The Corporate Secretary: Being Persuasive

Here's the fifth of the 21 hats that the corporate secretary wears (here's the blog about the fourth hat): Being knowledgeable gives you the confidence to use persuasion when you feel that directors may be straying off course on key governance issues.

Some directors will come into the board meeting letting everyone know that they heard something different when they attended a recent board meeting for one of their other directorships.

If you know your stuff, you can help walk them through the pros and cons of various approaches on that issue in an effort to win them over to your perspective. Allow your way of handling something—and maybe it's a culture thing—to dictate a different approach than the one employed at that other company.