Call Iwona on 07799772360
Blog Layout

Board meetings and Board diversity.

Often during my cross-cultural seminars, I am asked to provide simple rules or tips to communicate better with diverse teams.

Apart from delivering cross-cultural seminars, I spent the past fifteen years, consulting on recruitment and management, cross-cultural business awareness, talent retention as well as managing diversity and communication.

We have recently reviewed our business strategy and goals, acknowledging that these cannot be successfully achieved without a strong team and shared ethos. Communicating these effectively throughout the diverse business can be challenging.However, it is crucial for successful implementation and execution of any strategy.

Let me share with you some observation from our recent Board meeting. Our Board members come from England as well as Ireland, Poland, Latvia, China and Russia. 

My goal was to:
• communicate clearly the different features in our company's strategy
• address any concerns in the room
• ensure understanding of the key priorities and actions.

We had to understand and become crystal clear on WHO? WHAT? WHY? And HOW?
• Who are we? 
• Where are we now? 
• Where are we going to? 
• Why do we want to go there?
• How are we going to get there?

We always send an agenda in advance, with the items and supporting relevant data, so that the board members have a chance to prepare their thoughts.

The meeting started
I open the meeting with clarifying the purpose of the meeting and desired outcome, using some metaphors, which is very helpful with any audience, provided that these metaphors are adequately preselected for the particular audience.

I praised our major accomplishments, and referred to the ongoing dedication to our ethos highlighting our business culture and values of trust, respect and cooperation.

We set the right tone for the meeting and the board felt valued and recognised and was reminded of their skills, abilities and actions that lead to the success.

Business  strategy and execution
Next, we moved to the business strategy presentation ensuring that each stage of the presentation had the appropriate meaning and those particular word choices being used to eliminate ambiguity.

-clarity of language and behaviour: the board were accurately informed about our business strategy and were able to make suitable plans for the next 12 months.

- fostering open communication: I encouraged the board to ask questions aiming to identify potential blockers and risks. 

Open communication and honest behaviour helped the board to formulate several critical conclusions and to agree on the key steps forward.
 
Closing Remarks
The meeting was closed to the overall atmosphere of excitement and the feedback that I received made me confident that our desired outcome for the Board meeting was achieved. 
The Senior managers will continue to have additional meetings with their diverse teams with the aim to communicate and clarify the key priorities and agree on actions.


About the Author 
Iwona Lebiedowicz has been helping companies to communicate successfully on an international level.
Focused on managing effective communication and building thriving relations with clients, employees and partners from different countries and cultures. 
Over fifteen years’ experience in leadership positions in public and private sector organisations leading multinational teams, communicating across cultures and successfully managing large-scale change projects.
Iwona holds Master in Management with specialisation in International Relations and FT Non-Executive Director Diploma.
Since 2009 has been delivering a variety of bespoke cross-cultural training across the UK to professionals and associations across the UK.
If you would like to find out how we can support your organisation please email Iwona at contact@iwonalebiedowicz.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you




Share by: