How to Conduct a Board Self-Assessment

Board Self-Assessment is an essential function of the board that provides a useful platform for discussing and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of governance. The board can use it to step back and objectively assess its own effectiveness. This will lead to better governance.

The development of a successful board assessment process requires planning, time and involvement of the board members. The first step is determining the scope of the evaluation. It could be the whole board, a particular committee, or a specific director. A well-designed plan will identify the method used to evaluate. Common methods include surveys, interviews, or facilitation of discussions. Once the scope of the evaluation and the methodological approach have been identified it’s time to create and distribute questionnaires.

Some boards decide to conduct the assessment in-house or hire an outside consultant. A third-party consultant will help ensure an impartial and thorough analysis, which is important for those who don’t have the time or resources to conduct the test yourself.

It is important that board members assess themselves. However it is equally crucial that nonprofit boards pay attention to the group. It is easy for nonprofit boards and their evaluation facilitators to get caught up in assessing the individual’s responses and neglect examining the board as a whole.

A successful self-assessment helps boards clarify their expectations for each other, identify gaps in board composition and align the expertise of board members with the organizational strategy and address investor concerns regarding diversity and turnover, and improve the effectiveness of their procedures and practices. Increasingly, public companies are releasing outcomes of their board’s assessments in their proxy statements.

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