Called to Serve: Goal No. 1—Keep Your CEO Alive!

Note: This is No. 29 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: “The fourth thing the board owes the president is care.”

In his almost-final pages of this board governance masterpiece, De Pree lists six ways that the board demonstrates care of the CEO. His priorities include:
   1. Care: devotional bonding
   2. Care: recognizing the needs of the CEO’s family for “friendship, support, and love”
   3. Care: mandatory vacations and regular health checkups
   4. Care: “the kind of care that goes the extra mile in compensation arrangements to include such things as budgeted spouse travel allowance and financial planning service”
   5. Care: continuing education and professional development (“especially the opportunity to be mentored”)
   6. Care: “the kind of care that keeps the president alive, that doesn’t permit him to ‘work himself to death.’”

My opinion: Start with Number Six. The untimely death of an over-worked CEO will only create more work for the board! You may want to add more to this list.

This week, a fellow board member facilitated an excellent exercise for our board—and his methodology would work for your board.  Read pages 87-88 about “Care” in Called to Serve—and then, in groups of two or three, ask board members to assess two things:
   • First, identify the priority for each “care” item: High, Medium, or Low.
   • Second, assess how well the board is doing in caring for your CEO. Use a five-point rating with 5 being Very Effective, and 1 being Very Ineffective.
   • Third, ask each group for a brief report on their assessments.
   • Finally, refer next steps to the appropriate committee for any action items required.

For more resources to help your CEO grow and flourish, check out these books:

   • Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, by Richard A. Swenson, M.D.
   • Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way, by Stephen A. Macchia
   • Serve Strong: Biblical Encouragement to Sustain God’s Servants, by Terry Powell
   • Leadership Prayers, by Richard Kriegbaum

BOARD EXERCISE: What is your CEO’s “love language?” What the board might consider a helpful resource or benefit may not speak to your CEO’s unique needs. Talk about it!

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).

Called to Serve: Don’t Neglect Your CEO’s Growth

Note: This is No. 28 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 rush of the day to day, a president often neglects his own growth; the board can issue a friendly reminder every once in a while.”

In wrapping up his succinct section on how boards create “space” for the men and women who serve as CEOs, I found this insight stunning: De Pree ties mission, strategy and a CEO’s personal growth all together.

He writes, “There are two further elements to providing space. It is wonderful for the organization’s future when the board takes a strong interest in opportunities given the president for personal growth and when the board makes it clear that it expects the president to hold the entire organization accountable for realizing its mission and strategy.”

So…would you agree that when the board cares about the CEO’s growth—and the CEO cares about the growth of team members—there will be a direct relationship between personal growth and organizational growth, especially when the mission and strategy are crystal clear?

Frequently, budget cuts begin by slashing opportunities for CEO and senior team enrichment—which is short sighted. It reminds me of this poignant comment traversing the Internet (if you know the original source, please contact me):

CFO to CEO: “What happens if we invest in developing our people and then they leave us?

CEO: “What happens if we don’t, and then they stay?”

Christ-centered boards should have the same mindset: inspiring their CEOs to thrive by providing an adequate budget and time for personal and professional growth. Amen?

BOARD EXERCISE: If your CEO was regularly accountable for reporting progress on personal and professional growth SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-related), would the dashboard show red, yellow, or green?

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).

Called to Serve: Give Space…But Plan Sparingly

Note: This is No. 27 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: “How can a board expect a president to paint a coherent or imaginative picture on an unlimited canvas?”

In his insightful section on “What the Board Owes the President,” De Pree writes, “Like everyone else, the leader of an organization needs space, in the context of this [discussion], space to become president.” He then references wisdom from a friend and mentor:

Dr. Carl Frost “has taught a good many of us that when we are promoted to president, it does not mean we are instantly qualified. The board and the organization are actually giving us only, as Carl would put it, ‘the opportunity to become president’—a great chance, but still only a chance.”

De Pree adds that great boards give a president space “by acting with [the CEO] to set the priorities, as well as working to involve the entire organization in understanding and adopting those priorities. How can a board expect a president to paint a coherent or imaginative picture on an unlimited canvas?”

Ralph E. Enlow Jr. agrees. “Plan sparingly,” he counsels in The Leader’s Palette: Seven Primary Colors. “Plans also fail because they are too bulky. Good planning is participatory. Especially at the operational level, it should flow up from the grass roots. It requires the input of all major stakeholders and systems.” 

And then Enlow adds this kicker:

“But good planning is not the accumulation of everyone’s aspirations.
Ultimately, a plan represents the elimination of options.”

It’s ironic, but when a board gives “space” to the CEO, that space must be defined. Whether you use the imagery of the corral from the policy governance® model, or the board policies manual approach recommended by numerous board consultants—every board must define the parameters of the staff’s scope of responsibility. That’s giving “space” in the best sense of the word.

Max De Pree’s wonderful book, Leadership Jazz (Peter Drucker called the book, “wisdom in action”), concludes with a list of 12 leadership attributes, including discernment. De Pree writes, “Discernment lies somewhere between wisdom and judgment.”

Christ-centered boards and CEOs have amazing 24/7 access to the Holy Spirit when they pray as the psalmist prayed, “Teach me good discernment and knowledge, for I believe in Your commandments” (Psalm 119:66, KJV). 

BOARD EXERCISE: Discuss “space” at your next board meeting. Are the fences to the corral well-defined? Is the corral too big or too small? Does the board allocate adequate space to the CEO—or does the board meddle and micro-manage?

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).