In today's governance work the term "Shared Leadership" is now used to describe the relationship and responsibilities between the board and the paid leader. But let's not forget that one of the roles of a board includes that of "supervisor" of that paid leader. After all, one critical set of board functions is to hire, guide and evaluate.
But the Waterbury, CT Boys & Girls Club seems to have forgotten its duty as supervisor. According to press reports, the recently fired CEO became an alcoholic following the apparent accidental drowning of a Club patron four years ago, and, during this same period, began stealing funds.
So, while I might want to ask why the board did not recognize the thievery at an earlier date, I would rather talk about why the board, as supervisor, was not more actively posturing to provide relief to its mentally ill staff person? We actually do not know what the board did or did not do except that the CEO was still in his job, with access to funds.
Monitoring, supervising -- where was this board and what was it doing? And, this leads me to ponder the question: to what extent does a board's duty of loyalty include loyalty to the CEO? My answer: not at all. The board's first and last duty is to the well-being and success of the organization.