Matt goes into a phrase he uses often with his clients, “stalk the board,” and what he means by that, why to do it and how to do it, and what to expect and not expect. Don’t worry, it doesn’t involve hiding out in the bushes at midnight, getting arrested, or looking through binoculars.

Episode transcript:

Matt Krause
Alper, I often use a phrase: Stalk the board. You’ve heard me use it.

Alper Rozanes
I’ve heard about it. And I’m worried, I’m concerned.

Matt Krause
Yeah. So today, I’m… By the way, there’s no reason to be concerned.

Matt Krause
Today, I’m going to get into what I mean by that phrase stalk the board and how to do it, how to stalk the board without getting arrested, and what to and what not to expect from it.

Alper Rozanes
That’s, that’s good.

Matt Krause
Yeah. But first, before I do that, I wanted to mention an article that I read the other day, that kind of got me going on this subject.

Matt Krause
The article was in CIO magazine, CIO, as in Chief Information Officer, not Chief Investment Officer, it depends on what industry you’re in. So we’re talking chief information officer here. And the article was called the five key mistakes IT leaders make at board meetings.

Matt Krause
And it included things like they answer vaguely they throw colleagues under the bus. And by the way, I love that phrase to throw someone to throw someone under the bus. It’s so graphic…

Alper Rozanes
Stalking people, throwing people under the bus. Okay.

Matt Krause
That phrase to throw someone under the bus, it’s so graphic, and it says exactly what it means, to throw someone under the bus. So anyway, that’s kind of a side point. I love that phrase.

Alper Rozanes
I wonder what that comes from? I wonder if actually, someone did that at one point.

Matt Krause
Yeah, you know, these two things, these are good mistakes to point out, you know, they answer vaguely, they throw colleagues under the bus, these are good mistakes to point out.

Matt Krause
But there were two mistakes in particular that caught my eye. And at first, they sound kind of contradictory. They are number one, one mistake that CIOs make when they present to the board, is that they assume their board lacks technical expertise. And number two, is they favor technical jargon and convoluted answers.

Matt Krause
And at first, that sounds kind of contradictory. I mean, you know, if you assume that your board lacks technical expertise, you’re going to dumb down your explanations. But if you favor technical jargon, you’re basically overestimating their comfort level with technical subjects.

Matt Krause
So what gives, and the resolution in my opinion is stalk the board.

Matt Krause
And so now I’m going to get into a little about what I mean by this phrase stalk the board and how you do it.

Matt Krause
And basically, by stalk the board, I mean, research your board members, and just to make it clear buy stalk the board, I don’t mean stock as in stock, I mean stalk as in stalk.

Matt Krause
So by that phrase, I mean, research your board members, you know, get to know them. And I don’t mean by stalk, I don’t mean hanging out in front of their house hiding in the bushes, looking through, looking through a pair of binoculars.

Matt Krause
I don’t mean that. I mean, that would just be weird. A little bit creepy and might even get you arrested.

Alper Rozanes
Not to mention illegal, yes.

Matt Krause
Yeah. So no, that’s not what I mean. But yes, I do mean, research them a little bit more than usual. And this is one of the ways that preparing for a presentation to 12 people is different than preparing for a presentation to 500 people, or 1000 people or 200 people or 100 people or whatever, a large group.

Matt Krause
Because in those, you have to do some averaging, you can’t research all 1000 people one by one, it is just not realistic, you know? So yes, you have to do some averaging like, you know, these are 500 salespeople, most of them probably care about XYZ, or all 1000 of these people work for company ABC, they’re going to understand me when I use this particular phrase or this particular metaphor, and I don’t know like a plumbing metaphor or shipping metaphor or something like that.

Matt Krause
So when you are presenting to a small group, like when you’re presenting to a company’s board, you have a luxury, an opportunity, that is not available to someone presenting to a larger group.

Matt Krause
So, for this, for stalking the board, I recommend using something like a spreadsheet or a table that you sketch out on a piece of paper, and you know the table is going to have a few columns or the spreadsheet is going to have a few columns.

Matt Krause
And in column one, write down the names of the board members, one by one. Remember, you’re not averaging here, you’re not saying that on average my board is like this, you’re going person by person. So one by one, you know…

Alper Rozanes
Very specific.

