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Transforming Frustrating Board Meetings into Strategic Sessions

As a dedicated board member, you actively contribute to meetings and aim to make a meaningful impact. However, there are moments when you find yourself quietly frustrated, wondering if the discussion has veered into the minutiae, and then even further into micro-details. Why does this happen?

While the topics at hand may be interesting, you understand that such operational details are better left to middle managers who specialize in these functions. The board’s role should be holding these managers accountable, not getting lost in the weeds.

After an hour or two of discussion, you may find that little progress has been made. This can leave you shaking your head in disbelief, thinking that there are more productive uses of your time.

So, how can you address this issue before your frustration reaches a breaking point?

  1. Focus on What Truly Matters

Board members have limited time, often juggling other important responsibilities. Therefore, it’s crucial to engage in high-leverage discussions. Your participation should be reserved for tackling the most challenging and intractable problems. If discussions jump around with random advice, it’s a sign that something needs to change.

It’s important to note that your fellow board members are well-intentioned, smart, and experienced. They can provide valuable insights on various topics. However, the aim should be to make significant decisions during board meetings, not to offer scattered tips.

  1. Encourage Decisive Actions

Some board members believe that major decisions only come into play during unexpected emergencies. While these situations demand immediate attention, boards can also proactively influence decision-making.

One effective approach is to require your executives to develop long-term plans. Short-term plans tend to be incremental, as discussed in my May 2022 column, “Five-Year Plans Aren’t Strategic. They’re Dangerous.”

For inspiration, consider Kennedy’s lunar challenge in 1961. This ambitious goal led to the creation of the Apollo program and spurred innovations in various fields. To foster big decisions, challenge your CEO or MD to articulate a bold, long-term vision for the organization.

Few top executives have been trained in this kind of thinking. Some offer vague visions with no concrete plans, while others attempt to rebrand five-year plans as “long-term.” As a discerning board member, you should seek game-changing commitments that transform industries and elevate your company’s performance.

  1. Engage the Best Minds

While board members may be eager to make significant decisions, many C-Suite executives might not be ready for such audacious goals. They are often promoted based on their ability to deliver short-term results.

You can encourage a shift in mindset by introducing the concept of “big, hairy, audacious goals” (BHAGs) with long-term horizons. While this may seem unconventional and risky to some, it’s the right approach. As a board member, your role is to challenge assumptions, ensure the credibility of plans, and evaluate end-game scenarios.

Your collective expertise can add rigor to the management team’s plans and elevate the quality of discussions. Over time, this focused process can lead to game-changing outcomes, making board meetings inspiring and far less frustrating.

This article was inspired by an earlier version published as a column in the Jamaica Gleaner.

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How Board Members Turn Frustrations into Strategy


As a dedicated board member, you actively contribute to meetings and aim to make a meaningful impact. However, there are moments when you find yourself quietly frustrated, wondering if the discussion has veered into the minutiae, and then even further into micro-details. Why does this happen?

While the topics at hand may be interesting, you understand that such operational details are better left to middle managers who specialize in these functions. The board’s role should be holding these managers accountable, not getting lost in the weeds.

After an hour or two of discussion, you may find that little progress has been made. This can leave you shaking your head in disbelief, thinking that there are more productive uses of your time.

So, how can you address this issue before your frustration reaches a breaking point?

  1. Focus on What Truly Matters

Board members have limited time, often juggling other important responsibilities. Therefore, it’s crucial to engage in high-leverage discussions. Your participation should be reserved for tackling the most challenging and intractable problems. If discussions jump around with random advice, it’s a sign that something needs to change.

It’s important to note that your fellow board members are well-intentioned, smart, and experienced. They can provide valuable insights on various topics. However, the aim should be to make significant decisions during board meetings, not to offer scattered tips.

  1. Encourage Decisive Actions

Some board members believe that major decisions only come into play during unexpected emergencies. While these situations demand immediate attention, boards can also proactively influence decision-making.

One effective approach is to require your executives to develop long-term plans. Short-term plans tend to be incremental, as discussed in my May 2022 column, “Five-Year Plans Aren’t Strategic. They’re Dangerous.”

For inspiration, consider Kennedy’s lunar challenge in 1961. This ambitious goal led to the creation of the Apollo program and spurred innovations in various fields. To foster big decisions, challenge your CEO or MD to articulate a bold, long-term vision for the organization.

Few top executives have been trained in this kind of thinking. Some offer vague visions with no concrete plans, while others attempt to rebrand five-year plans as “long-term.” As a discerning board member, you should seek game-changing commitments that transform industries and elevate your company’s performance.

