who are also board members would speak up if they disagree, that’s surprisingly often not the case.  There may be odd internal dynamics going on or they may feel that the founders should resolve disagreements among themselves instead of at the board level.  While that is true for trivial matters, it is not a good approach for disagreements on strategy or organization.

A while back I did a series of posts on board effectiveness.  In it I wrote the following about conducting a board meeting:

Actively solicit input on decisions from every board member.  Some people are oddly quiet in group meetings.  Don’t assume that means they are in agreement with everything that is being said.  Yes, it should be the directors responsibility to speak up but that doesn’t mean they will.  So don’t be afraid to call on a director and ask them what they think.  That is especially true for anybody dialing into a meeting.

I have recently come to learn an important lesson:  If the person running the board meeting is not doing this, it is critical for another board member to step in an make sure it happens.

This is especially important if the meeting is run by one of several founders and it is the other founders who are being quiet.  While it is easy to assume that co-founders who are also board members would speak up if they disagree, that’s surprisingly often not the case.  There may be odd internal dynamics going on or they may feel that the founders should resolve disagreements among themselves instead of at the board level.  While that is true for trivial matters, it is not a good approach for disagreements on strategy or organization.