Below you see summary of Harvard Business Review journal’s article titled How to Be a Good Board Chair (Shekshnia, 2018) After reading that, propose answers on the questions below.

The majority of board chairs are former CEOs, who are used to calling the shots and being stars. So it’s no surprise that many start behaving as if they are alternative chief executives of their firms. That sows conflict and confusion at the top. In addition, as research by INSEAD’s Corporate Governance Centre shows, the two jobs are distinctly different—and so are the skills needed in them. The chair leads the board, not the company, and that means being a facilitator of effective group discussions, not a team commander.

After surveying 200 board chairs and interviewing 140 chairs, directors, shareholders, and CEOs, INSEAD has distilled the requirements for the chair’s role down to eight principles:

(1) Be the guide on the side; show restraint and leave room for others.

(2) Practice teaming—not team building.

(3) Own the prep work; a big part of the job is preparing the board’s agenda and briefings.

(4) Take committees seriously; most of the board’s work is done in them.

(5) Remain impartial.

(6) Measure the board’s effectiveness by its inputs, not its outputs.

(7) Don’t be the CEO’s boss.

(8) Be a representative with shareholders, not a player.
While many executives need to shift gears and mindsets to follow these, successful chairs say the effort always pays off.

Q1 if you are being invited by chairman of medium-sized Russian company in order to propose optimal and effective board composition in whole details, what would you suggest? Be as detailed as possible. If you make particular recommendations then justify your suggestion by appropriate references or examples.

Q2 How would you motivate the board to deliver the best results? And afterwards evaluate its performance. Provide examples if necessary.

Q3 What is the approximate annual cost for maintaining such a board?