Charles J. Robel currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of McAfee, director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Autodesk, director and member of the Audit Committee of Informatica Corporation, and a director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of DemandTec, Inc. He spoke to Jamie Carter about how a first time member can quickly integrate themselves with the rest of the board.

Based upon your relevant domain experience, you have just been nominated to your first board of director’s position.  So how do you effectively transfer that experience and immediately start adding value?  Chuck states that the first item a new board member should concentrate establishing is trust.  Whether the issues are strategic or the typical ‘block and tackling’ filings, creating an environment of trust inside the board room is critical to launching balanced and transparent discussions.

Before the first board meeting, find a simple way to informally meet with fellow members.  Ask them for their perspectives and knowledge of the company (i.e. what is working well, what is not working well, what does the company need in the next 2-3 years?)  Meet with the CEO and simply ask what would help him or her.

Some of the best boards will already have a good “new member overview” of the company prepared for you which includes much better internal information than can be gleaned from the 10K and 10Q.  If this is not available, ask for as much information as possible and be sure to do your homework.  And of course, read all the available material before the meeting.

Once in the meeting, Chuck has observed that management presentations tend to be optimized by simply starting with, “rather than take me through the slides, assume I have read and understand all of the materials and now just walk me through the three important topics….”  Given the limited amount of time provided for each meeting, Chuck has seen this quickly surface the issues that matter.

One mistake Chuck has seen in first time board members is their desire to be too tactical and forgetting to let go of the steering wheel.  Although your intent is only to help, you were elected to the board to add strategic help and bring specific knowledge to an area the board was lacking.  You were not nominated to run the company!

Communication in-between formal committee or board meetings is crucial.  If you are not spending time talking between meetings on at least a monthly basis, you probably aren’t able to provide the value you were nominated for.  Most boards in today’s dynamic operating environment encourage it’s directors to meet directly with management.  So take advantage of the open door policy and meet with functional management.  Not only will you be able to gain additional color and candid perspectives on important topics, but you will also be able to assess the company’s bench strength.

Lastly, don’t make the board meeting about yourself.  This may sound obvious, but nothing can be more irritating inside the board room (well, perhaps other than listening to a Blackberry chiming) than listening to a 10 minute speech about how you climbed Mt. Everest with your entire management team on your back.  Although you may still be recovering from setting the world record, the board may be less than impressed.