Board Relations and Leadership

I recently attended a session on the title of this blog presented by Steven Worth with Worth Consulting.

He started off by asking the question, do we have a problem?

He referenced a Stanford study that 69% of the people surveyed identified a challenge over the past 10 years mainly in: fundraising; financial stability; the executive director leaves unexpectedly; and attracting new board members.

He broke the session down into four areas and I took away the following comments or best practices in each of the areas discussed.

Governance

Remember the duties of board members:

  • Duty of Care;
  • Duty of Loyalty; and
  • Duty of Obedience.

For an entire blog post on the subject matter go HERE.  And don’t forget the fiduciary responsibility when it comes to your finances.

Board Leadership Development Needs

Boards can be representative vs strategic.  While both can be productive it’s key to get the right board members involved in your organization.

There are a number of challenges that can be counterproductive which include, a board member pushing their own agenda, not knowledgable, the naysayer, etc.

It's critical that you continue to asses your current board for skill sets and position your organization to elect new board members where you may be lacking (i.e. knowledge in finance, marketing, education, leadership).

Membership and Financial Challenges

We are membership organizations.  Stay focused on your mission!

Markets change and the board needs to stay focused on that market otherwise the board and members will become obsolete if they don’t stay in tune on their market sector.

Don’t become a social party for your members, stay focused on the mission and serve the market whichever direction it goes.

Suggestions on how to stay focused:

Through surveys, discover the facts (quantitative vs qualitative) and do some benchmarking.  Constantly re-examine your strategy (annual strategic planning session) and always be recruiting new and keep getting new members, the bell curve 25-55 is the main working age and should be represented in your membership numbers.

Confusion Over the Board's Role

Create a job description for prospective board members so they know what they are getting into and what the expectation is if selected.  For a sample job description go HERE.

Do you continue to ask your board members on how they're doing and if they understand their role on the board?

Are you promoting your board members?  Recognition is very important in what you give back to board members for their service.

Have you created a scorecard matrix that has the board self evaluate their performance and which also identifies their skill set.  This is a simple exercise that will give you the information you need to build a strong board.

In the last part of the session we discussed how finding friends or partners with other organizations, think your chamber and other entities within the community to:

  • Share resources
  • Expand your network
  • Do well by doing good
  • Develop new ways of working
  • Gain additional credibility

Final quote on leaders – they inspire others to do more than they thought they ever could do.

Something to think about!