Managing your Board of Directors in a way that they are informed, effective, and engaged is a priority for any nonprofit leader.
An effective Board would make your life so much easier, but it takes a lot of work.
When you have so many other things to deal with, it often gets put on the back burner.
Today’s episode will look at one strategy to strengthen a Nonprofit Board involvement- by matching their skills and interests with your agency’s needs.
You can find the episode at https://relishyourrole/com/26
As always if you found this episode helpful, please leave a review on your favorite podcast app.
How to Engage Your Board
Get to Know Your Board Member
Way back in episode 4, I talked about the importance of setting time aside to develop a three-dimensional relationship with your Board members.
You want to develop a relationship where you get to know each other past your professional roles.
Take the time to learn about Board members’ interests, their families, what motivates them.
In learning those things, you have a deeper sense of what they bring to your agency.
When you find areas of commonality between you and your Board member, the conversations are richer and deeper.
It sounds so basic, but you want to know them as a person first- and as a Board member second.
Make it your business to know why they joined the Board and what they hope to gain from the experience.
Ask Your Board Member Questions to Spark Engagement
The best way to figure out how to engage a Board member with your agency is to ask them.
Usually, Board members are asked what committee they want to serve on and not how they want to serve when they first come on the Board.
Give your Board members a chance to think through how they see themselves supporting the agency.
What skills and interests can they identify that they would like to use as a Board member?
In the process of asking them how they want to contribute you are signaling to them how much you value them.
Help them narrow their focus for meaningful involvement
With a sense of what makes your board member tick, you can think about how to leverage their interests and skills on behalf of your agency.
Sometimes it is very straightforward. You have a person who just joined the Rotary and loves to do public speaking and your agency has a speaker’s bureau, viola, a match is made.
Usually, it is a bit more complicated.
Board members want to bring value to the agency, but often they do not know how.
Many Boards have CPAs who serves as the Finance chair, but there are others with less easily translatable skills or interests who are just waiting for the opportunity to make a difference.
So often we approach the Board from the perspective of what the agency needs and not what they can give.
For example, maybe they have gotten very interested in graphic design, and perhaps there is a role for them in working on the design of the invitations for the fundraiser.
If you can start with what they like to do, you are building a relationship that is not solely transactional. When you get to know the person, you are focused on matching their self-professed interests with your needs. It becomes a mutually satisfactory endeavor.
These are not a one-and-done activities. As the Board member learns more about the agency, grows in their professional knowledge and interests, what they can contribute changes, and should be assessed throughout their tenure on the board.
Maintaining a Governance Focus
Make sure you help the Board member maintain a governance focus.
We have all had Board members who want to get involved in programming.
This is always a bad idea.
The Board plays a governance role, helping steer the agency from a policy and financial perspective.
Even though you have a Board who has a passion for the services your agency provides, your role is to direct that passion in a way that is appropriate for the Board role.
Identify, Focus and Channel Board Interests
If you do not take the time to elicit your board members’ interests and how they want to participate on the Board, two things may happen.
They begin to slowly disengage because they have not found a way to make a meaningful contribution.
or
They start involving themselves in things that are inappropriate for the Board, like programming concerns or being overly involved in personnel issues.
You must continually attend to the quality of Board engagement. Start that process is by learning their skills and preferences and steering them in ways that support the work of your agency.