Governing Boards Must Align Skills with Need

Gauss recently worked with an academic medical center that was reconstituting its board. They started by developing a grid of competencies, tailor-made to the hospital's needs and interests.

"Once we did that, there's no question the candidate pool was narrow, but by being narrow, it made the recruitment much easier in terms of explaining why that person's level of expertise was needed on this board," Gauss says.

And time may be short, because hospitals and health systems will have to become more nimble than ever before.

"High-performing boards in healthcare will separate the winners and losers, just like in corporate America," says Gauss. "There's a talent war out there, and it starts with the board. This is happening. It's not a hypothetical."