S.M.A.R.T. Goals for Boards

I’m sure this isn’t a problem for your board—but please keep reading.

It’s possible that when a CEO’s work is more activity-driven than results-driven, it’s because the board also tilts towards activities—even very good activities. (Jim Collins said, “Good is the enemy of great.”)

But when a board sets goals for itself—and achieves those goals—it broadcasts to the CEO, the senior team, and the entire organization that “great” results are important.  And of course, Great Commission results are even more important.

I like to use the “S.M.A.R.T.” goals acronym.  Goals must be:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Time-related

So what goals should a board set for itself? After consulting with a board several years ago, I recently received an encouraging update from the ministry’s CEO. He wrote:

“Our board has continued to implement your recommendations.  Here is some of what has been accomplished:
   • Gone from 20 board members to 13.
   • Gone from 10 committees to three committees.
   • Gone from no evaluation or accountability of board members to annual assessment and interview as term of service is coming to a close.
   • Gone from no role description or qualifications for board members to having both documents.
   • Gone from one-third of the board members not donating annually to 100 percent of board members being donors of record each year.”

Wow! Imagine now the influence the board has with the CEO, senior team, staff and volunteers. Goals were set. Goals were achieved. 

Why are goals so important? In Donald Rumself's new book, Rumsfeld's Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life, he writes, "If you don't know what your top three priorities are, you don't have priorities."

And by the way, which board (the old board or the rejuvenated board) has the greatest potential to see God’s work flourish?

I say five cheers for this board—and three cheers for S.M.A.R.T. goals for all boards!

QUESTION: What are the Top-3 Goals for your board this year?

The Participant Hat: Hinting, Whining or Affirming?

In the hot-off-the-press ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 2: Balancing Board Roles, the short DVD helps boards define and clarify their appropriate roles regarding the three board hats: Governance, Volunteer and Participant.

So what’s the Participant Hat?

The 20-page Board Member Read-and-Engage Viewing Guide (each toolbox includes 12 guides) says that boards must define those special events (including fundraising events, as detailed in board policies) that board members, and perhaps spouses, are expected to attend.

“The best boards communicate their Participant Hat expectations to current and new board members.”  Are expectations crystal clear for your board? 

Which Participant Hat scenario describes your board’s experience?

• Scenario 1: Hinting.  A week before the work day or walk-a-thon, your CEO or board chair hints that it would be helpful if board members participated.

• Scenario 2: Whining.  After the work day or walk-a-thon, your CEO or board chair whines that it would have been helpful if more board members had participated.

• Scenario 3: Affirming.  At the beginning of each year, the Board Member Annual Affirmation Statement lists the Participant Hat “attendance-required events” and all board members affirm their high commitment to participate (or ask to be excused). 

 “Affirming is certainly favored over hinting and whining. For example, new board members should know—up front—if hosting a table of 10 at the fundraising dinner is a required Participant Hat event.  

"Glossing over their lack of advance planning, 

some CEOs and/or staff members 

often default to clever guilt tactics 

to prod board members into showing up. 

"That’s inappropriate and unfair—and hardly God-honoring!”

The solution is simple—and a downloadable template is included in the toolbox.

The viewing guide continues, “Board members should be informed, up front, of the organization’s realistic expectations regarding attendance at ministry events. Effective boards leverage a “Board Member Annual Affirmation Statement,” a document signed annually by both new and current members that spells out the specifics for all three hats. This annual affirmation also adds rich meaning to the spiritual calling of board service and inspires high commitment.”

Click here for more information on the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series:

• Series No. 2: Balancing Board Roles – Understanding the 3 Board Hats: Governance, Volunteer and Participant
• Series No 1: Recruiting Board Members – Leveraging the 4 Phases of Board Recruitment: Cultivation, Recruitment, Orientation and Engagement

QUESTION: Are the Participant Hat expectations crystal clear to all board members?

The Board and the Bachelor Farmer

As an observer at a recent board meeting, I watched the body language around the room as the CEO concluded his board report with, “And now I’d like to read a letter we received this week from an attorney.”

Most of us grimaced, “That can’t be good!”

But the glass half-full folks were right again. The lawyer’s letter announced—out of the blue—that a bachelor farmer had died and a gift from his estate was enclosed for this small ministry. But the unrestricted gift was large. More than $275,000!

Earlier in the meeting, ironically, after a team member reported on some amazing Kingdom results, the board launched into the Doxology in four-part harmony. 

“Praise God from whom 

all blessings flow.”

A second rendering of the Doxology almost broke out again.