Matt Krause
John Doe, Jane Smith, Jim Duncan, you know the names of your board members in the first column. And, and a typical company’s board, they’ll usually be about nine to 12 Board members. So you might already know their names off the top of your head. Or if you don’t, maybe you can get them from the CEO’s assistant or from the company’s webpage or something like that, it doesn’t really matter what public source you get them from it, that doesn’t matter, just get the names of the board members.

Matt Krause
And then once you have your list of these nine to 12 people, you know, hit LinkedIn, and look at what companies they’ve worked for, look at what jobs they’ve had, read the job descriptions, see if they mention any big projects they worked on, or something they’re especially proud of, or some work achievement or something like that.

Matt Krause
And then Google them to see if you can find out anything more about them. So those are your your first tools, your first research tools, the LinkedIn and the Google, and then maybe look him up on Facebook to see if they have, you know, kids, or hike in the mountains or vacationed last month in the Maldives or something like that.

Matt Krause
And another way that you can gather intelligence in addition to these online methods, another way that you can gather intelligence is by talking to someone else, often the CEO or the maybe sometimes the CEO’s assistant because the CEO’s assistant often knows these board members, as well as anybody in the building.

Matt Krause
So anyway, check with the CEO, if you get a chance, because the CEO is probably talking to the board, you know, every week, or a couple times a week and just ask, you know, is there anything that I should know about person XYZ, and believe me the CEO is going to know so much about person XYZ, they’re going to talk your ear off, you’ll know more about person XYZ than you ever thought possible.

Matt Krause
And if you’re shy about doing this, if you’re shy about going up to the CEO, and asking, don’t be. The CEO wants you to look good, as much as anyone, because if you look good, the CEO looks good. So yeah, so if you’re shy about checking with the CEO, and asking these questions, don’t be. The CEO likes the fact that you’re asking these questions, the CEO likes the fact that you’re researching the board.

Matt Krause
So you’re going to end up with a spreadsheet, or a table or something that probably has three or four or five columns. You know, column one is going to be their name, Jim Smith, Jane Doe, something like that. Column two might be their current company and their job there, column three might be miscellaneous notes about that person, like, maybe, you know, hikes in the mountains a lot or vacationed last month in the Maldives.

Matt Krause
So and you might spend three hours on the stalking or as it’s more diplomatically known, researching, I call it stalking.

Alper Rozanes
Researching. Audience research.

Matt Krause
In Matt’s terms, stalking, audience research, you might spend three hours on this on this research, probably not maybe just an hour and a half or two hours, but allow yourself three hours just so you have time to not be rushed, time to go down rabbit holes, time to pursue things that end up later being dead ends, stuff like that.

Matt Krause
And one of the push backs that I often get on this, one of the push backs that often get when I make this suggestion is that, hey, you know, I’m only going to spend at the most, 10 minutes talking to these people, why should I spend two hours researching them, or three hours researching them?

Matt Krause
And on the one hand, that’s absolutely true. When the board meeting is over, and people are just standing around shooting the breeze and catching up making small talk, you’re, at most, at most, going to be spending 10 minutes talking to these people, maybe not even that. It’s not like you’re going to go out for beers afterwards.

Alper Rozanes
Highly unlikely, yeah.

Matt Krause
Highly unlikely, no matter how friendly you guys are. And so looking at it as, you know, why should I be spending two hours or three hours or whatever? Why should I…

Matt Krause
Looking at it this way, it’s the wrong way to look at it. Don’t be looking at it as, you know, I’m only going to be talking to them for 10 minutes, why am I doing three hours of research? Look at it as this is a big project. It’s going to be governing a large part of my life for a year or two, and five years from now, when I’m applying for my next job, they’re going to ask me about this project in the interview.

Matt Krause
So me spending three hours researching compared to that much longer timeline, spending three hours on this research isn’t such a big deal anymore.

Alper Rozanes
Not at all. No.

Matt Krause
And remember, you’re not doing this so that you can continue selling the board members on your project after the board meeting. You’re not going to, you know, afterwards, after the meeting, you’re not going to be standing around talking to board member Jane Doe, and you’re not doing this research so that you can say, well, Jane, I saw on LinkedIn that you spent 12 years at Procter and Gamble, so you know how important marketing is. That’s why we all need to get behind that marketing project I was just talking about you.

