At Hyde Park Angels, we meet with hundreds of entrepreneurs a year who have spent considerable time and energy thinking about their business models, product development, talent acquisition and even their future investors. However, we almost never meet entrepreneurs who have thought about board development or management. That’s because the whole process is rarely talked about and planning for it seems important but not urgent. Yet, the board guides the strategy and leadership of a company, which becomes monumentally important as the organization grows and accepts more investments.
Susan Whiting, seasoned board member, former Vice Chair of Nielsen and current Hyde Park Angels leader, shared her insights into how good boards are structured and how entrepreneurs can make sure they choose the right board members to grow their companies. In particular, she pointed out that building a strong board of directors means considering how the members work together, as opposed to just their individual qualifications.
Hear what Susan has to say in this video and read a few of her thoughts below in the post.
“As a leader, CEO and entrepreneur, something I think people sometimes forget about is that the people sitting around the table need to get along also. You don’t want them to always agree because then you aren’t getting the best ideas, but you certainly want them to be complementary in style,” Susan said.
Diversity around the boardroom table is paramount to filling in operational or expertise-related gaps. That diversity breeds creativity, innovation and balance. However, your board members should have similar or cohesive working styles that allow for cooperation and open conversation. If your board members don’t get along and can’t listen to one another, you will spend your board meetings playing mediator in the best circumstances, and dealing with consequences that negatively impact your business in the worst.
Just as important as making sure board members have compatible working styles is how you work together with them. The Board of Directors is a startup CEO’s boss, and in most cases, they can remove or replace the CEO. That means you need to treat board relationships as true partnerships and make very intentional decisions about who you choose and clearly understand why you need them and how you will collaborate together in the future.
To do that effectively, “First you need to know what your strategy is for making your business successful […] and then you want to go out and find people who complement your own skills and perhaps the top team you have, so that they bring things to the table and take you where you need to go. People come to this for different reasons, and you want to understand that,” Susan said.
Understanding why specific individuals want to be board members and what kind of working relationship you may have involves knowing the people you bring on well ahead of time. As Susan points out, this is a blessing. Attracting high caliber board members can be a difficult objective for early-stage founders still developing their networks. However, forming advisory relationships at the beginnings of the business allows for more “getting to know you time,” which serves the dual purpose of giving you the opportunity to vet prospective board members and showing them enough of your business and leadership that they can determine if they want to take a more involved role.
“Start with several levels of advisors. So, you can go out and approach people who might not be ready to be on your board but who might at least meet with you and give you advice," Susan said. "[They] may be an advisor in a certain kind of circle for a certain period of time, and that’s a way to get access early. Then you get to the more formal board.”
About Hyde Park Angels Hyde Park Angels is transforming early-stage investing by taking a people first approach. By matching our members’ expertise with entrepreneurs’ needs, we help develop top-performing companies that are delivering extraordinary results. Our approach has led us to become the largest and most active angel group in the Midwest.
