39. Board Chair (definition)

NOTE: if you’re new to Ground-Up Governance, or are finding anything a bit strange or confusing, you might want to START HERE.

We just talked about rooms, so it makes sense to talk about furniture next. The funny thing about the board chair (or “chair of the board,” if you prefer) is that it’s actually a person. Usually, nobody sits on a board chair – in fact, a board chair usually sits on a chair in a boardroom at a board meeting. To try to get around this confusion, some people like to refer to the board chair as “chairPERSON” or “chairMAN” or “chairWOMAN,” but obviously that doesn’t help very much. Still, despite being called something pretty dumb, a board chair is SUUUUUPER important.

You ever go to a dinner party and afterward think back and realize “OMG, I met tonnes of cool people, we talked about so many different cool things, I learned so much, and somehow everyone at the table seemed to be contributing and having a great time?” And when you think about it some more, you realize that the party host always seemed to ask the perfect next question, knew just what music to put on, knew how to gracefully change topics to keep things fresh, and also the wine was delicious and perfectly paired with each course of the meal? It feels like literal magic! The loot bag even had a bottle of that truffle oil you love. A great board chair is basically like that party host, only for board meetings. Sure, board meetings aren’t usually as fun as a great dinner party, and that’s OK, but most people have attended lots of really bad meetings where nothing got done. That basically never happens when you have a great board chair.

Not only is the job of a board chair super hard, but when a board chair is especially good nobody really notices. It may seem like an art – and that’s because it is!  So, like any other art it requires a huge amount of work, practice, and preparation, just like a dinner party.

But what’s a board chair actually for? Basically, they squeeze all the good insights out of a smart group of directors by paying close attention to how the board spends its time, what it talks about, what information it needs, and how it works together. Oh, and in the end the board chair makes sure the board makes GOOD governance happen (i.e. they intentionally create effective conditions for making decisions). Lots of boards add a bunch of extra stuff to the board chair’s job, but it’s all just garnish on the main course (lol dinner analogy).

For the record, those board chairs who make board meetings feel like magic? Really super ultra extraordinarily rare! If you find one, you should probably pay them all the money and never let them leave until they aren’t magic anymore.