Jan 07, 2026
As you manage planning season, your plate feels full. Budgeting, forecasting, year-end close—it all piles up fast. Yet one of the most significant drains on executive time often goes unnoticed: board preparation.
I recently spoke with a CEO who spent nearly a full week preparing for a single board meeting. Over the course of a year, that can easily translate into an entire month of leadership time lost; time that should be spent driving growth, serving customers, and building the business. From my experience, no board intends for that to happen.
In this Sit Down with Sugden episode, I share why board preparation frequently becomes inefficient, how rear-view reporting consumes valuable meeting time, and how applying the 80/20 rule can simplify board decks and preparation. I also outline practical benchmarks for how long preparation should take and explain why historical financial reviews are better handled outside the boardroom.
If you’re evaluating whether your board meetings are supporting momentum or unintentionally slowing it, this episode offers a clear, experience-based perspective on how to reclaim time and make board discussions more strategic and forward-looking.
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