In sports organisations that do employ a Chief Executive, a direct and very important responsibility of the Board is to recruit, remunerate, support, appraise, hold to account (and, if necessary, dismiss) the Chief Executive.

It is the role of the Board to appraise the Chief Executive and make sure the Chief Executive fulfils their key responsibilities. Appraisal of a Chief Executive can have two related objectives:

• Firstly the appraisal should be a process of collecting information about the past performance of the Chief Executive, and
• Secondly it can be used to set future goals for the Chief Executive.  

Board members may be reluctant to introduce a formal system for the Chief Executive, in case it implies critisism of performance to date. However, a formal system of appraisal will directly benefit the Chief Executive:

• In the adsence of formal appraisals, Chief Executives may be left in the dark as to the Boards view of their performance.
• A formal appraisal process provides a clear opportunity to communicate feedback from the Board in a structured and orderly way.
• The process of appraisal enables the Chief Executive to communicate to the Board their own expectations and observations about the role, and how it should evolve over time.

For a Board to design an effective Chief Executive evaluation process an organisation will first need to have: 

• A clearly defined vision, mission and sets of value
• A up-to-date strategic plan with clearly specified goals and objectives
• A written job description for the position of Chief Executive
• A written job description for the members of the Board
• A shared understanding of the purpose of the Chief Executive evaluation

The appraisal will usually be designed in a three step way:

1. Set out goals and objectives for the Chief Executive within a specific timeframe;
2. Evaluate if the goals and objectives have been achieved within the timeframe;
3. Set out new goals and objectives for the new appriasal period.

You can download some guides and templates to help you below.

Downloads:

CEO Evaluation Insight.pdf

How a Board could choose to evaluate the work of a CEO.

CEO Performance Appraisal Template.pdf

CEO performance appraisal template and advice