So you did your best calling references and back-channeling before bringing on your board member but six months in you have a problem. Your board member is being unhelpful, unproductive and maybe even destructive in someway. Perhaps they are overbearing at board meetings and preventing thoughtful nuanced discussion with a dismissive approach. Or maybe they are front-running your fundraise process and having unauthorized conversations with prospective investors. This is not an easy situation to deal with but the process for tackling it is similar to how you would deal with a company employee.
- Talk with your other board members first - Reach out to your “friendly” board members first. Solicit their advice and let them know that you plan to address the matter directly with the difficult board member 1:1. This way they won’t be surprised if things go sideways and they’ll be better prepared to support you.
- Schedule a 1:1 with the difficult board member - Confront the issue head on, 1:1 with the difficult board member. Don’t make it personal, but be direct about what you’re experiencing and why you think it’s unhelpful, unproductive or destructive to the company from your perspective. Invite them to share their perspective. Acknowledge that they’re entitled to have a different point of you, but you’re the CEO and respectfully disagree.
- Go back to your other board members to reinforce the message - If the difficult board member still isn’t correcting their behavior, then it’s time to get your other board members actively involved. Invite them to have their own 1:1 meetings or plan a live discussion at your next board meeting. You could even pass specific resolutions to preempt that inappropriate behavior. In our example where a board member is front-running your fundraise, the board could pass a resolution stating only the CEO is authorized to have conversations with investors.
Note, it can be extremely difficult to remove a board member, particularly ones that represent major investors in your company, so working through challenging relationships head-on might really be the only way to improve a bad situation. That said, too often CEOs ignore opportunities to manage up because they’re driven by fear, stress or uncertainty.
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