Tip #7 Seven Principles for Effective Board Delegation to Management

April 1, 2016  |  tips for effective boards

Effective board delegation to management is critical for developing and maintaining a constructive relationship between board and management, for responsible board leadership, and for effective organizational management.

Without effective delegation to management, boards may become overinvolved in operational details (micromanaging) or may fail in their governance responsibility by simply approving whatever management recommends (rubberstamping).

Effective delegation combines board empowerment of management and management accountability to the board.  It avoids both micromanaging and rubberstamping.

In this Tip I will present Seven Principles for Effective Board Delegation to Management.  In subsequent Tips I will describe each of the principles and how they are implemented by boards practicing the Policy Governance® model of board operations and how they can be implemented by other boards as well.

 Seven Principles for Effective Board Delegation to Management 

  1. If you have a chief executive, respect the singular authority of that position and avoid delegating to persons other than the chief executive.  If you don’t have a chief executive, be careful not to delegate the same management responsibility to more than one person.
  2. Embrace the “group authority” of the board with delegation to the chief executive coming from the board as a whole.  (This principle and the following principles assume the board is delegating to a chief executive.)
  3. Clearly state the board’s expectations for performance of the chief executive.
  4. Clearly delineate the scope of authority and discretion being delegated to the chief executive.
  5. Empower the chief executive to make decisions within the defined delegated scope of authority.
  6. Track and evaluate the performance of the chief executive in relation to the board’s stated expectations.
  7. Reward positive performance of the chief executive and take corrective action when indicated.

For information about the Policy Governance® system, please go to www.BoardsOnCourse.com/policy-governance.