Building Relationships with Board Members
episode
“HR Heretics” | How CPOs, CHROs, Founders, and Boards Build High Performing Companies
19 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 15 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the core board‑question that HR leaders should be asking?
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of HR Heretics. Kelly, what up, girl? I miss you.
What's the word? How are we doing?
It's been a while. You know, it has been a while. We're back in the saddle, though. Everyone's been asking, like, where have you guys been? What are you guys doing? You know, it turns out, like, we have lives, too. Yeah, I'll tell you what I was
doing. I was at the fucking chiropractor because my back was out. No one's like, hey, you still want to record today? I'm like, yeah, it's fired up. It's 3.30 on a Thursday. Absolutely.
Let's go, baby. Let's go.
Why is there no single “best practice” for board engagement?
All right. So we're going to do deer heretics today. And so here it is. Dear Heretics, what are the best practices around updating the board on people matters? What do they need to know, like hirings and firings, versus what would be great to share and get their input or strategic lens on? For context, our board is small and there isn't a people-focused expert on it. They meet monthly. Is it typical for people ops to meet the board periodically to give information firsthand? Or do updates usually flow through the CEO co-founders? Kelly, what do you think?
I love it. This is a great topic and it's a fuzzy one because, you know, best practice, there isn't one. That's the hard, that's the real answer, my friend. There is not a best practice. It is all situational. It is something you need to feel out. And then once you felt it out and you're in it and you've established whatever dynamic relationship, then there's a whole nother level of nuance and considerations and balance. So I guess to kick it off, Nolan, my first answer is yes. Do you know what the dynamic is? Like I was, I was just talking to a company the past few months about joining and whatnot.
How do you determine the right level of board interaction for your role?
And one of my initial questions to the founder CEO was tell me about the board. Tell me about your relationship with the board. Let's go through each member and why they invested. If they're independent, how did you choose them? What do they care about? How do you interact with them? How would I interact with them? And you get a very nice overlay of, again, the dynamic and the vibe of that. And then secretly you get a reaction whether... that leader feels comfortable with you or not interacting with the board. And in my experience, for many reasons, we can talk about if they're not comfortable and they're like, oh, you don't have to worry about that. You don't need to come to board meetings. You don't need to red flag.
What do you think?
It's situational. I think a couple of other layers I would add in is the seniority of the people person. Right. So like someone at your level, for sure. Right. You know, me at DoorDash.
What happens if you don’t set and communicate a people strategy first?
Definitely not. Right. I was like 27 at the time. Um, that's thing one thing too is, is like, what problem is the company solving? Um, and where are they at in their life cycle? So if it's, you know, an early stage company that's scaling up, like, yeah, we got to talk about people all the time. If it's a much later stage company that, you know, kind of has everything figured out and it's just the machine is working and we're focused on other things. And potentially not, I will say for the people leader, I just had a conversation with a friend yesterday and I told him, if you don't set the strategy and communicate the strategy, somebody else will. And so that needs to be expressed to the CEO. Certainly like that's the bare minimum, but ultimately if you are the leader, you do need to communicate it to the board and have regular check-ins and a relationship with them.
Yeah. I think you bring up a really, really smart point that I probably should have asked direct before I jumped in, um, is to have awareness of your level and how you're coming in. You know what I mean? Like to your point, a first time head of HR at a 50 person company is much different. So the last thing you want to do is listen to this and be in that position and stomp around and demand that you're going to be in the board. Absolutely not. So thank you for that. Having judgment around those things.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the core board‑question that HR leaders should be asking?
0:13–0:44
2
Why is there no single “best practice” for board engagement?
0:44–1:52
3
How do you determine the right level of board interaction for your role?
1:52–2:53
4
What happens if you don’t set and communicate a people strategy first?
2:53–4:35
5
What is the Carta “show value, ask for help” framework for board presentations?
4:35–6:18
6
How can you run a board update like a Quarterly Business Review (QBR)?
6:18–8:45
7
Why should you start building board relationships early and focus on one member first?
8:45–11:53
8
How do you balance loyalty to the CEO with influencing the board?
11:53–19:51
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from “HR Heretics” | How CPOs, CHROs, Founders, and Boards Build High Performing Companies
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