Talk to Me: Designing An Effective Board Evaluation Process

For New York Stock Exchange listed companies, board evaluations are a fact of life.¹ Many directors have reached a saturation point with this annual, and sometimes numbingly repetitive, process. And yet, an evaluation process that is conducted in a thoughtful manner can yield insights that are extremely valuable to the board and, by extension, the company. On the other hand, a rote, check-the-box evaluation has little potential to be helpful and is a waste of time to all involved.

Planning a thoughtful, useful evaluation process raises a number of questions—Why go through an evaluation process? What are your goals, beyond mere compliance, in conducting board evaluations? Who should design the evaluation? What type of evaluation process should be used? How should the evaluation process be conducted? What should be done after the evaluations are completed?