At the end of the meeting, the board chair asked me to pray—and I was blessed with this Holy Spirit nudge to remind the board about governance faithfulness.

“Before I pray,” I began, “think back a few years to when this bachelor farmer was deciding where to invest his estate gifts. Undoubtedly he did his research and concluded that your ministry was worthy of a large gift.  But I’m guessing he also looked at the list of board members back then to discern if those men and women were faithful stewards of the ministry’s mission, vision, programs and funds.

“And today, I’m sure, more bachelor farmers, and dozens of other givers, are looking at your board—at your faithfulness—and discerning if your ministry is worthy of their giving. 

Board faithfulness, 

every day, every meeting, every year, 

counts for eternity.”

Traveling home from that exhilarating meeting, I was reminded of a column I had written in 2004, “Big Blessings Abound When Management Faithfulness Flourishes,” describing the faithfulness factors that enabled Joan B. Kroc, wife of Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s Corporation, to bless The Salvation Army with a gift in excess of $1.5 billion. (Read the article.)

In Matthew 10:42 (The Message), Jesus said, “This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.”

QUESTION: What stories of management faithfulness and governance faithfulness are you using to inspire and motive your board members?

Your CEO’s Worst Mistake!

This week The Accelerators blog, published by The Wall Street Journal, asked their panel of experts, “What are some of the worst mistakes startup founders will make this year?”

Board members who have helped launch new ministries would likely relate to several of the worst mistakes mentioned:
   • Introducing a good idea to the market too early
   • Having too much vision—and missing what is right in front of us
   • Not talking to customers
   • Robbing yourself of helpful growing pains by sweeping mistakes under the rug

But one mentor’s insight arrested my attention. One issue is common not just to startup nonprofits, but in many, many organizations. Michael Lazerow, who has started four companies and invested in 25 more, asks founders one simple question:

What are the top three things 

you need to accomplish in the next 

six to 12 months to give the company 

the best chance of long-term success?

The think-ahead CEO will lead the board by focusing on this question at every board meeting. But if the question, and the board-affirmed answers, are not discussed, then the board must address it promptly.

Lazerow laments, “Most entrepreneurs I speak to can’t name their priorities right away. If an entrepreneur can’t name their top priorities without hesitation, how will the rest of the company know? It’s bad enough for a founder to work on the wrong projects. But if the entire company is not focusing in the right areas, game over!

“I encourage all leaders (of companies, divisions and small teams) to write down the top three areas of focus somewhere visible in the organization and communicate them to the entire team. By doing so, you are not only able to focus on what is most important, but you are also able to eliminate distractions, which is the biggest gift you can give as a leader.”

Amen! I encourage CEOs to seek board approval on up to five written annual CEO “S.M.A.R.T.” Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-related). To keep the goals top of mind year-round, CEOs should email the board a one-page dashboard by the 15th of every month—with color-coded YTD bullet point commentaries for each goal:

• Green: on target
• Yellow: caution
• Red: needs more focus!

Christ-centered organizations, by the way, should have a culture of grace that acknowledges “worst mistakes” because everyone makes mistakes. Yet, by settling for an activity-driven culture versus a results-driven culture, we needlessly delay Kingdom advancement. That’s the worst mistake.

QUESTION: What are the top three things you need to accomplish in the next six to 12 months to give your organization the best chance of long-term success?

No Bad Board Meeting Is Too Short!

How long should a board meeting be? One hour? Four, six or eight hours? A weekend?

Roger Ebert, the movie critic who died this month, famously said, 

“No good movie is too long 

and no bad movie is short enough.”

Ditto our board meetings!

If your board has been in the same old/same old rut for more than three years, it might be a helpful exercise to “zero-base” your board meeting pattern and see if a different meeting scenario might help you be more effective.

Consider:
   • Frequency (monthly, every-other-month, quarterly or…?)
   • Adjusting the time to the seasonal agenda (two shorter meetings and two longer meetings)
   • An annual retreat (more time for prayer, interaction, evaluation and spiritual discernment)
   • Conference calls (try one in place of a face-to-face meeting)
   • Adding a pre-meeting lunch or dinner (and inviting spouses)

Caution! Of the four social styles on your board (Analyticals, Drivers, Amiables and Expressives), each style approaches the use of time differently:
   • Analyticals tend to be slow, deliberate and disciplined.
   • Drivers tend to be swift, efficient and impatient.
   • Amiables tend to be slow, calm and undisciplined.
   • Expressives tend to be rapid, quick and undisciplined.

