Nonprofit governance is not an easy job. Nonprofit board chair work is even more difficult. Based on my experience and as part of a team, research about nonprofit board chairs, few have been trained for the job. So it is not surprising that there is a disparate level of success or triumphs. The following opinion piece published in the Fort Meyers News-Press talks poses that chairs who individually take on the task of providing oversight of the CEO have effectively failed in fulfilling a duty that is the board's as a whole, not the chair's. Advice that I even more appreciate is that chairs do best when they forge relationships with the members and move the group as a whole to fulfill their duties. I would offer that it's noteworthy that the local press even too-up this topic. There are a lot of folks serving on boards.
Commentary: The board is the boss, not board members
Nonprofit leaders are upset and facing the same problem. All of them want to know what to do to heal a toxic board culture, which can include board bullies who are disrespectful to staff and other board members, and who push their own agendas.
What are the consequences of board bullies?
- Good staff members become poor performers.
- Good staff leaders leave jobs they love.
- Good board members quit to escape the drama.
- Board members try to do staff jobs instead of being ambassadors.
- Board members focused on power and not the purpose of the organization.
There is even a problem with over-bearing, micromanaging board chairs who think they manage the CEO, and make decisions without input from the full board of directors. When board chair tries to manage the CEO, there are too many things that can wrong. For example, it is hard to get strong board member engagement when important issues come to the board already decided. Or even worse, when the board is kept in the dark on important issues – only to unearth them at a later date.
There would be much stronger nonprofit boards if the board chair spent more time mentoring and engaging the other board members than focusing on the relationship with the CEO. And vice versa - rather than expending so much energy on the board chair, a CEO’s time would be better spent building relationships with and enabling other board members. It is not the job of the board chair to mentor the CEO. It is a much better practice to see the CEO assemble their own advisory team or find an experienced colleague to serve as the mentor than to invest that responsibility with the board chair.