Dealing with Underperforming Directors
Paul has 25 years of corporate secretarial, corporate governance and regulatory experience both in house and as a professional services consultant in the United Kingdom, Canada, Caribbean, and the Middle East. He has worked for KPMG LLP and PwC in leadership roles and served in senior in-house roles for several listed financial services companies. He has also provided governance services to Mid-Cap and Large-Cap companies in Europe, North and South America and the Caribbean region. Paul has worked extensively with a diverse range of boards and senior management teams on governance matters. His most recent corporate assignment was as Head of Corporate Governance at First Abu Dhabi Bank, the largest bank in the Gulf region, where he developed the Bank’s corporate governance framework, advised the Board and executive management on the new UAE Corporate Governance Regulations, refined the Bank’s management committee, and developed its international governance structure across twenty jurisdictions globally.
A certified life coach, group coach and certified emotional intelligence (EQ) assessor and practitioner, Paul founded Perfect Balance Consulting in 2021 (www.perfectbalanceconsulting.ca), providing governance solutions to small/mid-Cap organizations, group training across a variety of business solutions, board assessment and training, and one-to-one executive coaching to mid-senior level professionals with a focus on leadership and EQ. What drives Paul is the desire to influence people to develop new ways of thinking; not just become leaders; but leaders with empathy and compassion, who will always seek to do the right thing, even when no one is watching. EQ is a critical skill in the modern workplace, and mastering EQ is an essential requirement for professionals to support their personal brand and reputation to propel them to success.
Paul’s highly regarded book ‘EQ for the Governance Professional,’ explores the vast range of soft skills required of a successful governance practitioner. Paul is a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute of Canada (CGIC) and holds an LLB from Middlesex University (UK) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice from Leicester De Montfort University (UK).
One of the biggest tests of the unity and collective efficacy of a board is when a fellow director is underperforming. That underperformance can manifest itself in many ways, but it inevitably has a negative impact on the wider board, the bad apple syndrome. The challenge of an underperforming director needs to be handled firmly, quickly, and sensitively as it can escalate into a wider conflict issue. This webinar will give you the tools and perspective to handle this challenge in an emotionally intelligent way that is designed to support the director to get back on track and be motivated to improve.
Content: Underperformance takes many forms, and we examine what to look for and how to recognize it. Knowing what underperformance looks like, we can assess the reasons for the underperformance through a process of inquiry. This could be an honest assessment of our own internal systems and processes that have set the director up for failure instead of success. We examine these internal factors as well as a tactful analysis of the issues that may be preventing the director from giving his/her best. Armed with this knowledge, we can build strategies to support the director and work with him/her to improve performance in an objective and measured way by setting out parameters for success. There are a range of options available, but we must not shy away from asking the right questions to get to the core of the issue and to give honest and constructive feedback. We explore ways that we can give the director every opportunity to improve and add their unique skills and talents to the board in a way that makes them feel valued and engaged. Therefore, mindset is key in dealing with the challenge, however, we also need to be self-aware enough to recognize that despite every effort, the only real solution is to exit the director. If so, this can require careful thought and we explore the least damaging ways to put this into action.
Outcomes and Benefits: Participants will walk away with a different perspective around underperforming directors, armed with a mindset of seeking to understand their reasons because this will help them build positive strategies that support rather than isolate the director and help to retain what in many cases is a hard to replace, highly valued resource.
Areas Covered
- Prevention is better than cure: the importance of assessing behavioral attributes and soft skills in the director selection process
- Identifying what underperformance looks like in the boardroom and the risks it poses to the collective efficacy of the board
- Seeking to understand the issues by careful questioning and observation
- Assessing the internal governance framework and its possible culpability in disempowering directors, and how to improve it
- Examining tools and approaches to improve director performance, including the support given by the Chair and defining parameters for success
- Adopting the right mindset so that the underperforming director is handled with dignity, honest feedback, and clear guideposts for improvement
- How to tactfully exit the non-performing director as a last resort
- What we expect from our directors (their personal attributes and conduct)
Who Should Attend
Corporate Board Directors, Board Chair, CEO, C-Level Executives, Corporate Governance/Risk/Compliance Professionals, Board Secretary, Corporate Secretary.
Why Should You Attend
Organizations spend a lot of time and effort in recruiting directors. It can be a rigorous process that primarily focuses on the technical skills and experience a director can bring to the table. Yet it is often the less tangible ‘soft’ skills that will determine the success or otherwise of the appointment. Directors are rarely assessed on their behavioral attributes and their alignment with the existing board. The result of a failure in this area can be highly disruptive. It only takes one bad apple before the entire dynamics of the board is turned upside down.
So, what happens if we are faced with a director who is underperforming? It creates an awkward situation for everyone involved, including the recalcitrant director, but the worst thing the board can do is bury their head in the sand and hope the director improves. It rarely does without sensitive intervention. Boards that exhibit the right leadership qualities will address the issue quickly and tactfully.
Having an underperforming director doesn’t necessarily mean having to undergo the protracted and often complex task of removing them from the board, perhaps losing a valuable resource or specialist skill. This webinar is designed to give you the strategies to address the problem in an emotionally intelligent way that is designed to correct the issue by treating the director with dignity and providing the tools and support that will set the foundation for the director to improve and optimize his/her performance.
If you have been metaphorically tearing your hair out trying to deal with the disruptive/disengaged/disempowered director, then this webinar is for you. You will walk away with a renewed perspective and understanding of why directors underperform. With this diagnosis, you will be empowered to approach the issue in an empathetic way by exploring a range of options that can improve performance. If you are a Chair that is faced with such a director, you should attend, because often the scrutiny and pressure to bring a poorly performing director falls on your shoulders. Do not ignore the corrosive impact of underperforming directors. Attending this course could save not just the individual director but the entire board.
Topic Background
Strategies for managing the Awkward Situation when your talented director isn’t quite the director you had hoped for.
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