Board & Executive Performance Audit
Optimise your effectiveness and understand the formula for making great decisions every time.
Are your Board & Executives struggling to work cohesively and effectively?
The problem:
Many Boards & Executives are struggling to work cohesively and effectively and this can result in poor decisions, and ultimately lead to organisational chaos that might look like this:
- Crucial deadlines and business opportunities being missed
- A lack of alignment around the business strategy and goals
- Board papers not submitted on time, time wasted, and discussions that do not lead to decisions
- No commitment to a long-term recruitment strategy to ensure that the workforce mix is matched to the long-term demands of the business
- People feeling that they have no option but to leave the business
- Organisational effort becoming fragmented because the Board has not really agreed the key priorities
- Recognition that the Board has ‘backed the wrong horse’ when the expected returns on an investment did not materialise
These problems can leave the business unfocused with staff uncertain what the real priorities are; in the worst case this can result in failure and closure of the business.
The Board & Executive Performance Audit will enable you to save time, avoid unnecessary cost and chaos, and have greater trust and confidence in your colleagues and decision-making. It will establish tangible outcomes that will be of major benefit to the organisation and your customers.
Who would benefit from the Performance Audit?
- Boards & Executives who want to capitalise on the valuable resource of the meeting
- Boards & Executives who want to avoid the chaos and sabotage that arises when people don’t feel heard, or their contribution valued – hence they do not buy into decisions
- Boards & Executives who want to turn their decision-making bodies into high performing teams that give clear leadership to the organisation
The Board Performance Audit is not:
- Something that undermines the power, expertise, and authority of the Board & Executive
- A superficial process for decision-making
- Another psychometric test (for example Myers-Briggs, Belbin, DISC)
The Board & Executive Performance Audit will:
- Assesses the strengths and challenges of the Board and Executive so that you can utilise the power and expertise of the group whilst addressing their interaction and decision challenges
- Share the decision-making pattern of the Board & Executive, its strengths and the watch points that could trip it up
- Enable the group to develop strategies to manage their decisions more effectively
If you are interested in having a no-obligation discussion about how the Board & Executive Performance Audit might work for your organisation, please arrange a call
How the Kennedy approach works
Two of our decision-making specialists will observe a meeting of your Board or Executive to assess:
- How you reach your decisions
- How you interact
- The clarity of the decisions reached
- Whether there is genuine commitment to implementation
and we will highlight:
- Strengths you can build on
- Potential pitfalls that could trip you up
We ask each person to complete a short questionnaire to identify:
- The value you identify in each of your colleagues
- What you would want your colleagues to do differently
- The single change that would improve Board & Executive performance
The responses are confidential but allow us to:
- Highlight your insights and the value you attribute to your colleagues
- Identify potential impediments to performance
- Recommend changes that would improve performance
We work with the Chair or CEO to identify a current decision that can be used as a real-time example in the feedback.
Feedback from the assignment will be given in an interactive workshop and applied to the decision currently under discussion. This will give you:
- An agreed approach to progress the decision under discussion
- An understanding of how you can eradicate the unintended consequences of future decisions
- Steps to improve Board & Executive performance
- Agreed next steps to implement the lessons learned
Assignment cost and time
The shape, time and costs of the assignment will be agreed in advance. It will be timed to fit into your scheduled commitments and will usually take between four and eight weeks depending on your timescales.
Analysis of the observe meeting and the questionnaire responses will allow us to design the feedback workshop to identify the strengths on which you can build and the adjustments you could make to enhance your performance.
A report will be drawn up to summarise the findings and agreements reached at the workshop. This will become a reference for future use.
Arrange a meeting to discuss how a Board & Executive Performance Audit would fit in with your current assessment of performance and enable you to optimise your effectiveness in leading the organisation.
The Kennedy View of the World
Our work is underpinned by a core strategic management philosophy — The Kennedy View of the World — four interdependent organisation needs, necessary to making strategy a reality.
