It’s a commitment about what you won’t do. And it’s a discipline you show up for, every single week. The document is the map. The strategy is the journey, and the board’s job is to make sure you’re still on it.
Part four of “Sitting in the Chair”
Most boards have signed off a strategy. Far fewer can say, hand on heart, whether it's really being delivered. Agreeing a strategy is the easy part. The away day goes well, the document looks impressive, and everyone leaves energised. Then the board meetings start to fill up with updates on how busy everyone has been. The real work of a board is making sure the strategy it agreed actually happens, without slipping into running the business itself.
A New Chair, a new strategy.
One of the advantages of starting my Chair journey in October 2023 was that the REC was due a new strategy. I arrived just in time to be briefed on the plans, with a new strategy to be signed off by the board in January.
Historically, our strategies had covered five years. In today's fast-moving world, five years felt like a long time, and on reflection it probably was. The change we've all faced over the last three years has been extraordinary. Not a pandemic, of course, but the world of work, geopolitics and the economy have shifted in ways that have touched every sector. Recruitment is often described as the litmus test for the economy, and with several changes of Prime Minister and government in that time, growth and jobs have been front and centre.
Nevertheless, we set to work on the strategy and the business plan to run alongside it.
Build it together.
A good strategy needs honest conversations about the present, but it must also look ahead to what might happen next. That's hard when things are changing so fast, which makes those conversations around the board table all the more important.
Our strategy conversations always began with the annual away day. We started with the fundamentals: why we exist, what our purpose is, what we do, and where we intend to make an impact. From there, three simple questions shaped everything:
Where are we now?
Where do we want to be?
How do we get there?
We talked about the internal and external picture: how the world of recruitment was changing, how technology was expanding, and what our role should be as a trade association and professional body for our members. We considered our purpose and our resources, and the opportunities available now or that might arise.
The board's conversation sets the parameters at the outset: the timescales, the areas of focus and, just as importantly, what we want to stop doing. But it's the executive who will deliver the strategy, so they must be critical in forming it. With the team's input, the drafts came back to the board until the final version was ready for approval.
Turn the story into a plan.
My main focus as Chair was to make sure the strategy told a clear, compelling story, and that it was achievable. A strategy people can't picture won't be delivered. A strategy that can't be achieved won't be believed.
So the five-year strategy was turned into a business plan for each year, with clear objectives and KPIs to show what was on track and what wasn't. Progress was reported using a simple red, amber and green system, so the board could see at a glance where to focus. Board sponsors worked alongside the executive on specific areas.
Measuring the right things matters as much as measuring at all. From time to time, board members brought their own expertise to challenge the executive on whether we were tracking what truly mattered, not just what was easy to count.
In a trade association, measuring the right things looks different from a commercial business. As I wrote in March 2023, before I took the Chair, a membership body exists to advance the common interests of its members and its industry. Profit matters, but it's profit with a purpose, reinvested to meet members' needs now and in the future. So alongside the financial indicators, the board needs to see how actively members are engaged, how much they value what the organisation offers, how effective its advocacy is, and how well it is preparing members for what's coming next.
Report progress, not activity.
If the board's papers report activity, the board's conversations will be about activity. So we designed what came to the board around the strategy.
• Agreed data packs. The board agreed what the data packs would include, with key indicators reported against the strategy to give a real sense of the speed of progress, or the lack of it.
• Papers in good time. Board papers went out a week before each meeting, with the key areas for discussion and decision clearly explained.
• Clear asks. Every paper set out what was needed from the board: approval, a decision, or a discussion to review progress.
• Data at the right level. Enough detail to judge progress, without drowning the board in operational information.
The boardroom is where external and internal insight come together. It's where a board makes sure the organisation is doing the right things, and is accountable for doing them right.Hold to account, without running the business.
Holding the executive to account is a fundamental part of the board's role. But there is always a boundary to respect. The executive runs the business. The board oversees it. Keeping that balance is a skill, and it's what allows operations, business planning and strategy to be delivered well.
I was always keen to understand the difficulties the executive might face, and to build an honest, open culture of accountability. In a membership organisation, there are many competing priorities. Members rightly expect a calendar of events and services to be delivered year after year. At the same time, the organisation has to look ahead to the trends and the changing world of work that will shape members' businesses in the future. Keeping an eye on both is critical.
The best accountability comes from openness, not pressure. When the executive bring issues to the board early, for discussion rather than just for approval, board members' well-informed interest leads to productive debate and better questions. That builds trust, and trust makes room for constructive challenge.
Review the strategy, but resist tinkering.
Reviewing the strategy regularly is critical. Things change, and they come in from the side. Board members are constantly watching what's happening outside the organisation, and they often bring relevant developments into the conversation at meetings.
But once the direction is set, the board's job is to keep it on track, not to keep redesigning it. We made a point of resisting the temptation to tinker. The foundations of what we wanted to achieve, and by when, stayed constant and in focus. That's what gives the executive the clarity and confidence to deliver.
Staying on track also means guarding against distraction. Board members, quite rightly, often arrive with what has happened in the sector that week or month, and it's easy to be drawn towards a shiny new opportunity. So I always sense-checked whether it related to the strategy or the business plan. If it did, we discussed how to respond. If it didn't, we needed to be strong enough to say "not yet".
Looking back.
If I were starting again, I'd question the five-year horizon sooner. Many boards are now adapting how they plan for an ever-changing world. A common approach is to keep a long-term purpose and ambition that rarely changes, set a shorter strategy of around three years, and turn it into an annual business plan.
Alongside that, strategy is becoming less of a calendar event and more of an ongoing conversation between board and executive. Boards are testing the assumptions their strategy depends on, and asking not just "what do we think will happen?" but "what could happen, and how would we respond?" It's an approach I'd encourage any board to consider.
The question at the heart of it!
A strategy only matters if it's delivered. So at every board meeting, the question worth asking is a simple one:“Are we delivering the strategy we agreed, or simply reporting on how busy we have been?”
The question for the board table…
Look at the papers from your last board meeting.
How much of the conversation was about progress against the strategy, and how much was about activity?
Next in the series: The conversation we aren't having. The dominant voice, the silent non-executive, the subject that never quite gets discussed. Next week I'll look at what really happens around the board table, and how a Chair shapes the quality of debate.
If you're a Chair, a CEO or a board looking to strengthen your impact, I'd be glad to talk it through. You can find me at michellemellor.com or Linked In