Matt Krause
You’re not using this research, you’re not using this research to sell your project. You’re not stalking these people so that you can continue selling your project. That was what your presentation was for. That was why you were on the agenda.

Matt Krause
So selling your project is not why you are doing this research. You’re doing this stalking or otherwise known as research, you’re doing this research, so that you can be more attentive in the conversations afterwards, so that you can say things like, Jane, I hear that you spent over 10 years at P&G, I hear they have a crazy culture over there. Is that true? What’s it like?

Matt Krause
Or things like, Joe, I hear you spent five years managing software development teams at Amazon. That’s great. What was that like?

Matt Krause
You’re just being someone they like talking to. So when they have a question about your project, they call you up, and they don’t try to hit Google and try to answer it that way.

Matt Krause
So if a couple days later, after the meeting, they’re like, how is this cloud project going to fit in with our GDPR practices in Europe, you want them to pick up the phone and call you, not go by what Google says or what their crazy uncle Frank says, you want it to be you that they pick up the phone and call, you want to be the one to answer the question.

Matt Krause
And so you’re doing this person by person research, so that you are adequately prepared to establish rapport in that very short time, those 10 minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever. It’s going to be a short time. So you’re doing this research so that you’re prepared to establish rapport in that very short time. So that they feel comfortable calling you with questions about your project. That’s why you’re doing this stalking, otherwise known as research. So that’s what I mean by when I say stalk the board, that’s what I mean, basically, research the board members one by one.

Alper Rozanes
That’s great. Do you think you can overdo it?

Matt Krause
You can overdo it. I mean, you can over, you can overdo it, and even worse and overdoing it, because you know, very few people are going to over… going to overdo it. I say you know, 1.5, 2, at the most three hours, there are very few people who are going to spend five or six hours researching the board. And there are very few people who are going to overdo it by spending too much time researching the board. There are very few people who are going to spend two days, it’s like, oh, you know, I don’t want to pick up my kid from baseball because I’m researching the board. I need another day for that. There are very few people who are going to overdo it that way.

Matt Krause
But one one thing that I that people, one way that people might overdo it, is just by coming across as a robot in the in the conversations afterwards. And nobody likes a robot. I mean, you know, if you stand there in the meetings afterwards, and you’re talking to Jane Doe, and you say, you know, Jane, you spent 12 years at P&G, I read about you on LinkedIn, I’m a psycho, if you come across that way, Jane’s not going to like you. It’s not going to help you at all.

Alper Rozanes
Yeah.

Matt Krause
You can overdo it that way. And one one way, I mean, most people are pretty good at talking to people at a barbecue or at a party or you know, over the punchbowl, or, you know, while barbecuing steaks on the Fourth of July, or something like that.

Matt Krause
If you just follow those same social rules, and use all this research that you’ve garnered, to have a little more knowledgeable of a conversation, while using those same social skills that you use when you’re talking to somebody at a barbecue at a party, then you’ll be fine.

Alper Rozanes
Yeah. And I think it revolves around the way we make them feel. I mean, we give them information, we talk about things, of course we present but at the same time, there is this whole other part of the communication, which has got nothing to do with the slides, nothing to do with the information that you’re sharing with them. And everything to do with the way you make them feel.

Matt Krause
Yeah, when you when you mention to Jane, her, you know, 10 to 15 years at Procter and Gamble, or you mentioned to Steve, or whoever, the five years at Amazon, and then you just shut up and give them a chance to talk about their time at P&G or their time in Amazon, they’ll love you for it. I mean, people people tend to like people who just shut up and let them talk.

Alper Rozanes
Yeah, people like talking in general. I think we had talked about that in the podcast as well.

Matt Krause
Yeah, and board board members are no different than that. Yeah, this and it’s a it’s a pretty common technique. Pretty much every client I’ve been working with for years has heard me use this phrase stalk the board. So I recommend it to pretty much everybody.

Alper Rozanes
Great. That’s great.

Matt Krause
We’re about out of time. So we need to wrap it up for today. And I will talk to you next week then.

Alper Rozanes
Good talking to you today, take care.

Matt Krause
Take care. Bye bye.