Most board members are overwhelmed with endless proposals, reviews, and strategic initiatives. TO make it worse, some board papers are like research documents, lots of write up about everything and nothing about what matters most to the business.
And while everyone’s pretending to stay on top of it all, the reality is that much of it is fluff - administrative padding that distracts from the real mission.
Effective board members don’t chase every task; they chase impact. They don’t spread themselves thin on proposals that look good on paper but don’t move the needle. The best know how to filter through the noise and focus on a select few priorities that will actually drive growth.
So, let’s dig in.
Understanding What Prioritization Really Means
The HBR once published an article about leadership styles of several top companies I found interesting. Take the example of Warren Buffett’s approach with Berkshire Hathaway’s board. His directive is famously simple: ‘Say no to almost everything.’ Buffett’s board members don’t spend hours on flashy pitches with little substance. They’re trained to ask one question first: Will this add long-term value to our core investments? If it won’t, they don’t waste a second on it. By focusing on only the top 20% of opportunities that could bring 80% of the value, they’re able to avoid the black hole of distraction that plagues so many other boards.
A lesson here? The board’s priority shouldn’t be handling everything. It should be filtering out 80% of the noise and committing to the 20% that truly aligns with the company’s strategic growth.
Effective board members don’t chase every task; they chase impact. They cut through noise, focusing on the select priorities that drive real growth, rather than spreading attention across tasks that don’t add value.
Mr.Strategy Tweet
Create a hard, non-negotiable filter for decision-Making
Look at Unilever’s board. When they faced a strategic choice between prioritizing sustainable growth or focusing on short-term profitability, they used a non-negotiable filter: sustainability-driven proposals that didn’t demonstrate long-term profitability were deprioritized. This led them to invest in high-impact areas, and the payoff was tremendousa stronger brand reputation and a unique market position in ESG-focused sectors. This filtering process saved Unilever from investing in ‘feel-good’ but non-strategic projects that so many boards fall for.
Balanced productivity is a myth-so let’s stop pretending
Board members are often seduced by the idea that they need to give equal attention to all areas. But balance is an illusion. True board impact comes from heavy prioritization on the most crucial issues-period. Take Apple’s board under Steve Jobs: instead of distributing time equally across initiatives, they zeroed in on revolutionary ideas, often neglecting anything that wasn’t core to Apple’s vision. Jobs was notorious for table-flipping proposals he considered irrelevant. The board wasn’t ‘balanced’; it was focused.
The lesson? Board members don’t need to spread attention across everything-they need to obsess over the proposals that have transformational potential.
Recognize the Difference Between Busy and Effective
GE’s board under Jack Welch in the 1990s embraced a brutal, but effective, approach. Welch introduced the ‘20-70-10’ model, where the board directed energy toward the top 20% of growth initiatives, supported the 70% that were stable, and ruthlessly cut the bottom 10% that were dragging resources. Welch’s board didn’t look ‘busy’-they looked ruthless. But it drove GE’s peak performance, and that’s all that mattered. Board effectiveness isn’t about being visibly busy; it’s about concentrating effort where it creates results.
So, is this achievable for all board members? Not if they can’t handle tough decisions. Prioritizing for real impact is demanding-it requires stepping on toes, saying ‘no’ more than ‘yes,’ and discarding distractions. A board member who is effective in the role is one who can look beyond busyness and see where genuine value lies.
Bottom line: Board members should spend less time reviewing proposals and more time filtering out what doesn’t drive the company’s mission forward. If that sounds contrarian, it’s because most people are still clinging to outdated ideas of what board productivity should look like.”
Mr Strategy.
