The Jay Love Blog : board of directors

Why Don’t Board Members Do What They Are Supposed To Do?

Jay Love — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:56:00 GMT

Being a longtime board member and former board chair at numerous local/national nonprofits and several community related organizations caused the title of Hardy Smith’s article to jump out at me. Here is the link. I know many of you have been in a board role asking the very same provocative question.

It does not seem to matter whether the subject is strategic planning, financial forecasting, mission development or fundraising. In all cases, there are board members sitting around that board table or on that board conference call wondering just what a few of the other members were possibly thinking with their comments or lack of action.

For example, the always-stimulating discussion about the need to have 100% participation by the board in the annual campaign fundraising is my favorite. In my opinion, this should not even have to be discussed in a regular board meeting. If someone is being recruited for a multi-year term why not handle before the first meeting? For example, if it is a three-year term then have them sign a three-year pledge card as part of the recruiting process. (The pledge can always be adjusted upwards if you are worried about the initial pledge amount...) If it is a requirement of being able to serve on the board then just take care of it before they attend the regular board meetings. The most outstanding part of taking such action is that the need to pledge is never discussed in any board meetings and you can focus on strategic issues!

The survey results from Hardy's article will probably not surprise most of you reading this post and his article.

My two favorites are:

Question Three: What advice would you offer to organizations who ask this question: Why don’t board members do what they are supposed to do?

Lack of direction. Roles/duties/responsibilities not clearly defined when asked to serve.
Board members are not held accountable.
Individuals are on board for wrong reasons.
Right people are not being recruited.
Better screening/evaluating of prospective board members.
Soft sell approach when recruiting.
Not having buy-in from board members. Not feeling involved.
Not being specific with task requests.
Poor communications.
Being asked to do too much.
No follow-up.
No orientation or training.

Question Five: How can organizations be more effective in utilizing their board members?

Clearly define what is being requested.
Listen to their opinions.
Have good effective communications.
Get buy-in. Create ownership.
Limit tasks they are asked to do.
Know your board members and play to their strengths.
Recognize their accomplishments.
Don’t take them for granted.
Make sure your board members know each other.
Have fun.
Have accountability measures in place.

Please allow me to highlight what truly made sense to me as an active board member. The neat part about the highlights I will mention is that they are so easy to correct!

Here are my top five:

Clearly define the board role in writing -- in fact, have signature blocks on the document for all to sign
Have fun! (There is no law against this and your attendance levels will soar!)
Listen to their opinions (this means having strategic discussions not merely OK’ing staff or operations reports).
Create ownership. Does this ever hurt in any endeavor?
Better screening, evaluating of potential board members (if the board manages the CEO or Executive Director should we not be as careful in choosing them as we did the CEO/ED?).

Hardy, thanks for conducting your research and sharing it with us. Perhaps your efforts and my few thoughts might impact numerous board meetings in a positive way in the future. If so, maybe your probing question about board members doing what they are supposed to may never need to asked again...

The Best Board Meetings Ever?

Jay Love — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:45:00 GMT

I am betting those of you on any NPO board might read this post.

The various roles that any board fulfills for a nonprofit organization can be quite varied. For those of you who serve on multiple boards like me, seeing what the structure and topic schedule for board meetings is always insightful. To be honest, I am a bit amazed about how varied the board meeting agendas are.

Too often I think NPO board meetings are based upon tradition rather a combined group think by the board and executives of the organization on how to best use the board. Let’s together ponder this key question:

If we are provided the immense combined intellect, experience and talent of 12 to 25 dedicated individuals 4-10 times a year for 60 to 120 minutes how can we best utilize it?

It is my strong suggestion that this question be actively debated by the board at least once per year. Such debate, in and of itself, could be the foundation of a superb board meeting. Think about this question I have asked board chairmen and executive directors:

Do you have any board members who go through an entire board meeting without responding to a true open-ended question or without offering one bit of a strategic idea?

I have seen it happen more times than not. Such a reality is more than sad when you think of what is sitting under-utilized on the sidelines. If the only words spoken are to approve the minutes or to second an executive committee motion, what do you think will run through that board member’s mind if there is an avoidable conflict for a future board meeting?

Completely engaged, motivated and energized board members are some of the most powerful change agents in the world! They can literally move mountains or at least finance the movement of them...

Think back to your favorite class in high school, college or graduate school. Was it a pure lecture or were you actively participating and/or engaged on several levels? The same comparison can easily hold true for board meetings.

Why not try something outside the norm by striving to engage each and every board member? In the process you just might ignite a passion that will endure long after the board term is over. If the meetings are stimulating, fun and perhaps even exciting, you may never go back to the "old way".

Ten Final thoughts and ideas I have seen work well:

1. Focus on strategic items.
2. Leave operational items to the staff of the charity.
3. Engage as many of the group as possible each meeting.
4. Brainstorm and/or dream often.
5. Utilize a few minutes of each meeting to focus on the mission via a real life example or testimony (if you grab the heart early in the meeting, you have the mind and soul throughout).
6. Fundraising is a joyful word not a bad word. Share stories of success, perhaps even have a donor share what giving meant to them (have the tissues ready if you find the right donor to share...).
7. Error on the side of fun versus boring.
8. Survey your board members annually. Most will tell you what they like, dislike or desire.
9. Hold a formal board orientation for new members.
10. Assign a mentor to each new member and ask them to have lunch prior to the first board meeting they are to attend.

