Note: This is No. 23 in a series of blogs featuring wisdom from the 91-page gem by Max De Pree, Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board.
Max De Pree: “Another tension arises when board members try to move onto management’s turf. Sometimes good members do this without intending to.”
It is the rare board that effectively governs at high levels without dipping into operational arenas. De Pree addresses this boardroom tension in just half a page—but the frequent problem deserves a full chapter (or maybe a book!).
There are many reasons why board members cross the line into management:
1. They don’t trust the CEO and the senior team. Some board members assume they are smarter and more competent than the staff—and so their “wisdom” in operational matters is needed.
Solution: If your CEO is not competent, the board must address that issue, not work around the CEO’s lack of leadership.
2. They inappropriately wear their volunteer hats in board meetings. Board members, who are also volunteers in the organization, frequently raise volunteer issues during board meetings and then drag the board into the operational weeds.
Solution: Once a year, screen the short video from the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 2: Understanding the 3 Board Hats: Governance, Volunteer, Participant.
3. They have not personally experienced the impact of effective God-honoring governance. In the absence of healthy board experiences on other boards—or governance training, helpful resources, and board retreats with an enrichment component—board members tend to repeat mediocre boardroom practices: the same old/same old drill. They focus on operations because the big picture (vision, mission, strategy, spiritual discernment, outcomes, etc.) are absent.
Solution: Inspire your governance committee to keep enrichment and lifelong learning on the front burner with books, blogs, resources, consultants, and an on-going call for board members to be stewards of their sacred trust.
De Pree notes that “it’s up to the chairperson” to ensure that boards don’t meddle on management’s turf. If your board chair needs a refresher course in the calling and art of chairing, encourage him or her to read the new ECFAPress book, Call of the Chair: Leading the Board of the Christ-centered Ministry, by David L. McKenna.
BOARD DISCUSSION: Think back to your last board meeting. Did your board chair halt discussion that spiraled down into management and operational items?
To order from Amazon, click on the title for: Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board, by Max De Pree (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company).
Note: This is No. 22 in a series of blogs featuring wisdom from the 91-page gem by Max De Pree, Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board.
Max De Pree: “In the letter on the role of trustees, I reviewed some ideas on the matter of evaluating a board member’s performance. This is guaranteed to produce tension. Most boards and committees I know won’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.”
In another “dire warning” on living with tensions in the boardroom, De Pree challenges and inspires healthy boards to look in the mirror—but he acknowledges this is tough duty. He adds:
“Suggesting that a volunteer be evaluated seems a little crass, and it probably is—
• unless we’re serious about our mission,
• unless we truly believe members want to grow and reach their potential and serve society,
• unless we take our clients seriously,
• unless we respect our donors.”
He closes with, “Maybe we ought to be ready to deal with this tension.”
I’ve observed several ways that healthy, God-honoring boards assess their own performance:
#1. Annual Self-Assessment Survey. The ECFA Knowledge Center has three sample board self-evaluation forms (for the board, for an individual board member, and for feedback on a board colleague). Click here to download the forms.
#2. Board Meeting Quick Assessment. Much like Ken Blanchard’s advice in The One Minute Manager (one-minute praisings and one-minute reprimands), healthy boards don’t wait until year-end to address inappropriate board member conduct. So, some boards use a paper or verbal feedback tool at the end of every board meeting. (See “Quick Fix Tools for Board Self-Assessments.”)
#3. Third Party Assessment. True, most boards wait until the crisis to call in the cavalry. But healthy boards--when times are good--invite a third party (a consultant or another experienced CEO or board chair) to conduct a “healthy boards assessment” with one-on-one phone calls, an online survey, and then a report and recommendation. This often follows the consultant’s observation of a board meeting—where the true culture and Christ-centeredness of the board is best revealed.
Peter Drucker wrote, “Self-assessment is the first action requirement of leadership: the constant resharpening, constant refocusing, never really being satisfied.” That aspiration, in my theology, is beautifully biblical!
BOARD DISCUSSION: Has your board addressed this common tension—board member evaluation and assessment? How long is your board’s pole?
To order from Amazon, click on the title for: Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board, by Max De Pree (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company).
Note: This is No. 21 in a series of blogs featuring wisdom from the 91-page gem by Max De Pree, Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board.
Max De Pree: “Any diligent board suffers certain tensions. Perhaps this letter should be labeled ‘dire warnings.’”
Dire warnings! Mention those words and you’ll scare off all the recruits you have in your board prospect pipeline. But—think about this—the very candidates you want to invite onto the board are those who drink deeply from the reality cup and understand, like Max De Pree, that there are numerous tensions that spoil a healthy boardroom and a deeply satisfying board experience.
De Pree mentions several tensions:
• “Good people disagree,
• Do a little politicking,
• Try to make decisions in the bathroom (the worst form of exclusion),
• And come to meetings totally unprepared.”
Add your own dozen or more bullet points here…
I was struck, mostly, by his insightful acknowledgement that money is never the problem—or the solution to living with tensions. (My gut: most boards and CEO don’t yet believe this.)
De Pree notes that one of the “certain tensions” is that boards “need to deal constructively with constraints.” He adds:
“Often people think that with a few more resources, their problems will disappear. Of course this is not true. Few of us ever have all the resources we wish for. Our job is to help board members see that constraints are a fact of life. They are—believe me—along with reasoned restraint, one of the secrets to outstanding performance. Constraints perceived and understood are especially valuable to the creative processes that feed our strategic thinking. In fact, Charles Eames, perhaps the most famous industrial designer of this century, often said that constraints are liberating.”
Huh? Our boards must think about this—deeply, strategically, discerningly, spiritually.
De Pree mentions other tensions—and his brief page on tensions created by a crisis is a must-read. Almost as a throw-away line, he notes this: “Sometimes tensions develop into a crisis…the organization is bleeding and boring board members.” That’s another PowerPoint-worthy slide. Is your board bleeding or boring board members—or both?
Perhaps the secret to living with tensions in the boardroom is to first understand that sin exists, yet grace abounds. (Romans 5:20)
BOARD DISCUSSION: Do we address governance tensions appropriately? Are we bleeding and boring board members? Discuss!
To order from Amazon, click on the title for: Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board, by Max De Pree, (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company).