Effective Top Team Leadership
Kennedy offers a selection of services that enable the top team to shape and secure the future of the business. These services encompass:
- Facilitated resolution of a critical business issue or project
- Understanding of how the individual will impact individual and group decisions
- Detailed decision-making profile of the individual and aggregate impact on group decisions
- Review and recommendations for improving Governance and oversight arrangements
Winning Strategic Direction
Can your management team think strategically and are they contributing to your competitive vision and strategy? All must be making a positive contribution to success but is everyone focused on short-term imperatives rather than your longer-term goals?
Aligned Organisation Design
A new strategy demands that your organisation structure is re-aligned to eradicate the old silos and unify outputs. Unless an organisation’s structure and culture are embedded and it is made clear how everyone will contribute to the future success of your business, are you really going to grow to become a more successful force in your markets?
Successful Operational Delivery
Kennedy helps to deliver the following outcomes:
- An effective change management programme
- Establishing the best fit of people to roles throughout your organisation
- Providing supportive organisation and personal development
- Resolving key performance issues
- Embedding effective performance management throughout your organisation
- Establishing business processes that add real value to your business
For more information about The Kennedy View of the World, click here or contact us
A real client experience
A workshop was arranged to provide feedback from the assignment and to apply the learning of the day to genuine issues being considered by the Board. As a result of the feedback workshop the group was able to:
- Adopt a streamlined approach to ensure all members agreed the key priorities needing attention
- Identify next steps to progress those priorities
- Consider how the agenda and Board submissions could be structured differently thereby allowing a greater focus on the critical issues, where greatest value would be added
- Understand that with the Non-executive Directors and Executives participating as peers the outcome of meetings would be more robust and enduring
- Take steps to address the fact that insufficient attention was paid to implementing decisions
We have free resources available to assist your in your business
Frequently Asked Questions
We already use a decision-making process – will this help?
That will be a great help, but it will not recognise and incorporate the impact each person has on the decisions made.
What if the analysis conflicts with other information we have?
This will complement the tools and techniques you currently use: it will underpin them and give you a greater understanding.
What do I do about some of my colleagues who are resistant to this sort of stuff?
If they see the benefit they will come on board. You will be able to convince them it is in the interests of the organisation.
Will this cost too much?
This is a quick, easy and cost-effective way to enhance dramatically your decision-making and will enable you to get the best out of the decision-making group.
How long will the process take?
The initial observation will relate to a meeting you have already scheduled. The feedback will be given in a workshop which will fit in with your scheduled commitments.
Are your meetings confidential?
Confidentiality is central to all we do. Nothing will leave the Board or Executive meeting.
If you have any further questions, just let us know
About Dr Sherril Kennedy
The behaviour and decisions of the Board and Executive can steer the organisation to a great future; cause it to simply ‘get by’; or condemn it to a slow and painful death. The responsibility is huge and the consequences plain for all to see.
Early in my career, I had the chance to research advertising effectiveness in 20 blue-chip companies. They had access to great talent and big budgets but often failed to leverage either successfully. Contributions from less senior staff were frequently ignored and the narrow view they ended up with often led to ineffective and damaging decisions.
Over my many years of working with Boards and Executives, I have supported and facilitated groups to understand themselves better and equipped them to become effective decision-makers.
This is achieved when they know the strengths on which they can build, the pitfalls they are likely to encounter, and the strategies that will enable them to provide the leadership required to secure the future of the business.
Kennedy’s work in the public and private sectors continues to show that it is not easy to take decisions that support the strategy and aspirations of the organisation. Our passion is facilitating corporate leaders to be more effective and get the very best contributions from colleagues.
Clients say we have developed an impressive ability to tackle issues others may find too daunting, and of embedding sustainable solutions that bring significant benefits and add real value to client organisations.
Kennedy’s philosophy is to equip clients with the insight, tools and techniques which they can use without a dependency on external support.
Find out more about Sherril and the team
About Angela Sims
Angela specialises in analysing decisions through the observation of tiny nonverbal behaviours or body movements. How individuals move is directly related to how they make decisions, and how they communicate: this has a profound impact on group decisions. By understanding the powerful DNA of a person’s natural decision-making, Angela is able to facilitate greater insights and spontaneous cooperation between people.
