By Peter Myers, Senior Vice President, DDJ Myers, Ltd.
If board composition and succession come up, you should talk about them now.
We at DDJ Myers sometimes need to ask board members or a board chair, “What are the historically unmentionable topics that your board should discuss?” In response, we often hear “board composition” and “succession.”
The way people frame the topics of board-level board composition and succession planning can make them difficult to discuss. Deflecting this important conversation might sound like:
- “Our board is performing well. Why do we need to talk about succession?”
- “Board succession means term limits. Term limits are a way for them to get me off the board.”
- “No one leaves our board; we don’t need succession.”
- “Change for the sake of change will take us off course.”
What is missing in these mindsets is an objective framework for boards to have grounded conversations about all of their practices. The idea behind conversations about composition and succession is to assess alignment and opportunity on key things that influence and impact board performance.