By Lucy P. Marcus
The views expressed are her own.
The high profile appointment of Chelsea Clinton to the board of IAC/InterActiveCorp comes at a time when the individual and collective performance of board directors is being scrutinized more thoroughly and more publicly than ever before. A good board can be rocket fuel or it can be rocks in an organizations pockets. But what does a  new board member need to be active, engaged, and dynamic?
The principles are the same regardless of whether this is somebodyÂs first or tenth appointment, and their significance does not diminish with every new appointment either. Every boardroom has its own personality, its own cadence, and its own means of getting things done, and there is no way of knowing for sure how that works till you are around the table. But every board deserves the best from each of its membersÂlong-serving and new alike.
The sooner new board directors are comfortable and familiar with the landscape in which their organization operates, with the challenges it confronts, the sooner they can make a meaningful contribution to the organization and help it deal with its current challenges as well as future-proof it.
Equally importantly, new directors need to become comfortable and familiar with the dynamic of the boardroom itself. A boardroom is, after all, a room of people who have to work together toward a common goal. The more comfortable everyone is, the more effective the group can be, so it is worth investing some time and effort into ensuring that new directors hit the ground running.
Trust your first impressions
When I join a board as a new director, my antennae are highly attuned. I take copious notes, and I often refer back to these first impressions and observations to avoid getting complacent and losing independence. These observations are not set in stone, but IÂve found my first instincts worth paying attention to.
Get up to speed
Most well organized boards provide a welcome package including past board minutes, as well as the minutes from the committee that the new director will be joining. Where this is not done, a director needs to request them. Often, reading past minutes raises questions about particular issues or the context in which they arose and were dealt with, and here fellow board members can fill in vital gaps and should be sought out to do so.
Talk to the Board Members
Speaking, or better yet, meeting with the board chair and the chair of the relevant committee a new board member will be joining in advance of their first board meeting is very valuable. This helps new board members minimize the gap between their appointment and the time they can fully and actively participate in the boardÂs work.
Not every board has a strong induction program, so any new board memberÂs aspiration to be an active participant should manifest itself from the word go. I have found it very useful to reach out to existing independent and executive directors alike and get to know them beyond their bios and outside of the board room. I try to understand where they are coming from, what their passion is for the organization and where it comes from, how and why they have made the organization part of themselves. Such an approach, if reciprocated from existing board members, is critical to building board cohesion.
Boards function better when the people around the table know and trust one another, and feel that they are moving in the same direction. In turn, this can make a real difference in avoiding confusion and misunderstandings in the heat of board room discussions.
Know What You Know, Know What You DonÂt Know
Independent board members are stewards of the organizations they serve. Newcomers to the boardroom need to listen, synthesize information, and weigh the pros and cons on specific issues very thoroughly if their decisions about a myriad of issues outside their expertise or sector experience are to make a positive contribution to the organization they serve and its stakeholders. TodayÂs board agenda comprises a wide range of issues: infrastructure; technology; human resource planning; resilience; and emergencies. In the best boardrooms there is a good balance of grounding and stargazing issues, and independent board members must be agile and engaged enough to act on them.
A couple of practical suggestions for new directors:
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Make sure you keep a finger on the pulse of what is going on from sources beyond the organization you serve. Use traditional media, social networks, set up Google News Alerts. They donÂt always provide answers to the problems you might face, but they can critically reduce the number of problems you might be unaware of.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Ask to be put on the mailing list for events and the companyÂs newsletter (or newsletters for all its stakeholders). You donÂt need to go to every event, but you do need to know what is going on, and it helps you to get a feeling for the cadence of the place.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â To avoid unpleasant surprises for all parties make sure you declare all potential conflicts of interest right away.