As an experienced Chief Executive and Company Director of award-winning organisations, Angela has worked in the field of organisational change for the last 20 years and has been responsible for creating dynamic cultural change in a range of organisations.
As a senior member of Kennedy, she brings insight and approaches in the decision-making and governance aspects of matters relevant to Boards and Senior Management Teams. Clients have said that she can sort out difficult issues, facilitate new insights, has an ability to think outside the box, and equips others to challenge the status quo.
Building on her academic studies at Henley and Brighton University she has supported CEO’s and Directors to achieve significant, tangible benefits, using decision technologies that create sustainable outstanding performance.
Angela is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Find out more about Angela and the team
“I have known and worked with Sherril for many years and I never hesitate to put her in front of my clients.
She is very comfortable (and very good) in dealing with teams of executives and Boards. She also has very good diagnostic instincts and capabilities.”
Jean Pousson, Finance and Strategy Trainer
“Sherril is an outstanding OD practitioner. The task she took on with me and my colleagues in a major public sector organisation was quite daunting but she tackled it with total confidence and carried it through to a highly successful conclusion. She is a one-woman poster-person for the arts and science of OD and a pleasure to work with. I can whole-heartedly recommend her as offering powerful direction and support for top teams and HR departments who want to achieve transformational change in their organisation.”
Mike Emmott, Associate adviser at Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
“Sherril undertook an Organisational Review of an organisation on whose Board of Directors I have served for several years. She worked closely with the Executive team and Board during several months developing a Governance & Strategic Framework clearly identifying Purpose, Priorities & Objectives as well as critical success factors. As a consequence, the Board and Executive have a clearer focus, work more effectively, and provide clear and consistent leadership.
Sherril has a remarkable capability to get everyone engaged, involved and contributing to the process. She is a clear thinker and very focused as well as highly analytical. She is a pleasure to work with and a true team builder and leader.”
Eva Wisemark, Owner of Optima Management (IOM) Ltd
“Sherril provided highly valuable insights into the senior management of my company and assisted in the successful restructuring of the whole organisation.”
David Wertheim, Chairman at Arts Aid
“Sherril is a highly skilled development professional. She works very successfully with complex teams and individuals, working in high-pressure areas where relationships and achievement were critical. Her work is challenging, but the outcomes are both impressive and long-lasting.”
Zoe Van Zwanenberg
“I had the recent pleasure of working with Sherril on an Executive Coaching, Board Development and Change Programme, working with the Executive and Board Directors of DHU Health Care. Sherril very quickly assesses the issues and main drivers for effective change and quickly gets to work in providing tools, experience and recommendations based on underpinning knowledge and academic resources. Sherril has the ability to work with the participants to understand the root causes, analyse the findings and guide colleagues into a new way of working and thinking. Sherril successfully removed red tape and complex processes and provided a framework for effective decision making, responsibility matrices as well as designing a more succinct Board Reporting structure. I would highly recommend Sherril in supporting with Board Development, Executive Coaching and Organisational Design and Development.”
Lisa Wallis, Executive Director of HR & O.D. Derbyshire Health United
“Thank you for the summary and the session, it was really enjoyable. I picked up some reflective moments and certainly an approach to factor into Board behaviour and their own preferences and styles that once smartly considered will improve their collective performance. The session was the right amount of time. The interactive chat worked well, and allowed us to get involved and share and you picked up our questions – made it feel more personal across the screen.”
Karen Malone, Deputy CEO (Governance), Department of Health and Social Care, Isle of Man Government
“When we were faced with extremely tight timescales, Kennedy were able to design an organisation structure and detailed role profiles for all staff within a remarkably short period. The result was robust, comprehensive, and helped us change our whole approach to providing client-focused services.”
Taroub Zahran, Director of Organisational Development, Glasgow Housing Association
“Kennedy developed the model that enables us to tackle a key issue - the prevention and control of infection and communicable disease. The model details how each person in the healthcare system contributes to preventing and controlling infection and provides the tangible measures by which we can monitor our success in tackling this issue. The innovative and professional approach taken proved to be great value for money, and was undertaken at remarkable speed.”
Mary Henry, Nurse Consultant, Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health