Board evaluation template

A board evaluation template is a structured set of sample questions, typically scored on a 1–5 rating scale and supplemented by open-ended prompts, that a board uses to assess its own performance across the full board, its committees and individual directors.

Effective board evaluation templates connect findings to specific action plans, give the process the integrity and due diligence it requires and create a more tangible connection to improved board performance.

Question quality and curation determine the value of the feedback. The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance warns that generic questionnaires that are overlong or vaguely worded can lead to director inattention and inferior feedback. A sharper, better-curated instrument improves focus.

Annual evaluation is the standard for for-profit public companies or Public companies typically evaluate annually. 99% of S&P 500 boards conduct an annual evaluation, according to the 2025 U.S. Spencer Stuart Board Index. The requirement originated as an NYSE listing standard adopted in 2003 under Section 303A.09. The UK Corporate Governance Code goes further for FTSE 350 companies, requiring an externally conducted board performance review at least every three years.

A strong board evaluation or self-assessment process meets governance requirements and drives board performance and engagement.

• Board evaluation and self-evaluation templates for the full board, committees and individual directors
• How to conduct an evaluation and turn findings into an action plan
• How to create a template and use evaluation tools effectively
• Answers to common board evaluation questions

Board evaluation template

A board evaluation template is a list of questions that should prompt board directors to reflect on the board's performance. For quantitative feedback, you can leave them open-ended or include them in a survey format with a rating scale (e.g., 1-5).

Use the following questions or tailor them to meet your needs:

1. Does the board clearly understand the organization's mission, vision and goals?
2. How effective is the board in providing strategy oversight?
3. Does the board focus its time and efforts on the organization's most critical issues?
4. How well does the board monitor and manage the organization's financial performance?
5. Does the board have an appropriate balance of skills, expertise and diversity to meet the organization's needs?
6. How effectively does the board manage risk and ensure compliance?
7. Are board meetings well-organized?
8. Do meetings encourage open and constructive discussion?
9. Does the board seek opportunities for improvement?
10. Do board members use their own networks to advance the organization's goals?
11. How well do board members work together as a team?
12. Is the board chair effective at running board meetings?
13. How well does the board chair lead the board and the CEO?
14. Does the board chair collaborate with the CEO?
15. Is the board proactive about trends and challenges that could impact the organization?
16. How effectively does the board engage with the organization's stakeholders?
17. How well does the board evaluate and adjust its structure to meet the organization's evolving needs?

Board chair evaluation questions

The chair's performance shapes agenda quality and how comfortably directors dissent. A separate review can isolate the role. Rate each statement from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree):

1. The chair runs board meetings efficiently and keeps discussion focused on the highest-priority items.
2. The chair builds agendas that allocate adequate time to the most consequential decisions.
3. The chair draws contributions from all directors, including quieter members.
4. The chair handles dissent constructively, letting disagreement surface without derailing the meeting.
5. The chair maintains open, regular communication with the CEO while preserving independent oversight.
6. The chair ensures directors receive materials with enough lead time to prepare.

Committee evaluation questions

Committees warrant their own module, since the full board often sees only their reports. Rate each statement from 1 to 5:

1. The committee operates within the scope defined by its charter.
2. The committee meets frequently enough to fulfill its responsibilities.
3. The committee reports its work and recommendations to the full board clearly and on time.
4. The committee's membership includes the right mix of expertise for its mandate.
5. Committee materials give members the information they need to reach sound decisions.

Audit, compensation and nominating/governance committees may each need tailored additions reflecting their specific mandates.

Board self-evaluation template

While a board evaluation template focuses on the board as a whole, a self-evaluation template gauges board members' perceptions of their own effectiveness. This feedback can provide each member with tailored guidance and support for self-assessment best practices.

1. How well do you understand the organization's mission, vision and priorities?
2. Do you actively participate in board meetings and discussions?
3. Do you attend board meetings prepared, reviewing the agenda and materials in advance?
4. Do you meaningfully contribute to board decision-making?
5. Do you support the organization's leadership when needed?
6. Are you comfortable asking questions during board discussions?
7. Do you bring unique expertise and skills to your role as a board member?
8. How effectively do you fulfill your time commitments and responsibilities?
9. Do you actively participate in at least one committee?
10. Do you try to stay informed about the organization's activities and developments?
11. How do you represent the organization to external stakeholders?
12. Do you take steps to educate yourself on best practices for board governance?
13. How comfortable do you feel expressing opinions during board meetings?
14. Do you have a productive relationship with the CEO?
15. How effectively do you communicate with other board members and the board chair?
16. What are two areas where you could improve?
17. Are there specific skills you would like to develop?
18. What could the board chair do to help you feel more engaged?
19. What are your top priorities as a board member?
20. How would you like to evolve your role within the board?

