Board planning 2025 – ten things directors should think about now

Board planning 2025: a run-down of the corporate governance issues that should be top of your agenda this year.

It’s a time of change right now, politically, economically, and internationally. In this kind of environment, it’s hard to ensure your strategy still makes sense; there are a lot of conflicting priorities. However, guaranteeing effective strategy remains your primary responsibility as a board member. 

Here are ten things you should focus on this year.

Focus on board renewal and ensure the board has the right talent and mindset to succeed. This is vital to ensure smooth operational continuity and avoid the nightmare scenario of governance falling flat because key people weren’t replaced in time. 

You bring unnecessary risk to your company if you don’t have a good succession plan. You might not notice this risk at first, but as turnover increases, the cracks will start to show.

Host a scenario planning meeting to find a road ahead in this confusing, multiplex economic world. 

There’s no doubt that today’s business leaders have to please more stakeholders than ever before. Those stakeholders are passionate groups in a politically charged environment, and you need to please all of them. That means it’s definitely the time to start thinking about new ideas.

Develop an annual work plan if you don’t have one already. This encourages the board to think about what adds value to the company over time and ensures that the board is focused on those topics.

Always remember that the boardroom is a high-intensity environment. You’re making decisions with huge ramifications and discussing them with passionate, outspoken colleagues, each with their own view of how things should be done. 

Ensure you find the time to process all of this and stay on top of the pressure. You could explore alternative CPD exercises like meditation or team-building to assist directors’ self-awareness.

Focus on relevant matters now; not next week. It’s often easy to identify the key issues for discussion at board meetings, but it’s just as easy to kick those issues down the road for the next agenda, or the one after that, or the one after that…

Avoid delay and avoid the back seat. The best directors will get proactive and engage with a boardroom issue when it arises. It makes boardroom life feel more real.

For the lost: the KISS approach essentially means “Keep it simple” (the final “S” can mean straightforward or short, depending on who you talk to, but you get the idea). 

This principle means the core process should be as simple as possible. It’s essential for governance because discussions can get complex so fast that aimless overthinking can take hold. It shouldn’t be like that. It should be a system of not too much and not too little; make sure the governance is proportionate.

Every director should have most or all of these skills below. They won’t be what each one was hired for, but they matter when the board gets to work. The skills include

• Emotional intelligence
• Listening skills
• Creativity
• The ability to challenge suggestions constructively

If your company and board don’t have a set of core values, decide on some and write them down. 

If you do have a list of values written and stored digitally years ago—no one knows where—track them down and ensure your board understands them. Update them if necessary. 

These exercises are necessary because company values matter in core decision-making. You make judgement calls based on what the organisation believes in. Therefore, clarity is essential.

Make sure board members understand that they have a duty to learn. It’s funny that no matter how often this point is made, there will always be directors who think they have “learned enough already”. This is never true unless it’s the director’s final day on the job. 

Being a board member is all about exploring and embracing new ideas, seeking governance training if necessary (and these days, it usually is necessary).

Evaluate the performance of the board, the chair, and the CEO regularly. It’s fine if your gut instinct tells you that these people are performing well or not. But gut feelings are nothing in governance because you have far more people to convince than yourself. 

The only evidence about performance that will win over savvy stakeholders is clear, structured and frequent evaluation, so ensure you do it.

Board planning 2025 – The Corporate Governance Institute