Who wants to be a competent director? An evaluation tool of directors’ knowledge of governance principles and legal duties

Awareness of the need for board and director performance evaluation is growing, but implementation has been both partial and slow. It is unusual for boards to undertake evaluations of their own performance, and more so to evaluate individual directors. Directors often feel that individual director evaluation has several drawbacks including undermining collegiality in the boardroom. There is thus a perceived attractiveness of director self‐assessments rather than peer review or outsider assessments. Self‐assessment, even though subject to a higher degree of biases than a combination of self‐assessment and peer assessment, is less likely to give rise to defensive routines and can provide a psychologically safe environment for a director to evaluate their own knowledge. Bearing in mind the above, we developed a 20‐question self‐assessment tool, which aims to assist directors in evaluating their understanding of important governance concepts and principles, as well as their legal duties as directors.