Governance · The board · Component
Board evaluation
A periodic review of how the board works — composition, information, discussion and decisions — with the actions that follow from it.
The deliverable
What it is
The UK Corporate Governance Code expects an annual evaluation, and an externally facilitated one at least every three years for larger companies. The practice travels well to smaller boards and advisory boards, where nobody else will ask whether the board is useful.
Evaluations tend to be generous when a board assesses itself. More comes from asking about specific decisions — what the board changed, what it missed — and from checking a year later whether the agreed actions were taken.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
Evaluation scope
Which aspects of the board’s work are reviewed this time, and whether the review is internal or externally facilitated.
3 attributes: Method · Cycle · Facilitator
LearnFindings
What the evaluation found about the board as a whole, its committees, the chair and individual directors.
3 attributes: Finding · Level · Confidence
Learn
Start each evaluation with the previous one’s actions. The same finding two years running is itself a finding.
The other components in the board
Board charter
The board’s mandate in writing: its role, the matters reserved to it, its committees and how authority passes to management.
LearnBoard skills matrix
The capabilities the board needs over the next few years, set against those its members bring, used to choose the next appointment.
LearnAnnual board cycle
The year’s board meetings, each with the standing items it must cover, fixed before the year begins so that nothing is crowded out.
Learn