Self-Assessment of the Board is an essential function of the board, and provides an ideal platform to discuss and analyze governance strengths and weaknesses. The board can take advantage of it to take a step back and objectively assess its own effectiveness. This will result in better governance.
The development of a successful board assessment process requires planning time, as well as board member engagement. The first step in determining the scope is to determine who will be the target audience for the assessment. It could encompass the entire board, specific committees and/or directors individually. A good plan will also determine the evaluation method. Common methods include surveys interviews or discussion groups that are facilitated. Once the scope and methodology for evaluation are decided, it's time to begin designing and distributing questionnaires.
Some boards decide to conduct the evaluation in-house while others hire an outside consultant. A third party consultant can help to ensure a thorough and impartial analysis, which is essential for those who do not have the time or resources to conduct the assessment on your own.
It is vital that board members examine themselves. However, it is also important that nonprofit boards focus on the whole. It is easy for board members of nonprofit organizations and their facilitators to become focused on evaluating individual responses and neglect Board Self Evaluation the board as a whole.
A successful self-assessment helps boards clarify their expectations of each other, discover gaps in the composition of boards and align the expertise of board members with organizational strategy and address investor concerns about turnover and diversity and increase the effectiveness of their procedures and practices. In their proxy statements, companies that are public disclose the results of their boards' evaluations.