Although investors expect that both public and private companies are performing annual board assessments as a matter of regulatory discipline, a third party board and director assessment is a powerful process to strengthen the link between the board and company performance.

The independence of a third party assessor provides the necessary candor and independence that are critical to identifying improvement opportunities.

Following are the top 6 benefits of a robust annual board and director assessment:

An effective board assessment identifies best practices to ensure the board continues to leverage these behaviors and build on them. Equally, the process highlights points of inefficiency or frustration. An effective assessment identifies and prioritizes the issues with the most impact to improve the effectiveness of the board.

Many boards do not spend the time to compare the vision and strategy of the company with the capability of the board. Board refresh is important to ensure that at any given time, the skills of the board are consistent with the direction of the company. The assessment process also identifies redundant skills, creating an opportunity to refresh the board with a broader and more relevant scope of experience.

One of the most common shortcomings of boards is getting consumed with operational issues versus emphasizing governance, vision, and strategy. Many boards find themselves in the weeds of a company based on their comfort level with operations and the desire to be involved with managing the company. The assessment identifies opportunities to elevate the discussion to a more forward-looking, strategic process.

Feedback is a valuable gift. The director assessment process provides peer feedback to each director, identifying strengths and areas for improvement. The most common reaction to director feedback is, “The feedback is very valuable to me. I wish someone told me sooner.” The individual director feedback is typically used to determine the highest impact areas for director education. A yearly director education process is a best practice of high-performing boards.

Pre-work for a board assessment includes a high-level review of the company vision and strategy. The assessment looks at board alignment between skills, process, and progress to plan. It is not uncommon for directors to drive the areas where they are most comfortable. For example, a director with a manufacturing background tends to focus on operation issues in the plant and not the longer-term supply chain view stated in the vision. A financial director might focus on quarterly earnings and be less concerned with the longer-term view. The assessment provides on outside view of balance between short-term performance and the longer-term vision.

Wynstone Partners welcomes the opportunity to demonstrate the power of a thorough board and director assessment. Wynstone Partners leverages the tools and processes used in the executive coaching process to create a board assessment that adds value to both the individual board members and the organization as a whole. Strengths and opportunities are identified along with recommended actions. An annual board and director assessment is both expected and required, and the Wynstone Partners process encourages continuous improvement of board and director effectiveness.