Peer evaluation vs. self-assessment

Self-assessment and peer evaluation are distinct exercises that are often conflated. In a self-assessment, each director rates their own performance; in a peer evaluation, each director rates every other director. Peer feedback surfaces blind spots that self-ratings miss, but it works best when responses are anonymous, so collect them through a neutral platform or independent third party, not by hand. Sample peer-evaluation statements, rated 1 to 5:

1. This director arrives prepared and has clearly read the materials.
2. This director contributes expertise the board would otherwise lack.
3. This director listens well and builds on others' contributions.
4. This director asks questions that improve the quality of board decisions.

"The ways that boards establish norms intentionally is by having a third-party interview directors and adding on a couple of questions about how they experience the board," says Lori Nishiura Mackenzie, Co-Founder of the Stanford VMware Women's Leadership Innovation Lab.

According to What Directors Think 2026 by Diligent Institute and Corporate Board Member, 74% of boards use self-assessments to evaluate individual directors, 39% use chair-led discussions, 38% use peer reviews and 30% use an external facilitator. Another 12% conduct no individual director evaluations at all. Self-assessments standardize personal reflection, while peer feedback and chair-led discussions can reveal how each director's behavior affects colleagues and translate findings into guidance. Independent administration can strengthen anonymity when relationships or governance concerns could inhibit candor.

How to do a board evaluation

The setup of the board evaluation process is just as important as reviewing the results. This includes:

1. Defining the purpose: Boards should decide on what issues they want to evaluate and what they hope to achieve through the evaluation. The board may wish to explore its structure, processes or both. The board should decide whether to look for quantitative or qualitative results. The answers help boards choose tools and plan the evaluation.
2. Selecting an evaluation method: Boards must decide whether to pursue an entire board self-assessment, individual director assessment or both. This decision should be tied to the board's needs; individual assessments may yield more in-depth feedback on a specific board role or responsibility, while assessing the entire board offers a fuller picture of board management.
3. Developing the evaluation criteria: Boards must also determine how to measure their effectiveness. Reviewing meeting minutes from the most recent year can identify recurring challenges. Board members' understanding of their responsibilities, contribution to corporate governance and board dynamics can each be powerful areas to evaluate.
4. Preparing evaluation tools: With criteria in mind, boards can select and prepare evaluation tools, including the template. This can often be done through a board portal, though some boards may opt for other online survey tools or paper-based questionnaires.
5. Conducting the evaluation: Carry out the evaluation using the tools you choose. Create a confidential and supportive environment so all board members feel comfortable sharing positive and constructive feedback. Aggregate responses before anyone sees them and never attribute individual answers. A third-party platform can collect and anonymize submissions. "As part of the annual evaluation process, it's important to do individual interviews once every two years to reinforce the norms you want the board to align to," says Jim Myers, Deputy General Counsel, Corporate Governance at Fannie Mae.
6. Analyzing the results: Compile the evaluation data and identify patterns in the board's reported strengths and areas for improvement.
7. Developing an action plan: Strong board evaluations culminate in an action plan outlining how the board can improve on the weaknesses it identified during the assessment. Boards can close the gap by converting each material finding into a defined next step. This might include offering board training or refining meeting structures. Present the findings to the full board, assign an owner to each improvement area and revisit progress at a future meeting. Where relevant, disclose evaluation outcomes in the annual report.

Internal vs. external evaluation support

The board chair or corporate secretary can run a routine annual evaluation internally, with the nominating/governance committee overseeing the process. External support is warranted when regulation requires it, as with the triennial FTSE 350 standard. It can also help when conflicts of interest or significant governance concerns could compromise internal analysis. An independent third party typically reviews board documents and observes meetings. The reviewer then delivers findings in an aggregated report that keeps individual responses confidential.

Using the right board evaluation tools and processes

Boards can conduct self-assessments through surveys and interviews, and combining methods can yield quantitative and qualitative results.

• Surveys: Surveys are easy and convenient and can be completed anonymously. Surveys or questionnaires will yield quantitative results.
• Interviews: The interview process allows board members to be directly involved. Interviews produce qualitative results and provide an opportunity to examine the issues more deeply, which provides greater insight and more detailed information. Typically, the board gets survey questions ahead of time so they can review them. An interviewer, often a third party, uses the questions as a base for obtaining and expanding on the board directors' answers.
• Group assessments: Group board assessments work best when a third-party administrator leads them. This method also produces qualitative results. This process works well when the group already shares a high level of trust. Group processes can also be valuable as a team-building exercise.

An impartial third party can benefit board self-assessment exercises by adding expertise and assessment skills. Third-party administration can encourage candor and add objectivity to the process.

How to handle committee assessments

The New York Stock Exchange requires boards to assess the main board committees annually. Boards have the liberty of doing this assessment as part of the board self-assessment or making it a separate process.

Boards must also decide whether committee assessments include only committee members or the whole board. As the board receives committee reports, they may have a different perspective than those who serve directly on the committees.

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See how secure evaluation workflows produce useful feedback and support clear follow-up actions.

