Recently, the Australian Financial Review published an article that called for directors to be more courageous about speaking up in the board room. While insightful, it is important to recognise that there is more to the story about director speak up behaviours.
Director Behaviours
Let’s start first where the article leaves off. “Walk away” issues, like those covered in the article, are real, yet they represent only a small fraction of the decisions a director faces during their board service. In many cases, these issues are also predictable for those who are paying attention to board dynamics and culture.
We know from many decades helping leaders cultivate speak-up cultures that everyone, from the newest employees to the longest serving directors on the board, evaluates whether their colleagues and the organisation can effectively hear challenges, dissent, and diverse perspectives long before ethical or existential issues arise. And at Blackhall & Pearl, we also measure levels of psychological safety in the board room, so we know just how challenging it is on some boards for directors to speak up. While we expect they’ll speak up regardless because it’s their job and director duties are real, the essential corollary is that director speak up behaviours are enabled or disabled by the board’s dynamics and culture.
Board Behaviours
Now let’s also consider what makes a board high performing. The best boards understand that, beyond the skills and strengths of individual directors, they need to work effectively as a team to benefit from their collective experience and make better decisions. This requires setting standards for – and then holding directors accountable to – the behaviours that will support collective board performance. For example, we’ve worked with boards to create culture statements unique to the behaviours and practices of the board so that directors are individually and collectively clear what ‘good’ looks like and what to expect from each other.
Speak Up Behaviours
Taken together, the result is that we see leading boards expecting – and then practicing – and then evaluating – director speak up behaviours in the board room as table stakes for effective performance. By ensuring speak up behaviours are named, centred and measured, boards also develop collective muscle memory through countless seemingly minor decisions that encourage debate, productive conflict, and alternative viewpoints among directors. The truth is that it’s the absence of these speak-up practices more than the absence of director courage that leads boards to struggle when complex or values-laden issues arise.
In short, high performing boards recognise that speaking up isn’t solely about having courageous directors who voice concerns, consequences be damned. When a board finds itself with a walk away issue, the failure extends well beyond any individual director. Instead, high performing boards are proactive and intentional about fostering and monitoring their board cultures, including director speak-up behaviours, to improve their collective judgment and decision-making.