-         Get the calendar  board meetings and committee meetings are generally sorted at least a year in advance, so make sure you have all the dates in your calendar. Being a board member is about more than showing up for meetings, but this is where it starts.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Remember what it is like to be new, so that when the next new board member joins, you can reach out and help them to hit the ground running, too. Also, feed your experiences into your organizationÂs board induction program.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Never forget why you are there. It isnÂt about you, or the people around the table, but about the organization on whose board you serve. Ask questions, voice concerns, offer support, contribute to solutions. In other words, be engaged. But if you find after a couple of meetings that it is not a good fit, be brave enough to step off the board.
PHOTO: Chelsea Clinton, former U.S. President Bill Clintonâs daughter, listens to a discussion regarding megacities at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York September 20, 2011.
They are furious at the red tape they have to wade through just to receive basic help and in despair they still cannot get on with their lives seven months after the huge quake and tsunami triggered the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.Shouts fill a room at a temporary housing complex where seven officials, kneeling in their dark suits, face 70 or so tenants who were forced to abandon their homes near the Fukushima nuclear plant after some of its reactors went into meltdown after the March 11 quake struck.”We don’t know who we can trust!” one man yelled in the cramped room where the officials were trying to explain the hugely complex procedures to claim compensation.”Can we actually go back home? And if not, can you guarantee our livelihoods?”About 80,000 people were forced to leave their homes by the nuclear crisis.While the owner of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co, has made temporary payments to some victims, it was only last month that it finally began accepting applications for compensation.But the procedure is so complicated that it seems to just make things worse.After claimants have read a 160-page instruction manual, they then have to fill in a 60-page form and attach receipts for lodging, transportation and medical costs.”It’s too difficult. I’m going to see how it goes. I don’t want to rush and mess up,” said Toshiyuki Owada, 65, an evacuee from Namie town, about 20 km (12 miles) away from the plant.Owada is one of many who still has not applied for compensation even though they have lost jobs or businesses and are running out of cash.COMPLEX AND UNFAIRThe complexity of the task is one deterrent.There is another — the perception that Tepco is not playing fair.Confidence in the authorities is low. The government is seen as having bungled its early response to the crisis and being secretive about what was really happening.Tepco is accused of failing to take sufficient safety measures at the Fukushima plant even though it knew the risks and then deliberately underplaying the extent of the accident.It is also seen as insensitive.One clause in the original instruction booklet telling victims they would have to agree to waive their right to challenge the compensation amount in order to receive payment provoked a public uproar.Chastised by the government, the company promised to drop the clause, issued a simplified 4-page instruction booklet and assigned 1,000 employees to Fukushima prefecture to help victims with the process.”There may be times when the content is difficult to understand or in some cases our employee in charge may not grasp it fully, but we would like to explain and respond as carefully as possible,” said Tepco spokesman Naoyuki Matsumoto.A government panel overseeing the compensation scheme estimates claims are likely to reach 3.6 trillion yen ($46.5 billion) in the financial year to next March.FEW CLAIMANTSBut so far just 7,100 individuals have applied to Tepco for compensation out of the 80,000 it send forms to.And of the 10,000 businesses in the Fukushima area, a mere 300 have submitted claims.The company expects a total of 300,000 claims from businesses given that the impact of the radiation crisis has been so widespread.Victims can sue but that is rare.Junichi Matsumoto, a Tepco official, said the utility faces about 10 lawsuits so far. He declined to disclose details but said some were seeking more than the firm deemed appropriate.Yuichi Kaido, an attorney and the secretary-general of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, said lawsuits are considered a last resort in conservative rural northeast Japan.”In the end, many lawsuits could take place,” he said.”But the majority is thinking of first speaking with Tokyo Electric or seeking mediation.”SENSE OF RESIGNATIONThe final compensation depends on whether and when victims will be able to return to homes within a 20-km evacuation zone. That question remains unanswered, breeding a growing sense of resignation among evacuees.Some said they doubt they will ever be able to go home and suggested their entire towns simply be relocated and many worry about long-term health effects of radiation.An Asahi