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Creating a board evaluation template

Boards that have done self-assessments in the past can use the past assessment tool as a starting point. Use the template to review past questions and add newer, more relevant questions according to current board challenges.

If your previous assessment was ineffective or you're conducting an evaluation for the first time, creating a compelling board evaluation template is essential. Directors themselves see little appetite for starting over: Just 8% name an overhaul of board or director evaluations among the changes that would most improve their governance oversight, near the bottom of the list in What Directors Think 2026 from Diligent Institute and Corporate Board Member. A well-curated template offers a lower-friction way to improve the process without a wholesale rebuild.

1. Remember your objectives: Think back to what you hope to learn through the evaluation. This can help determine the format of the questions. Open-ended questions can examine sensitive topics, like relationships with board members, while rating scales are often sufficient for more procedural questions, like those related to board meetings or decision-making.
2. Draft specific questions or statements: For each assessment area, create specific questions or statements that board members can respond to. Use rating scales (e.g., 1 to 5) and open-ended questions.
3. Reference examples: Boards new to self-assessments can review assessment examples. These questions should be a starting point for a customized template. The questions may focus on a few important areas. The complete set of questions should be well-rounded.
4. Use technology: Board portals may have built-in board evaluation templates and tools, making it easier to consistently and securely assess board activities. These tools can provide easy access to the evaluation, with automatic data analysis and report generation to make evaluations more actionable.
5. Review and refine the template: Think of the template as a living document. You can revise questions to examine the board's most urgent issues. Gathering feedback from a small group of board members can help ensure the template is explicit and covers the most critical areas.

Recurring evaluations can become difficult to administer securely and compare over time, particularly as the number of directors and committees grows. Purpose-built technology can reduce that administrative burden while protecting anonymity.

How Diligent improves board evaluations

Manual questionnaires and spreadsheet analysis can make confidentiality and follow-up difficult. Inconsistent follow-up compounds the problem, especially when evaluation processes fail to result in specific action plans.

Diligent Boards addresses those problems through Diligent D&O Questionnaires and Surveys, a board assessment capability that supports customizable questionnaires, anonymous feedback collection, built-in analytics, prior-year pre-fill and a template library. These capabilities reduce repetitive administration and give boards a consistent basis for reviewing results from one cycle to the next.

• Growing companies: Secure templates and centralized collection replace scattered spreadsheets and paper questionnaires without requiring a large governance team.
• Pre-IPO companies: Prior-year responses and consistent committee questionnaires help teams track governance maturity as committee structures and public-market expectations develop.
• Public companies: Anonymous collection, committee-specific questionnaires and built-in analysis support complex annual evaluation cycles and clearer reporting to board leaders.

With 74% of boards using self-assessments to evaluate individual directors, the need for a consistent, secure workflow extends across a widely used governance practice.

"The D&O questionnaire drives so much and makes sure we know what's going on. You don't want to wait a whole year to find out something's changed, and you have issues," says Melissa Kaufman, Senior Corporate Paralegal at Klaviyo.

The process stays consistent from questionnaire setup through analysis. Teams can gather candid responses and compare results in the same environment. They can then identify follow-up priorities without transferring sensitive information between disconnected tools. Organizations looking across the wider platform can connect evaluations to their governance work through Diligent's board management software. Schedule a demo to see how Diligent Boards supports secure evaluations and clear follow-up actions.

Frequently asked questions about board evaluation

How often should a board evaluate itself?

For nonprofits, BoardSource recommends a self-assessment every two to three years so boards have time to implement improvements. For-profit public companies generally evaluate annually. FTSE 350 companies should also include an externally conducted review in their governance planning at least every three years.

Should you evaluate individual directors or just the full board?

Evaluate the full board and its committees, then review individual directors separately. This practice is spreading; disclosed individual director evaluations among S&P 500 companies rose to 55% in 2025, according to Corporate Board Member. The three-tier model connects individual and committee performance to collective effectiveness.

What makes a board evaluation questionnaire ineffective?

Length, vagueness and generic questions can reduce an evaluation to a checklist and produce weak feedback. PwC's 2025 survey found that 78% of directors say their board's assessment process does not capture the full picture of performance. Use a shorter question set tied to the board's actual challenges.

Who should conduct the evaluation?

Boards can run evaluations internally, but independent support can improve candor when conflicts or relationships may affect the process. According to the 2025 Spencer Stuart Board Index, 27% of S&P 500 boards used a third party. Share sensitive findings with the appropriate board leader before presenting them to the full board.

What should a board evaluation include?

An ECGI working paper identifies four dimensions: monitoring and risk management, strategy and business advice, board dynamics and proactive participation and board diversity. The evaluation should cover the board collectively, its committees, the chair and individual directors so findings connect each level of performance.

Schedule a demo to see how Diligent Boards supports secure, anonymous board evaluations from questionnaire setup through reporting.