Fund executives need to ‘start with themselves’ if they truly want to understand how their trustee boards make decisions, according to Grant Brecht, an industrial psychologist. “The first place we need to start is ourselves and our personal style

Our leadership style will add about 60 per cent to the culture of an organisation,” he told attendees at a Fund Executive Association Ltd (FEAL) breakfast. Brecht suggested executives use the Myers Brigg Type Indicator (MBTI) to understand how board members were ‘wired’ and therefore how they make their decisions “You need to be able to leverage off both types [of personalities]. You need both types and to understand both types,” he said. But if a board and an executive ever came to a standstill Brecht said the chair should have the final say. “If someone’s got to pull rank I suppose at the end of the day it’s got to be the chair,” he said. But executives have still an extremely important role in outlining a board’s values and key vision, Brecht said.