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2026-09-22 11:00 AM (EST)
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Winning in the Boardroom: How executives earn the board’s confidence

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Board members form judgments about executive teams before a meeting even begins. It starts with the pre-reading materials and includes how executives show up in the boardroom.

Get it right, and the board extends trust to the management tea and gives them the benefit of the doubt. Get it wrong, and skepticism can be hard to shift, regardless of how strong performance actually is.

In the past decade, there has been a reset in what boards want to see from executives. Dense slides and exhaustive detail used to be the mark of thorough preparation. Today, they often work against you.

“Great” now means a concise, focused perspective, a clear point of view, and the ability to lead a genuine discussion.

In this session, board effectiveness advisor and author Beverly Behan shows executives how to be effective across three areas: the materials they prepare, how they present in the room, and how they engage in discussion with directors.

This isn’t a presentation or writing skills workshop. It’s a practical session on operating differently in the boardroom – and meeting sophisticated directors at the level they now expect.

Agenda

Why executives win or lose the boardroom
  • Board members judge executive capability by how they “show up” – it’s human nature, and it starts before the meeting
  • The pre-reading test: are executive summaries clear, concise, and focused on what a director actually needs to know, or a data dump that leaves directors wading through detail with no clear insight?
  • The meeting itself: does the executive hit the highlights and have a real conversation with the board, or read their slides?
  • The stakes: a strong impression buys management credibility and often the benefit of the doubt, even under challenging circumstances; a weak one triggers skepticism
The definition of “great” has changed
  • The figure-skating analogy: a triple jump won Olympic gold 25 years ago; today it’s table stakes, the winners land quads
  • What used to read as “great” in the boardroom – dense slides, exhaustive detail, walking directors through every page – is no longer effective, and often works against the executive
  • What “great” means today: a concise, focused perspective, a clear point of view, and genuine engagement. Directors want to be engaged, not presented to
Getting to great: materials, presence, and discussion
  • Dimension one – materials: what a confident, focused pre-read looks like, and why leaving out some detail can actually be the stronger choice
  • Dimension two – presence: telling a concise, compelling story in the room rather than delivering slides/information to the board
  • Dimension three – discussion: now the majority of agenda time, yet one that executives typically don’t prepare for well: Anticipating questions, thinking on your feet, and shaping the conversation rather than just responding to it
  • How Microsoft Copilot is changing preparation: improving the quality of materials (particularly executive summaries) and helping executives prepare for board meetings at a different level
Q&A
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Event details

Date and Time
September 22 at 11 AM EST | 4 PM BST
Registration Fee
Free
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