In many companies, the CEO is the highest paid and least supervised position. Numerous boards either skip the review process entirely or offer feedback in a much too casual manner.

A couple of board members might take the CEO to dinner and spend a few minutes offering some feedback. Or perhaps the Chair will offer positive feedback in a quick conversation: (“Another great year, Tim”) and toss in one or two very quick observations (“We’d still love you to build a stronger bench”).

This is not sufficient.

Every board should develop a legitimate process that includes setting expectations at the beginning of a year and delivering feedback at year’s end that is grounded in those expectations. They should have a means of collecting data and analyzing it. The review itself should be delivered in person and should include enough detail to make the feedback both meaningful as well as credible.

Some boards worry they don’t have enough information to form a strong point of view. They might only see the CEO four or five times a year for four to six hours. They don’t know how the CEO is leading or interacting with his or her team. They don’t see the leader’s interactions with customers and judging strategy from a distant perspective.

And yet, the number one responsibility of a board is to select and manage the firm’s leader. So when it’s time to find a new one, they spend a lot of money on a very rigorous process. When it ends, they heave a collective sigh of relief and hope that s/he will be successful.

Hope, as we already know, is not a strategy.

When you think about it, there are ways for a board to collect more data. You can watch how the CEO interacts with his or her leadership team. You can observe how leadership team members perform and form an opinion whether they seem to be in sync with the CEO. For example, the audit committee gets to see the CFO in action. You also can see whether Glassdoor is sharing praise for the company or hate mail.

Bear in mind that not every review needs to be presented with an air of 100% certainty. It’s perfectly fine to say “we are picking up some negative vibes” and want to talk about how you are approaching this.

In any human endeavor, it pays to not only set specific expectations but also to periodically check in to talk about how those expectations are (or are not) being met. This isn’t intrusive or controversial behavior; it is a highly logical best practice.