Should We Fire The President?

The two-question agenda

One rather stark morsel of conventional board wisdom suggests that every board meeting should revolve around only two questions. First question: Should we fire the president? If the answer is, “No” then the second question should be: How can we help the president succeed?

I do not recommend that boards literally implement the two-question agenda. But those questions do illustrate critically important principles relative to an effective board-CEO dynamic.

I refer you once again to John Carver’s list of typical governance flaws:

  • Time on trivia
  • Short term bias
  • Reactive (vs. proactive)
  • Leaky accountability
  • Ambiguous authority

A great many institutional governance train wrecks can be traced to one or both of the latter two flaws: leaky accountability and ambiguous authority.

— Ralph Enlow | 4thoughtleaders Blog

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