A dirty little secret in the nonprofit world is that Boards of Directors do not always deliver.
Most of the nonprofit women executive directors I work with identify frustrations with their Boards as one of their greatest challenges.
You need your Board to help raise visibility and funds as well as advocate for your agency, and when they do not do their part, your life as the Executive Director is so much harder.
Today’s episode continues the theme of exploring ways to get your nonprofit Board of Directors to become engaged and effective ambassadors for your agency.
Specifically- I am going to share with you some tips on how to have those difficult conversations with your board chair and turn those awkward moments into important pivot points for improved board functioning.
You can read the transcript at relish your role.com/12
Working with your Board of Directors is a key responsibility as a nonprofit Executive Director.
You need to help your Board chair have a clear set of Board priorities.
You have to support them by providing relevant and timely information.
You have a responsibility for sharing your honest assessment of the Board’s strengths and challenges.
Lastly you have to have a relationship with your Board chair that allows you to speak to each other candidly, with mutual respect and trust.
Let’s dive into how to have those hard conversations with your Board chair.
I have spoken before about the many reasons why boards fall short. You can listen to my first episode about the importance of training your Board, so they understand their role. Episode 4 addresses relationship building tips with your Board chair and last week’s episode, was about the importance of having strong board committees.
But you cannot get them trained or formed into strong committees without the support and leadership of your board chair.
Regularly schedule Meetings with Your Board Chair
Your relationship with your nonprofit Board chair is key.
If you have taken the time to learn about them, their knowledge base and their learning style, it is easier to know how to approach them with your concerns and needs.
This knowledge deepens the more time you spend together.
I cannot stress how useful it is to have regularly scheduled meetings with your Board chair.
As a rule of thumb, you should be meeting with them at least twice as often as your full Board of Directors meets.
If your Board meets quarterly, you should be having planned scheduled meeting with your Chair monthly, if your Board meets monthly, you and your chair should be meeting twice a month.
Create Thoughtful Meeting Agendas
Your meetings with your Board chair are as important as your supervisory meeting with your staff, and require the same level of deliberate preparation.
The focus of these meeting should be about what is happening at the agency and with the Board.
There is a subtle and important difference. It is your job to connect the dots for your Board chair between the issues confronting the agency and the work of the Board.
I recommend you and your Board chair jointly develop a written agenda of what you want to cover in your time together.
It is your responsibility as the Executive Director to make sure that agenda honestly addresses the priority agency and Board issues.
Having a jointly developed agenda creates shared ownership and sets the tone that you have mutual responsibility for the functioning of both the agency and Board.
Candidly Identifying Board Issues
For example, let’s say your Board has a marketing committee that has not done anything. Meetings with your Board chair are time to bring up your concerns with the committee, and together you can take a problem-solving approach to getting them active.
Make sure your Board chair is clear about what that committee is supposed to get done.
Review the membership and jointly diagnose if they have the right members. If there is agency staff support to the committee, look at how that can be improved. Discuss what support is needed to move the committee along and what action you need to take, and what the Board chair needs to do.
Help your Board chair script out what they need to say to the committee chair or other members who hold the key to progress.
Healthy Board Functioning is a Shared Responsibility
It is tempting as the Executive Director to offer to intervene with other Board members, but I believe it is a mistake.
You need to help the Board chair take responsibility for Board performance and give them what they need so they are comfortable reaching out to their peers.
The Board must take ownership for their own functioning. This often means you may have to sit on your hands and be patient and encourage Board members to talk with each other. If they always go through you, they never take the lead or begin to really care about how the Board is doing.
Use the Board Committee Structure
Let the Board structure work for you.
Focus your Board chair on reaching out to committee chairs. You want the responsibility to flow through the committee leadership structure.
Do not be afraid to dive into the details. Jointly script out with your Board chair what the conversation needs to cover to get the committee active. Be willing to discuss both the issues and personalities which are hindering progress.
As the Executive Director, you should provide as much information, contacts, data as you can to support the Board chair, and be their partner in diagnosing the root of the problem and forming solutions.
But the Board chair has to lead the effort for change. You are helping them get the Board back on track.
When you support your Board chair for success, they increase their confidence to be active and engaged. Their role is to keep the members invested and active on the Board.
As community volunteers they can be responsive to their peers in a deep and meaningful way. You want to nurture the connections to each other as well as to your agency.
One concrete way to do this is by helping your chair lead the board and model how to hold each other responsible for delivering.
Everyone will benefit from these hard conversations. You can do it and I am here to help