Board Self-Assessment is an essential function of the board that provides an ideal platform to discuss and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of governance. It’s a way for the board to step back and candidly assess its own effectiveness, which can lead to improvements in governance.
The development of a successful board assessment process requires planning time, as well as board member engagement. The first step is determining the scope of the assessment. It could be the whole board, a particular committee or even a director. A good strategy will determine the method of evaluation. Interviews, surveys or facilitated discussion are common methods. Once the nature of the evaluation and the method used have been decided, it’s time to design and distribute questionnaires.
Some boards opt to conduct the assessment in-house while others engage the help of a third-party consultant. A third-party consultant can ensure an objective and thorough analysis, which is important for those who do not have the time or resources to do the evaluation yourself.
While it is essential for board members to assess themselves, it is equally important for boards of nonprofit organizations to be focused on the board as in its entirety. It is easy for nonprofit boards and their evaluation facilitators to become absorbed in evaluating the responses of individual members and not pay attention to the board in its entirety.
A successful self-assessment is able to help boards clarify expectations, discover weaknesses in the composition of their boards, align board knowledge with organizational strategy, address concerns from investors regarding diversity and turnover, and increase the effectiveness of board procedures and practices. In their proxy statements, public companies report the results of their boards’ evaluations.
