Myth 1 As a non-executive director you get the best out of your executive colleagues by always keeping them on their toes. In a unitary board environment where executives attend and contribute in board meetings. board’s work better collectively when there is a collegiate approach. An aggressive approach is counter-productive and although healthy tension and

In a series of articles, I’ve been looking at examples of negative and positive board behaviours. The negative behaviours are represented by the ostrich, goose, elephant and wolf. The positive behaviours are represented by the lion and the eagle. In this sixth and final article, I will take you through some strategies that could help

This time, I turn to the positive behaviours of the lion and the eagle. These have been highlighted in the writings of the late Dr Myles Munroe. Let’s consider the lion first. We call him the king of the jungle, but why is that? He’s more often found in forests than in jungles and he’s

This is a large threat coming towards you. It’s highly obvious and probably dangerous. It’s a menacing, big bad wolf, the fourth and final animal I am using in this series of articles to represent the dysfunctional behaviours of the boards of some businesses and organisations. The book Gray Rhino by Michele Wucker looks at

The white elephant board has the knowledge that things are not right, or could be done differently, but they CHOOSE to ignore it. They do very little about the problems they see. This is wilful ignorance as opposed to the wilful blindness of the black swan. Perhaps they hope the problem will go away on

Welcome to the second in a series of articles that examine the collective dysfunctional behaviour of the boards that lead some of our businesses and organisations. Last time, I introduced you to the concept of four types of dysfunctional behaviour that boards, collectively, can demonstrate. They are represented by the black swan, the red goose,