One slide that made my board meetings interactive and effective

I was recently chatting with a founder preparing for a board meeting and the topic of expectations from board members came up.

I remembered how one way and boring the board meetings used to be and how a simple addition at the beginning of my slide deck made all the difference. I took the following bullet points from Matt Blumberg's book startup CEO and put it into the first few slides of presentation and set expectations. It made all the difference.

*Board members keep it 10% looking backwards and 90% looking forwards.*

*They are prepared and keep commitments.*
They show up to all meetings. They show up on time and don’t leave early. They do their homework. They are fully present and don’t email during meetings.

*They speak their minds.*
They have no fear of bringing up an uncomfortable topic during a meeting, even if it impacts someone in the room. They do not come up to you after a meeting and tell you what they really think. I had a board member once tell my entire management team that he thought I needed to be better at firing executives more quickly!

*They build independent relationships.*
They get to know each other and see each other outside of your meetings. They get to know individuals on our management team and talk to them on occasion as well. None of this communication needs goes through me.

*They are resource rich.*
Board members should be able to pull from years of experience and adapt that experience to our situations on a flexible and dynamic