Even the best car needs regular maintenance to stay in top shape. You check the engine, align the wheels, and fine-tune the systems—not because the car is broken, but because you want it to keep running smoothly and perform at its peak.
Likewise, a board may be functioning well, but a structured evaluation helps fine-tune decision-making, clarify roles, and ensure alignment with strategic goals. It's proactive care to maintain peak performance.
Boards should be thinking of themselves like a high performance vehicle. How can we keep it healthy and running as best we can? It’s actually very easy to gauge the health of a board with the corporate equivalent—a board evaluation.
According to the Corporate Governance Institute, “A board evaluation is when someone examines the workings of a board and its members along with its effectiveness, the quality of its decision making and strategy, and its relationship with the executive management.”
Each participant is evaluated and questioned individually and anonymously to get the most accurate and true survey results. Some companies might choose to send out the board evaluations in an old school way (for example, over email), but the results aren’t as anonymous or honest as they could be.
However, when you use a board evaluation tool like Admincontrol’s, you can adjust the questions, ensure anonymity, and analyse the feedback immediately after all responses are collected. A report is then generated and is ready for use.
Board evaluation is basically a survey or questionnaire that is sent out to all the board members. The questions are all about the health and function of the board. For example, some questions can be:
Board evaluation helps highlight the gaps in the workings of the board. It shines a spotlight on what is missing and how these issues can be fixed. For example, if a board’s health is poor, collaboration is down, and bad communication grows within the board, the health of the board and the company will slowly begin to split apart.
Board evaluations also help drive the future of the company and the board. What aren't you doing now that you want to do in the future? This can help not only the health of the board but the company. There are so many fantastic opportunities to help create the best version of the board and company possible.
It really depends on the needs of the board. Most boards only evaluate themselves annually; however, boards can choose to evaluate themselves on an as-needed basis.
Perhaps there is a new framework or strategy that needs to be developed and the health and direction of the board must be considered. Alternatively, boards might not feel it’s necessary to perform an evaluation for many years. Ultimately, it’s all up to what your board deems necessary and best. But we do recommend that you perform an evaluation at least once a year to see how the board is working together.
Board evaluation is something that every board should carry out. Like we mentioned before, like taking care of your car, why not help the board function as well as possible? Go to the proverbial repair shop and get the health of your board checked with the the help of Admincontrol's board evaluation tool.