TOOL 19 - Ten Minutes for Governance

Lifelong Governance Learning—in 10-Minute Chunks!

“Leadership is a complex field,” writes Richard Kriegbaum, “and no one resource can meet all the needs of every leader in every situation.”

So here’s a very, very simple boardroom best practice: In every board meeting, remind board members that good governance does not happen by osmosis. It happens only with intentionality, training, and keeping critical governance topics (like focusing on policy, not operations) on everyone’s radar.

TOOL #19: TEN MINUTES FOR GOVERNANCE
Use this tool at every meeting to enhance lifelong learning.

Tool #19 in the new resource, ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance, is one of four tools in Part 6, “Ideas for Better Board Governance,” in this jam-packed 271-page resource. This tool features two templates—and two ideas—for spotlighting good governance in a 10-minute segment at your next board meeting. Pick one!

Why is this important? John Walling notes, “Every board member carries unhealthy baggage into your meeting that passed as normalcy in a previous boardroom.” Thus, your board may find it helpful to return to “Christ-Centered Governance 101” topics frequently!

To get started, create a master list of possible topics (board policies, recruiting board members, understanding financial reports, ten basic responsibilities of nonprofit boards, the distinctives of Christ-centered governance, etc.). You might also find helpful topics using selected chapters from Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom (40 lessons) and More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom (40 lessons).

Teachers often learn more than their students, so rotate the leadership of this segment. Give board members advance notice when asking them to prepare a presentation. Suggest that each 10-minute segment include at least four to five minutes of interaction and dialogue. 

Example: “In groups of two, read these 10 listening guidelines and identify the one guideline that is most difficult for you.” (Use a timer that buzzes at 10 minutes.)

In addition to assigned reading prior to board retreats, and inspiring board members to read at least one governance book a year, you’ll discover that a “10 Minutes for Governance” segment at every meeting will keep Christ-centered governance on the front burner.

Order the tools book from Amazon by clicking on this title: ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. The book gives you full access to all 22 tools and templates—formatted as Word documents so you can customize the tools for your board’s unique uses.

BOARD DISCUSSION: Strong differences of opinion can flare up in the boardroom—often based on a board member’s previous board experience (healthy or unhealthy—yet the only experience he or she has had). Are we in agreement about our “Christ-Centered Governance 101” assumptions—or is it time for a refresher? One option: read the ECFAPress book, The Council: A Biblical Perspective on Board Governance, by Gary G. Hoag, Wesley K. Willmer, and Gregory J. Henson.

MORE RESOURCES: John Walling suggests that you pilot test “10 Minutes for Governance” at your next two board meetings. Then evaluate whether you should add this to your standard agenda. Read his guest blog on Lesson 39 at the Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom Blog. Click here.

TOOL 18 - Job Descriptions for the Top Leader and Board Chair

The Number One Hiring Mistake!

What’s the Number One hiring mistake? According to the book, You're Not the Person I Hired! A CEO's Survival Guide to Hiring Top Talent, by Janet Boydell, Barry Deutsch and Brad Remillard, it’s this:

“Inadequate job descriptions drove the hiring process; these focused solely on experience and skills, not company expectations. A staggering 93 percent of searches that resulted in new executive failure made this mistake at the outset.”

While you don’t “hire” a board chair—the principles are similar to when boards are recruiting a new CEO. Who should be your next board chair? Use a thoughtful job description to help drive the decision and the discernment process.

TOOL #18: JOB DESCRIPTIONS FOR THE TOP LEADER AND BOARD CHAIR
Use these sample job descriptions for the Board Chair and the CEO and then leverage these insights to refresh your thinking and your annual assessments.

Tool #18 in the new resource, ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance, is one of three tools in Part 5, “Policies and Board Responsibilities,” in this jam-packed 271-page resource. This tool features 20 pages of resources on developing and refreshing two critical job descriptions: the CEO and the board chair.

Yikes! The authors of You’re Not the Person I Hired include this poke-in-the-board-ribs:

“The harsh reality is, when you define a job in mediocre terms,
you tend to attract and interview mediocre people.”

As you develop or refresh your board chair’s job description, the tool suggests you consider using David McKenna’s “nine M’s” to frame what he calls the “distinctive role of the board chair for the Christ-centered ministry.” Call of the Chair: Leading the Board of the Christ-centered Ministry lists nine roles:
   • Missionary, Model, and Mentor
   • Manager, Moderator, and Mediator
   • Monitor, Master, and Maestro

Under the “manager” role, McKenna writes, “Like a one-stringed banjo player, the chair will always sound the note reminding the members that the board’s role is policy, not execution.” (See Tool #17: Board Policies Manual.)

Worksheets for the CEO job description are also included in this tool—with thoughtful alignment to the Board Policies Manual template. While many CEOs tend to be overwhelmed with their visionary roles and responsibilities (and detailed to-do lists), Fred Laughlin and Bob Andringa’s book, Good Governance for Nonprofits, nets it out to just two major areas:
   • “Organizational accomplishment of the major organizational goals, and
   • Organizational operations within the boundaries of prudence and ethics established in board policies on Executive Parameters in Part V.”

If you’re starting from a blank sheet of paper, check out the recommended resources, including the ECFA Knowledge Center and the book from BoardSource, The Nonprofit Chief Executive’s Ten Basic Responsibilities (Second Edition), by Rick Moyers

Order the tools book from Amazon by clicking on this title: ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. The book gives you full access to all 22 tools and templates—formatted as Word documents so you can customize the tools for your board’s unique uses.

BOARD DISCUSSION: This tool suggests that before you write or refresh the CEO and board chair job descriptions, you position your thinking around priorities and results—and read the powerful book, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan. Here’s a helpful axiom: “What’s the ONE Thing you can do this week such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?” (Click here to read my review.) 