  1. Engage the Best Minds

While board members may be eager to make significant decisions, many C-Suite executives might not be ready for such audacious goals. They are often promoted based on their ability to deliver short-term results.

You can encourage a shift in mindset by introducing the concept of “big, hairy, audacious goals” (BHAGs) with long-term horizons. While this may seem unconventional and risky to some, it’s the right approach. As a board member, your role is to challenge assumptions, ensure the credibility of plans, and evaluate end-game scenarios.

Your collective expertise can add rigor to the management team’s plans and elevate the quality of discussions. Over time, this focused process can lead to game-changing outcomes, making board meetings inspiring and far less frustrating.

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Why Your Kids Shouldn’t Migrate, But Stay to Run Your Business

If you own a company, should you encourage your children to one day take an ownership position? Or should they pursue a more lucrative career overseas? We Jamaicans need to challenge our habit of exporting the next generation.

“My son is a pediatrician in New York.”

There are few things that give a Jamaican parent more pride than the apparent success of their child in a foreign country. He may be miserable, divorced and barely making ends meet in a cold corner of the South Bronx, but these dull facts are disregarded in the telling of the tale.

His parents could even own a profitable business in a small town, the sole supplier of an essential good or service. Their life may be comfortable. They live well below their means as they navigate a world they understand. When the son complains about his life, they tell him to stay put – things are far worse back home.

But are they?

I lived on both sides of the equation: 21 years in the USA, returning 15 years ago. I met scores of overseas Jamaicans trapped in jobs or neighborhoods they hated. They longed to return to what they knew, but couldn’t. Few re-migrate from Canada, the UK or America even after the environment becomes hostile.

In the meantime, their parent-owners did no succession planning. Eventually, these founders passed away, forcing their children to come back to pick up the pieces.

There are countless versions of the above scenario. It’s a sad accumulation of small, seemingly disconnected decisions that result in a huge loss of inter-generational wealth. Here are three new thoughts that might help.

1. Don’t under-estimate what you have here

In error, we Jamaicans often think we are “special” – facing problems that no-one in the rest of the world has.

For example, someone who struggled to start their own business believes that if they had only been born in America, they would have had an easier path to success. As such, they encourage their children to migrate to a life with fewer obstacles.

Unfortunately, they don’t realize the advantage they already have. Their company has figured out how to succeed and is now a big and growing fish in a small pond. This advantage is hard to comprehend when viewed from home, but the global research is clear: most wealthy families pass on material advantages from one generation to the next.

I know too many Jamaican families who ignore this fact, encouraging the next generation to abandon the massive lead their forefathers created. Sometimes it’s due to shame – a belief that what is Jamaican (or Black) cannot be good.

Fortunately, this opinion is changing but there are local families destroying value by reflexively pushing their children to study and live overseas, no matter what.

2. Don’t over-estimate the challenge of starting over

I have spoken to a few Jamaicans before they migrate, and the overwhelming impression I have is that they equate a move to another country with one to a place like Montego Bay. In other words, they naively believe it won’t be that hard to transition.

Part of the problem are the falsehoods returning Jamaicans tell. With newly acquired accents, clothes and pictures of cars, they defend their decision to migrate by exaggerating life in their new country. I did it too.

The false impression it leaves is that migrating from Jamaica is an accomplishment. In fact, it’s more a case of “swapping brown dog for monkey”. To whit: most of us know several dogs, but have never seen a single monkey. 

The truth? When I lived in the US, most Jamaicans I met wished they could return, a majority that Trump and COVID-19 have probably increased.

Why? While there are exceptions to the rule, most migrants who left family businesses behind struggle to achieve the quality of life their parents had back home.

Living abroad is hard. And it’s new. Research shows that the combination delays business success and in the case of a family-owned enterprise, permanently disrupts the transfer of wealth.

3. Starting Too Late

If there is any truth to the two mistakes described above, the best time to start correcting them is as soon as you, a company owner, have children.

While they shouldn’t be promised an easy ride, it’s a good idea to teach them to love and cherish the business they could inherit.

One day, their appreciation may pay off if they choose to stay home to keep the chain alive. While you must not force them, their decision to continue what you began can do more than make you proud. It can build a solid foundation that serves generations to come.

Francis Wade is the author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, a keynote speaker and a management consultant. To search prior columns on productivity, strategy, engagement and business processes, send email to columns@fwconsulting.com

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20200405/francis-wade-family-business-succession-why-your-kids-shouldnt-migrate