How to Drastically Improve Your Board Dynamics

Tired of tense, unproductive board meetings? Learn how to drastically improve your board dynamics, reset misaligned relationships, and build a healthier, high-performing board culture that drives real momentum.

Key Takeaways

• Strong board dynamics create momentum, while dysfunction quietly destroys a company’s confidence and strategic boldness.
• Even a single disruptive board member can hijack a CEO’s headspace, leading to defensive decisions and a shrinking vision.
• Running a Board Reset™—a simple but courageous 30-minute conversation—can realign your board and strengthen collaboration.
• Clarifying the role of the board, resetting expectations, and establishing feedback loops are essential to long-term board performance.
• Founders must shift from ‘selling’ to ‘leading’ their boards to foster a culture of trust, accountability, and strategic focus.

Let’s be honest. Most investors add very little value. Even the “top-tier” ones.

Many of the behaviours you see on dysfunctional boards include:

• Advocating for short-term decisions at the expense of long-term thinking.
• Asking distracting questions already answered in the pre-read.
• Mandating the creation of new exec roles or NEDs with someone they’ve worked with before—who turn out not to be a fit.

But the most destructive impact is the psychological effect this can have on the founders.

A single board member can occupy a disproportionate amount of the CEO’s headspace.

The CEO begins to ruminate, rather than focus on what’s best for the business.

Decisions become less bold. Strategies become more defensive. The relationship shifts from collegiate to conflict.

So, what can you do if you’re in this position?

How to Run a Board Reset™

There’s a simple conversation which can radically shift board dynamics. I call it the Board Reset™. It takes around 30 minutes, and while it isn’t complex, it often requires some courage.

The ideal time to run a Board Reset is when a new investor joins—typically after a fundraising round. But if you feel like you need this conversation at your next board meeting, that is the right time.

Those willing to do it create a healthier, more aligned board culture as a result.

There are three parts to the conversation.

Part 1: Ask for Reintroductions

The truth is, most board members don’t know each other well. They want to be respectful, and that often means avoiding friction with one another. The unintended consequence is that all challenge and scrutiny lands on the CEO.

You can shift this dynamic by having each board member reintroduce themselves, answering two simple questions:

• What’s one area where you believe you can be particularly helpful to this board?
• What’s one weakness as a board member that you’re working on improving?

Done sincerely, this creates a surprising amount of humility and vulnerability around the table. It also changes the tone from inspection to collaboration.

Part 2: Clarify the Role of the Board

It’s easy to assume everyone is aligned on what your board is supposed to do. But in reality, all boards are different and many board members have conflicting opinions on the role of the board and the role of the CEO.

Some helpful questions to surface assumptions include:

• Who owns the company’s strategy—the CEO or the board?
• If it’s the CEO, what role should the board play in moments of disagreement?
• If the board is ultimately responsible (hopefully not), how are individual board members held accountable for strategic outcomes?
• What’s the appropriate time horizon for board discussions? i.e. What percentage should be spent on this month, this year, and the next five years?
• When is it appropriate to change the budget mid-cycle?

This isn’t an exhaustive list, and there may be other questions you want to add. The goal isn’t to force alignment in a single conversation—but asking these questions plants the seeds for future alignment and creates the space to work through the details.

Part 3: Agree on a Mechanism for Feedback

Boards are still teams, and like any team, they need a feedback loop. Without one, it’s very unlikely the team will perform at high level.

I recommend closing each board meeting with a short survey—completed before the meeting ends, not afterwards. Here are two questions I recommend asking:

• What went well in today’s board meeting?
• What could we have done better?

When this becomes a habit, board members start to raise the bar for themselves—and for each other.

First, Fix Your Mindset

Why don’t most CEOs do this?

Most CEOs meet board members while pitching—when they’re in seller mode. That dynamic can linger long after the deal is done.

At some point, founders need to stop selling and start leading.

When you see it that way, the idea of resetting your board dynamic stops feeling awkward—and starts feeling necessary.

Related readings

Originally published May 15, 2025

Unsubscribe any time.