While reactions to board evaluations appear wide-ranging, one thing seems certain: shareholders are demanding that directors sit up and take notice. The truth is that the focus on governance standards is not going away. Instead, it is being placed under hotter, brighter spotlights. Shareholders have the right to expect their boards of directors to scrutinize the ways in which they carry out their responsibilities and to relentlessly seek out ways to improve. Activist shareholders are taking a stand, as they move to become active in boards which do not take this responsibility to heart, and which fail to create sustainable shareholder value. Boards must take evaluation seriously or expect to be realigned by force.

As professional advisors, we have an obligation to admonish the scofflaws and the perfunctory directors, and to counsel the conflicted and controllers to learn from the personal best, the normative best practice boards and the pushers. We should insist that boards adopt methods for evaluation which support the true purpose behind it: value for all.