Deviants on board
It is not easy chairing a board of directors’ meeting with a deviant in your midst. They always say no when the others say yes. They say yes when the others say no.
All other board directors don’t like to have them around. They are strongly opinionated, although there are instances when one has difficulty to find logic in their arguments. They have a tendency to go into minute detail on issues where others would have thought that there is nothing to argue about. They are the devil’s advocates. They are considered as rebel rousers, trouble makers. They are the biggest headache for newly appointed board chairmen. But let us have a re-think.
In chairing boards, I got to like deviants more than yes-man. They are those with a minority view who are prepared to speak out frankly and openly. If I had to ignore them, the board would be missing out on their value. After all, they might be just right. The vast majority of inventions and changes in corporates and society did not happen with people nodding to every proposal brought forward. The deviant has a vital role to play in moving the company forward. But they must be managed by the Chair properly and effectively.
Deviants make you look for new angels and perspectives. There are always diverse ways of looking at issues. The deviant challenges the board to think differently.
Sometimes the “gut feel” may prove to be right. Lateral thinkers and unstructured thinking are a result of a creative mind and contribute to innovative solutions to problems.
The fact that a deviant is joining the board, presses the proposal presenters whether they are executives or directors to prepare themselves better, delve deeper into the 360 degrees of the issues proposed, present a more credible cost benefit analysis. Be prepared to reply to challenging questions.
The point is that you need to learn how to get the best value from having a deviant director on your board and making sure that you do not succumb to other directors’ pressure to suppress him or her from expressing ideas, opinions or alternatives.
They do challenge your chairmanship skills. A strong Chair will animate all members of the board including the deviant and will use every part of each meeting to work on the process of how each director can work together.
About the author(s)
Joseph F.X. Zahra is a Malta based economist with over thirty five years of corporate leadership and business consultancy experience.