For more on social styles, read my review of How to Deal with Annoying People: What to Do When You Can’t Avoid Them, by Bob Phillips and Kimberly Alyn.

Proverbs 15:22 (Amplified Bible) says, “Where there is no counsel, purposes are frustrated, but with many counselors they are accomplished." 

So take time to get input. If you gently and graciously focus on the board’s objectives, and not tradition—“But we’ve always done our board meetings this way”—you’ll get buy-in.

QUESTION: Is it time to rethink the frequency and the length of our board meetings?

The Powerful Potential of Tab 10

One of the helpful resources in the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 1: Recruiting Board Members is a sample table of contents for a “Board Nominee Orientation Notebook.”

I encourage boards to use this 31-tab binder as a tool during all four recruitment phases: Cultivation, Recruitment, Orientation and Engagement. (Why 31 tabs? Because Staples sells 31-tab dividers!)

Once completed (actually, I’ve never seen a complete one—it’s always a work in progress), the notebook is a treasured “one-stop location” for all organizational documents.  Trust me—your board prospect will be impressed and even assume your board has their act together! Here are just seven of the 31 tabs:
   • Current Board Members (mini-bios) and Committee Structure
   • Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation
   • Board Policies Manual
   • Board Member Annual Affirmation Statement (and Conflict of Interest document)
   • Annual Budget, Current Financial Reports and Audited Financial Statements
   • ECFA Membership Profile, Public Statistics and the IRS Form 990
   • Strategic Plan (Executive Summary and a one-page “placemat”)

All this is good, but it’s likely you have never leveraged the powerful potential of Tab 10, the list of your “Former Board Members and Board Chairs.”

A year ago in my blog post, Begin With the End in Mind, I referenced Rebekah Basinger’s insightful thoughts, “After Bye-Bye Board Member, Then What?” Here’s her full article, “After Thank You and Good-Bye: The Challenge of Holding on to the Hearts and Attention of Former Board Members.”

I was reminded of this powerful potential again yesterday when I received a packet of information sent to former ECFA board members. (According to the “Director’s Award” plaque on my office wall, I served six years on the ECFA board from 1989 to 1995.) Dan Busby, ECFA’s president, communicates intentionally and regularly with former board members—with perfect doses of “inside info” and encouraging news. I always open his mail first.

I’ve served on numerous boards, 

yet this is the only board 

that keeps me in the loop.  

Kudos to Dan and ECFA! (Memo to CEOs: a monthly donor appeal letter doesn’t qualify for “keeping me in the loop.”)

IDEA: inspire a current board member to create an intentional plan for keeping former board members in the loop. Christ-centered organizations can rightly expect former board members to be some of their best prayer warriors, but it will take creativity and intentionality.  If you do this, you will experience the powerful Kingdom potential of Tab 10!

QUESTION: What’s your next step for leveraging the God-honoring heart and passion of former board members?

Board Input Versus Board Output

Last Saturday, I facilitated a half-day board retreat and asked the board members to rate the meeting on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being high). One thoughtful board member answered, “I’ll give you my rating after we see the next draft of the strategic plan.”

Bingo! That was a brilliant answer! Effective input is important, but output is critical.

“Directors should not confuse hard work, as commendable as it is, with meaningful results,” says Ram Charan in Owning Up: The 14 Questions Ever Board Member Needs to Ask.  

In his chapter, “How Can Our Board Self-Evaluation Improve Our Functioning and Our Output?” Charan quotes an influential board member. This proud-of-his-work director explained, “I personally spent 250 hours on board work last year, including my committee work. And most of my fellow directors did about the same.”

Unimpressed by input only, Charan asked him, “What would you say are the one or two things your board did that really made a difference for the company?”

He added, “The director took a long pause and looked up at the ceiling. He seemed lost in thought, like he was struggling to come up with a concrete answer. As I waited for him to respond, I realized that he probably had never thought about his board work in that way.”

“The board’s output—the quality of the decisions

it makes and actions it takes—is the 

acid test of effective corporate governance.”

Adapting the author’s counsel to Christ-centered boards, I would add, “Does the board in fact help the CEO and the ministry achieve better Kingdom results both short-term and long-term?”

“When boards fail to consider their output,” says Charan, “they can easily convince themselves and others that they’re doing well when in fact the essence of their governance is weak.”

Last Saturday, I was blessed to be in a room with board members who understood that output is critical.  Faithful board service (showing up) is not enough—Kingdom work demands meaningful results because the Great Commission stakes are so high.

QUESTION: “What would you say are the one or two things your board did in the last 12 months that really made a difference for your ministry?”