Leaders: This Question Changes Everything for Board Performance

The board nods in agreement but the room feels hollow.

The CFO is staring at their phone.

Another strategy presentation that nobody actually believes in.

You’re leading people who’ve somehow become strangers to each other.

Here’s what most leaders miss for board performance:

Breakthroughs rarely come from better powerpoints.

They come from better questions.

6 questions separate high-performing boards from expensive talk shops:

1. Who are your stakeholders and what do they want?

2. Is your purpose aligned to business strategy?

3. Do you have the right mix of people?

4. How well do you work together?

5. How is conflict handled?

6. What do you avoid talking about?

The last one is particularly powerful.

During Intel’s crisis in the 1980s, Andy Grove asked CEO Gordon Moore:

“𝘐𝘧 𝘸𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘬𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘊𝘌𝘖, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘥𝘰?”

This question cut through years of polite avoidance.

The answer: exit memory chips, focus on microprocessors.

That pivot saved the company.

First the question was asked. Then came the real work.

Grove asked what everyone was thinking but nobody was saying.

Your stakeholders don’t need another consensus-driven meeting to stimulate board performance.

They need the productive friction from honest answers to hard questions.

Which one does your board avoid most?

Start there.

This article was originally posted here