3. Look at your own Organisations’ skills

So, you have already established what skills you need, how do you establish what skills you actually have? Often a questionnaire is drafted and used, frequently by someone outside the organisation so that people are free to identify difficulties or problems with the status quo and be open about the role they would actually like to play within the organisation.

Motivating the Board can be as difficult as motivating staff when an organisation has become established, it is therefore important not only to check what skills and experience each board member possesses, but also to ask them what roles, tasks and responsibilities they would be interested in assuming. Sometimes, for example, accountants would like a break from the financial tasks and might relish joining the staff recruitment and selection sub-committee!

The checklist you have established during the previous exercise will most likely form the core of the questionnaire or interview – which should try to establish what experience, formal qualifications or interest each Board member has in each of the areas. It is also important to provide Board members with the opportunity to air grievances they may find difficult to express in the forum of Board meetings, otherwise they will become de-motivated and leave!

 

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