Thought Leadership

People discussions in a Boardroom can be tough and difficult. The reasons are plentiful. A business strategy might be created ahead of what the organisation is capable of. This will lead to irrealistic expectations on people and on HR to course correct. It might be that the company has done blanket assessments on their leadership to understand if they are fit for growth. Too often, these blanket assessments of leadership are haphazard and narrow and don't answer the questions we have on individual leaders. Boards might think too much in individuals instead of teams that have to perform. This can bring difficult politics to the table based on personal preferences. A people discussion is per definition very vague and unguided. Unlike a financial discussion where we can lean on one unit of measurement (a currency) and many ratios in benchmarks.

In our practice, we found that Boards have have much less confidence in their ability to assess leadership than in their ability to assess financial performance. Boards will have a view on leadership like “this leader is charismatic, has a vision, or treats people well” but there is little analysis behind what has often become a “gut feel” approach. It should not be surprising that Boards rather focus on the tangible financial aspects instead of on the intangible aspects of leadership.

IntelligentBoardRoom has the Vision to create people debates that are Relevant to the strategy, Unbiased in the individual opinions and Focussed on the results. As an outcome, the people debate will be as crisp and as clear as any financial debate. Leadership creates 40% of the value of any strategic initiative and its about time we give it the attention and analysis it deserves.

Cognitive software like IBR helps us human beings, to have a much better people conversation. This space is dedicated to mindful pieces that talk about how Boards and HR can do better in judging if a Leadership Team can Execute the Strategy it stands for.