Jason M. Lemkin argues memo-based board meetings work better than slide decks, but warns they can let management dodge accountability. One speaker describes using annual 360 reviews of board members to reshape how boards function.
I'll tell you one other change that we're working on is we do annual 360 reviews of board members and whatnot. And they're really good, they're really effective and I recommend everyone do that. But one of the board members said was I care what my fellow board members think, but what I really care is what Yamini and the CMO and all those people think of the feedback they're getting in the elp. So let's flip it around and have have it be much more of a management view of how we're doing and adding value versus how we think of each other. That's another nice change that we're putting in place now.
Yeah, that's good. The one thing just for founders and others I the and obviously HubSpot is a public company. In some ways it's different. But so many founders like this idea of doing a memo based board meeting. Okay, I'm tired of reading the slides. Read the slides ahead of time. Zoom me if you want to talk. Let's talk about the real issues that are on my plate and let's talk about the issues that aren't yours. And especially if you have a somewhat engaged board. People love it, right? This memo style board meeting, my only counsel to founders when I see it is listen, I know it's what the CEOs want and the board likes it. What I see time and time again is accountability from the management team is lost in that format. And maybe it doesn't matter at HubSpot's scale because the accountability is crystal clear. But when the CRO doesn't have to get up there and sweat about why there was a commit to hitting 10 million this quarter and it was really 94 and it's just a pass, I I, I, the CEO loses their helper. The helper in the room.
That's, that's, he might be right. I would.