newspaper poll showed this month that 43 percent of evacuees still want to return, down from 62 percent in June.For many, what is now on the table — reimbursement for moving and transportation costs associated with evacuating, compensation for damage to health, lost jobs, and psychological suffering — only deepens frustration over what they have lost.Tokyo Electric said it will pay about 100,000 yen a month for the period to end of August as compensation for psychological trauma. After that, the sum will be halved.”Evidence that we have lived our lives is completely destroyed and for that, we are told that we will be compensated 100,000 yen for our psychological suffering. That’s it?” said 75-year-old restaurant owner Sumiko Toyoguchi, who had to leave her home in Namie.”What’s at the root of our frustration is that we cannot see what our tomorrow will be like.”($1 = 77.365 Japanese Yen)
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, is holding on to his support but failing to increase it significantly, according to the survey, which also showed Democratic President Barack Obama facing deep unhappiness among voters about his performance.Romney was backed by 23 percent of Republicans in the October poll, up from 20 percent in the most recent comparable carried out in June.Cain, a businessman who has emerged as a surprise top contender after proposing a radical tax reform, nearly tripled his support among Republicans in the same period, leaping to 19 percent from 7 percent four months ago.”In the Republican presidential primary, everybody still says Mitt Romney’s the front-runner,” Ipsos research director Chris Jackson said. “And he is … but he’s certainly not any sort of dominant front-runner.”In the latest poll, Texas Representative Ron Paul was third with 13 percent and Texas Governor Rick Perry, a former front-runner, was fourth with 10 percent.Supporters of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who announced last week she would not run for president, have not coalesced behind a single candidate, the survey found.The poll was conducted from Thursday to Monday, before a debate on economic issues on Tuesday night in which Romney and Cain had strong performances and Perry failed to make up the ground he lost when he stumbled through two previous debates.”I think Rick Perry’s boomlet probably really peaked in August and has subsided,” Jackson said.But things could change dramatically before a nominee is chosen to oppose Obama in November 2012. Four years ago this month, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was the leader among Republican presidential hopefuls, well ahead of his nearest rival, Fred Thompson, who like Giuliani left the race early.Arizona Senator John McCain, the eventual nominee, was in third place in October 2007.The margin of error for Republicans among the 1,113 people polled was 4.8 percentage points, leaving Romney and Cain in a virtual tie.An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Wednesday found Cain leading the Republican field at 27 percent, up from just 5 percent in a survey in late August. Perry fell to third place with 16 percent, dropping more than 20 points since the August NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.OBAMA TAKES HEAT FROM VOTERSWhichever Republican eventually wins the nomination to run against Obama in 2012 will face an incumbent facing a very unhappy public.The percentage of Americans who disapprove of the president’s job performance has edged up to 50 percent from 48 percent in the past month and the percentage who strongly disapprove has risen to 34 percent, the highest level since Obama entered the White House.Fewer than half — 47 percent — of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president, a figure unchanged from a poll conducted in September.Obama has taken a tougher line against political opponents as he has pushed for passage of his jobs bill but the new approach has yet to make a difference among voters.”People are still wildly pessimistic,” Jackson said.The survey showed that 74 percent of Americans believed the country was on the wrong track, compared with 21 percent who believed it was going in the right direction.There was one bright spot for Democrats. More registered voters — 48 percent — said they would back Democrats in congressional races if the November 2012 elections were held today, compared with 40 percent who would support Republicans.But their verdict on how the two parties would handle the struggling economy — the issue expected to be central to the 2012 election — generally favored Republicans.On reducing the deficit, Republicans have the lead at 44 percent to 35 percent for Democrats; they have a 43 percent to 36 percent lead on their ability to make the country globally competitive; and more Americans thought they would generate economic growth, with a 43 percent to 38 percent edge over the Democrats.The two parties were tied on job creation at 41 percent each and close on “dealing with taxes,” with 42 percent for Democrats and 41 percent picking Republicans. On the economy overall, 42 percent favored Republicans and 40 percent chose Democrats.The of 1,113 adults, including 934 registered voters, had a margin of error of 3 percentage points for all respondents and 3.2 points for registered voters.