MORE RESOURCES: David McKenna wrote the guest blog for Lesson 22, in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. In “The Most Underrated Board Position,” McKenna writes, “The board chair must have the character of being first among equals in integrity, trust and humility.” Read his blog post here.

TOOL 17 - Board Policies Manual (BPM)

Policy: The Board’s Chief Occupation—Not an Occasional Board Chore

Governance Guru John Carver preaches, “Governing by policy means governing out of policy in the sense that no board activity takes place without reference to policies. Most resolutions in board meetings will be motions to amend the policy structure in some way. Consequently, policy development is not an occasional board chore but its chief occupation.”

So do you need a flashlight and emergency provisions to search for all of your board-approved policies over the last five decades? Good news—there’s an easier way! 

TOOL #17: BOARD POLICIES MANUAL (BPM)
Use this tool to create a Board Policies Manual (BPM)—and finally, you’ll have all your policies in one document and always updated.

Tool #17 in the new resource, ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance, is one of three tools in Part 5, “Policies and Board Responsibilities,” in this jam-packed 271-page resource. This tool features a 15-page template that will help you include all board-level policies in one simple and clarifying document.

In their very practical and helpful book/tutorial, Good Governance for Nonprofits: Developing Principles and Policies for an Effective Board, Bob Andringa and Fred Laughlin deliver an “add-water-and-stir” template for creating your customized Board Policies Manual (BPM). This living, dynamic document is designed for frequent reference at every board meeting and can be edited for policy adjustments when growth (or decline) or other factors mandate policy changes.

In “Part 1: Introduction and Administration,” the authors list six reasons your board should adopt a BPM:
   1. Efficiency of having all ongoing board policies in one place
   2. Ability to quickly orient and educate new board members and key staff about current policies
   3. Elimination of redundant, or conflicting, policies over time
   4. Ease of reviewing current policy while simultaneously considering new issues
   5. Opportunity to guide the Chief Executive, senior staff, and new board members through clear, pro-active policies
   6. A modeled approach to governance that other organizations might utilize

When your Governance Committee takes on this project, encourage them to use the companion book, Good Governance for Nonprofits, with helpful color commentary on every section and sub-section of the BMP template. This one tool—when properly implemented—will save your board members precious time over the next several years—and help streamline your board meetings. Honest!

Order the tools book from Amazon by clicking on this title: ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. The book gives you full access to all 22 tools and templates—formatted as Word documents so you can customize the tools for your board’s unique uses.

BOARD DISCUSSION: At our recent board meetings, did discussion on some agenda topics go on and on and on? Was the discussion tied to an outdated policy or the lack of a policy? Is it time to gather all of our policies into a BPM? 

MORE RESOURCES: Bob Andringa writes, “For every hour spent on creating and maintaining a Board Policies Manual, at least three hours of board and committee meetings will be saved before too long. It’s a ‘living document,’ always reflecting the latest wisdom of the board.” Read his guest blog, “Do Unwritten Board Policies Really Exist?” from Lesson 4 in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. Click here to read more.

TOOL 16 - Prime Responsibility Chart

Eliminate Fuzziness Between Board and Staff Roles

What’s the role of the board? Does everyone agree?
• Ministering? Listening, encouraging, and praying with ministry directors?
• Monitoring? Ensuring that every ministry has goals, reports, and results?
• Meddling? Jumping in with new ideas, fixing problems, and addressing personnel issues?
• Micro-managing? In the weeds, obsessing over details, and mandating lengthy reports?

Here’s a one-page tool for fixing fuzziness! 

TOOL #16: PRIME RESPONSIBILITY CHART
Use this tool to eliminate fuzziness between board and staff roles.

Tool #16 in the new resource, ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance, is one of three tools in Part 5, “Policies and Board Responsibilities,” in this jam-packed 271-page resource. The tool features a simple one-page template for clarifying who has authority and approval for board and staff roles and responsibilities.
This one-page “Prime Responsibility Chart” includes five columns: the tasks (example: Hire and fire the top leader), then four columns—noting roles—for the Board, the CEO, the EVP or VP, and Dept. Heads.

Responsibility for each task across the chart is delineated with just three designations:
   P = Prime Responsibility
   A = Assistant Responsibility
   AP = Approval Required

In the absence of a Board Policies Manual (see Tool #17), this one-pager is a helpful way to quickly discern the board’s role versus the staff’s role. And—this is key—it is designed to be updated (Example: “Version 5.0, Feb. 4, 2020”) in any board meeting and then emailed to the board and senior staff immediately after board meetings—so everyone is always working from the same page.

Ask your Governance Committee (or Executive Committee) to create Version 1.0 and present at your next board meeting.

Order the tools book from Amazon by clicking on this title: ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. The book gives you full access to all 22 tools and templates—formatted as Word documents so you can customize the tools for your board’s unique uses.

BOARD DISCUSSION: The PRC won’t solve all of your challenges, but you can begin by ensuring that your staff organizational chart is crystal clear. Verify that each staff member has just one direct supervisor. Reminder: the CEO is the only person that reports directly to the board. Are all board members clear on this principle?

MORE RESOURCES: In her guest blog, “Sidetrack Harebrained Ideas,” from the book, Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, by Dan Busby and John Pearson, Tami Heim notes that, “If you’ve ever served on a board, then more than likely you have experienced how painful it is to be sidetracked by a harebrained idea that shows up out of nowhere.” The Prime Responsibility Chart is a helpful antidote to blocking harebrained ideas before they grow legs! Click here to read more.

READ MORE: Read Lesson 7, “Eliminate Fuzziness Between Board and Staff Roles,” in More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Click here for the online chapter.