New Digital Short Course for Directors & senior executives:
Ending Micromanagement Around the Boardroom
"This is more about good Governance with tips and techniques that will make your Board Strategic rather than just about avoiding "micromanagement". Recommend for young, old, experienced or newcomers to Boards or Senior Executive Roles"
Chinka Steel
Chairman, Windarring Disability
Reclaim your meeting agenda and govern more effectively
Have you ever been trapped in a Board meeting that has totally lost its focus? Do you dread Board or staff meetings that achieve little or nothing?
Are you ever tempted to pull out your phone to check your emails under the table during a talk-fest Board meeting…maybe you let your mind drift off to that important email waiting for you at your desk...
Sometimes, without even knowing it, any Director can waste the time of the Board by leaning into operations rather than strategic governance.
So how do you handle the toxic trap of micromanagement?
Micromanagement can derail meetings at all levels of your organization. For the Board of Directors, it can be especially insidious because it absorbs the time which could have been spent on more far-reaching and strategic discussion topics.
For many Directors, micromanaging is often thought of as inconsequential; a little bit of fine tuning here and an extended discussion there. It has all the hallmarks of a thorough and prudent Board member securing down the fact and details.
But this tendency to lean into operations can be distracting for the rest of the Board and symptomatic of a lack of separation between governance and management.
“Ending Micromanagement Around the Boardroom”, is a series of short, sharp videos and downloadable resources. It has been designed to show you:
- how to stop micromanagement in its tracks
- how to ensure you don't fall into micromanagement
- how to direct the Board’s discussion back to what is most important
"The 'Ending Micromanagement' program covers some pretty important territory quite efficiently, and with sufficient depth. I liked the structure of the videos. Variations on: (1) here’s the issue (2) here’s why it is a problem (3) here are a couple of things/suggestions/hints for dealing with the issue. So it gets practical quickly, based on a framework of understanding."
Will Morony
CEO, Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers
The modules include:
1. Identifying micromanagement (4:19 min)
What to look for, examples, and understanding its effect on the Board
2. Refocusing your Board (2:35 min)
A unique way of focusing Directors on the real purpose of your Board and Directors so they don’t get sidetracked on minutae
3. Act as if you were the Chair (3:25 min)
If you were willing to emulate the behaviors and mindset of a great Chair, you will find the behavior in your Boardroom will begin to change. Even if you aren't the Chair. Techniques and examples are provided.
4. Powerful questions to transform Boardroom discussions (9:00 min)
This module provides examples and situations where incredibly powerful questions can be used to minimise micromanagement tendencies, and open up Boardroom conversations so they focus on strategy and vision.
5. Agenda management techniques: The Consent agenda (6:58 min)
This module explores how to structure your Board agenda using a consent agenda technique that is guaranteed to minimise extraneous and micromanagement-type conversations. This module is especially relevant for Chairs of any committee.
6. Agenda management techniques: Structuring Board SubCommittee Reports (7:40 min)
This module explores how to use your Vision statement on agendas to refocus conversations so they are strategic. We discuss how Board subcommittee reports can be structured to focus on strategic issues and minimize any tendencies toward micromanagement reporting.
7. Agenda management techniques: Reporting against the strategic plan (5:48 min)
This module describes how to structure your agenda so that it reflects your key strategies. How to report against your strategic plan is discussed and the two key elements that must be included are highlighted.
8. Ensuring any report provides strategic insight (5:43 min)
This module explores simple yet highly effective techniques to maximize strategic information and minimize distracting micromanaging. We focus on risk management reports as an example.
9. Using Board evaluations to minimize micromanagement (2:36 min)
Simple techniques to manage any tendency towards micromanagement using different styles of Board evaluations.
BONUS MATERIAL:
7 downloadable PDFs including:
10 Powerful Questions for Board Members
Sample Consent Agenda
Extracting Strategic Insights from Financial Reports
Creating Action Plans that work
Extracting Strategic
Insights from Financial Reports
Sample GANTT Chart
Sample Completed
Strategic Plan
Packed with 9 proven techniques for managing the time of the Board with efficiency and rigor.
That means:
- No more lengthy detours in your Board meetings (no more staying back late because of a meeting that ran overtime due to inappropriate micromanaging).
- Every Director knows what is relevant and irrelevant during a Board meeting – keep pet projects and personal gripes where you found them. Your discussion is high-level and effective.
- You, and each of your colleagues, know how to spot micromanagement in a heartbeat, and have a strategy to minimize or eliminate it entirely.
Are you ready? Refocus your Board on what really matters
"This series is very valuable for board members and executive management to create a strategic environment that is productive and a good use of the valuable time that boards have together. I made pages of notes as I was watching"