Below are a couple of links to resources that might be helpful:

www.gt.com

www.governancematters.org

If you have a minute please share (without any organization names of course) either your best or worst board meeting experience by a quick email to me at jay.love@etapestry.com. I promise to share them in a future blog post.Such sharing might be insightful and fun!

Finding a New Executive Director for an NPO (Part Two)

Jay Love — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:11:00 GMT

In this post I will complete the story on the executive director selection process. If you will recall, we have made it up to Step Six with the plot thickening along with each step. The semi-finalists for the executive director position are in place and ready to proceed.

Step Seven

Our first face to face interviews are the basis of this step. The various candidates will each have a chance to answer questions from this attached set. These questions were designed to enable us to verify leadership qualities and readiness for this key position. Among the questions were these:

Talk to us about your vision of the services that ABC provides to marketplace. Share an example from a current or previous position where your personal experience might be helpful.

A Nonprofit's success depends upon articulating a strong mission, having competent staff and a dedicated board. Describe the relationship between the board and staff (especially in fund raising) as you would see it.

This position involves developing strategic partnerships and relationships, which bring resources to ABC. Give us an example of when you needed to form a collaboration to solve a common problem or to ask for work/funds.

Notice how open-ended the questions are. In addition, please see how we are constantly asking for real world examples based upon previous positions. We wanted to let the true stars ready for prime time come shining through!

Step Eight

Another conference call among the search committee was held to determine the 2-3 finalists based upon the results in step seven. In the past, we have had situations where just two finalists emerged, but having three still in the running is certainly OK. Either way is fine, because as I mentioned in the last post, we are about to see the true leader emerge. (At least that has been the case in virtually every past situation.) In fact, as you will see, we are about to truly enter prime time with regard to candidate effort and our ability to pick a top leader. Every candidate I have spoken to after the upcoming step stated they enjoyed the process and quickly realized whether the job was a perfect fit for their talents and abilities. I view such comments in and of themselves a remarkable success.

Step Nine

The finalists are literally placed directly into two different but related real world presentation situations. You can see the full scope of what is given to the candidates a week in advance here.

It is literally lights, camera and action in a large board room with all of the members of the selection committee present. We act as the recipients in the two different scenarios being presented. In summary here are those two scenarios:

Presentation to XYZ Foundation
You have been recently selected as ABC's new CEO, Congratulations! You learn on your second day on the job that XYZ Foundation is holding the Foundation grant for 2009 ($250,000) pending an introduction and presentation by you.
During this meeting, they want to know your management philosophy, your vision for the organization and what you see ABC's future to be. They realize that you do not have all the information about the organization (it's only your 2nd day), but they want to be convinced that the ABC Executive Committee made the right decision.
Your assignment for this interview: From all the material that is at your disposal, give a 10-minute talk. You can use notes. You cannot use PowerPoint nor do any handouts.
Presentation to ABC's Board
For this exercise, your first board meeting as CEO is just a week after you take over. (In reality, your first board meeting isn’t until later.) Take a maximum of 15 minutes, using any materials or format you are comfortable with, and give the board your first presentation. You can use a PowerPoint, or a printed PowerPoint, or whatever means you believe will be most effective with the current ABC board.
• What are the challenges for our organization, as you see them?
• What are your priorities in the early months?
• If your first 3 months are successful, what will success look like in 90 days?

During the presentations the selection committee members are taking notes at a rapid pace. We also enjoyed watching the superstars shine. (That is usually the case!) As you might have guessed, they also hit the ground running at full speed when they begin full time work.

Step Ten

Our final gathering of the selection committee is a face to face one convened immediately following the finalist presentations. In every single case where I have been involved in the nonprofit world a clear top notch leader has emerged. Most of our group discussion has revolved around how easy it was to decide on the person who stood out from the others. In the business world we have had to debate over two closely matched potential winners. We refrained from voting so that thought processes and reasoning could be fully developed and debated. Keep in mind you might want to keep the second place candidate in the fold, if you feel they can truly do the job, in case you are not able to reach agreement on an offer with your first option.

I wish you only the best with this important process for your organization. As I mentioned in my last post, I dearly hope you find several useful nuggets of ideas to use. Perhaps you too will find the strong leader you need to make your mission and organization come to life!

Random Act of Kindness

This particular example is not nearly as random as my previous ones. However, it is a neat story and perhaps will help spark similar actions elsewhere. I mentioned my daughter Katie in a previous post. She is a dedicated elementary school teacher. I think we would all have enjoyed having her as a teacher and dearly hope we would have one like her for our own children. From the age of a preschooler, Katie always knew she wanted to be a teacher. She practiced it almost daily with friends and family. As she found out more about the world, she decided helping the inner city youth was her calling. She is now teaching where a large portion of her children fall into that grouping.

Her school just happens to be fairly close to the eTapestry offices. This is a key point in making this story come to life. Not long into her first year teaching at the school she realized that many of the young men in her second grade class did not have fathers at home. Such a situation could be a potential cause for many problems in the classroom with those young men.

Katie issued a plea for mentors to give up lunch one day a week to sort of adopt one young man each. During this hour, the mentor would have private study time with the student, and then join them for lunch in the school cafeteria (always a treat...). Six eTapestry male employees accepted the challenge and became mentors. The neatest part of this story is that all of the men and boys involved for the semester truly gained from it. Perhaps we will see most of those second grade boys become successful in the future.