Succession Planning: “My Heart Had Left the Building”

Note: This is the first of 11 blogs featuring practical wisdom from the new ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 4: Succession Planning. Free to ECFA members, you can download the resource and video by clicking here.

“The number one issue for me was passion. My heart was no longer engaged in my job—the fire had gone out. My heart had left the building.”

That transparent admission is from Hans Finzel’s 80-page gut-check-of-a-book, The Power of Passion in Leadership: Lead From Your Heart Not Just Your Head.

The first of 11 principles in the new ECFA Governance Toolbox on succession planning is cautionary: “Principle No. 1: Avoid Buses and Boredom!”

Your board may have an updated emergency succession plan in place (watch the video for another gut check!), but what if your CEO gets bored?

My story is not prescriptive for other leaders, but I was good for about 11 years in any one position (and some less than 11 years). That’s how the Lord wired me. So I know that CEOs and board members will benefit from reading Finzel’s personal journey. He adds:

“It is not fair to the organization or the team to hang on for the wrong reasons. It’s better to leave too soon than to stay too long. Tentative leadership kills the momentum of the whole ministry.

“So, after 20 years in the first chair, I decided it was time for me to step down as the leader of our international ministry. I was no longer all in, so I needed to be all gone. It was a job I once loved, but no longer enjoyed. I asked the board to start the process of finding my replacement. This was one of the hardest decisions of my career, but a good one.”

DOWNLOAD: ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 4: Succession Planning – 11 Principles for Successful Successions: “Every CEO is an Interim CEO.” The toolbox includes 
   • Read-and-Engage Viewing Guide (20 pages) – photocopy for board members
   • Facilitator Guide (10 pages)
   • 4 short videos (4-5 minutes each)
   • Additional resources and succession planning tools

The Facilitator Guide provides three discussion directions (30-45 minutes; 45-60 minutes; or use at a board retreat or two-hour board development session). 

On CEO succession planning, David McKenna notes, “No decision of the board, absolutely no decision, is more profound.” As board members, are you stewarding the giftedness of your CEO? Next blog: “Principle 2: Discern Your Board’s Succession Values and Beliefs.”

BOARD ASSIGNMENT: Tee up a discussion, using Video #1, “Avoid Buses and Boredom!” from the new ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 4: Succession Planning. Click here.

MORE RESOURCES: Follow the “40 Blogs. 40 Wednesdays.” color commentaries on Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Click here.

God said, “It is good.” He didn’t say, “Oh, it’ll do.”

The question: “How do you refresh a meeting that’s grown rote?” 

The answer: “Break the script.” 

At least that’s the wisdom from Chip Heath and Dan Heath in The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact. If you’re on a church board, their “Clinic 2” in this bestselling book is a must-read. I named The Power of Moments my 2017 book-of-the-year. The authors give dozens of examples how organizations, churches, companies, schools, and other groups are breaking the script to create legendary moments for their clients, donors, customers, and members.

What meetings need a major refresh this year in your organization?
• Board meetings?
• Committee meetings?
• Staff meetings?
• Waste-of-time meetings?

Instead of slip-slidin’ into more boring meetings, take a holy time-out and rethink how you could refresh your board meetings. Not every meeting needs to be legendary, but I’m guessing—up to this point—no one has traveled home from your board meeting and exclaimed, “Now that was legendary!”

I use the “W.O.W.” acronym to encourage boards to break the script. You can download the “W.O.W. Factor Meeting Evaluation Form” online here, or in the Meeting Bucket chapter of Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook. Here’s a sample:

WELCOMING:
[  ] Meeting room was ready 15 minutes before start time.
[  ] Meeting facilitator was prepared and relaxed, ready to greet the first person who arrived. (Why? The meeting begins when the first person arrives.)

ORGANIZED:
[  ] The agenda, meeting purpose and anticipated outcomes of the meeting were distributed at least one to seven days in advance of the meeting to every participant.
[  ] The presenters were well-prepared and any materials distributed were helpful.
[  ] The meeting ended five minutes early.

WARM:
[  ] Food and beverage presentation (if provided) was appropriate.
[  ] Facilitator demonstrated warmth and wisdom in leading the meeting.
[  ] Participants demonstrated warmth and wisdom and engaged in the meeting.

Warning! When someone suggests you add a little pizazz to your meetings, but a nay-sayer whines about the time or cost, the Heaths respond, “Beware the soul-sucking force of reasonableness.” Read The Power of Moments to learn why a hotel in Los Angeles has a poolside Popsicle Hotline, even though a "reasonable" manager would veto the practice. “You place an order, and minutes later, a staffer wearing white gloves delivers your cherry, orange, or grape Popsicles to you at poolside. On a silver tray. For free.”

How important is it that we raise the bar in our meetings? Don Cousins, in urging ministry leaders to manage God’s work for God’s glory, noted, “Anything less contradicts the Creator, who after creation surveyed his work and said, ‘It is good.’ He didn’t say, ’Oh, it’ll do.’”

BOARD ASSIGNMENT: At your next board meeting, ask one board member to observe the meeting and share an end-of-meeting evaluation—using the “W.O.W. Factor Meeting Evaluation Form,” or something similar.

MORE RESOURCES: Follow the “40 Blogs. 40 Wednesdays.” color commentaries from the new book, Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Click here.

The Top 10 Most Read Blogs in 2017

“Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable,” noted Mark Twain. So this last blog of the year highlights some statistics (the Top 10 Most Read Blogs in 2017) and delivers, maybe, a few facts.

I’ve never focused on big numbers when preaching good governance. Most of the last 12 years, I’ve enjoyed immense satisfaction in working with one board, or one CEO, or one board member at a time. Thus, to write a blog that will be read (sometimes) by members of more than one board—priceless! And a privilege.

In 2017, you may recall, I milked one book for 30 blogs. Max De Pree’s 91-page gem, Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board, featured meat on virtually every page. So it’s interesting (at least to me) that nine of the 10 most-read blogs in 2017 emanated from the De Pree book. 

The Top 10 Most Read Blogs in 2017

#1. Called to Serve: The Ten-Foot Pole Tension 
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.” Read more.

#2. Called to Serve: Board Member Self-Measurements 
Max De Pree: “Like other forms of leadership, [board service is] not a position or an honor, but rather a demanding responsibility, a meddling in other people’s lives, and hard work that requires continuous learning.” Read more.

#3. Called to Serve: Governance Through the Prism of the Agenda 
People who are task-oriented and get-it-done “Type A” movers and shakers may not (my opinion) have the wiring, or the gifting, to be effective board members. Max De Pree cautions, “The board is not an instrument for doing.” Read more.

#4. Called to Serve: The Phone-Book-Size Board Packet Syndrome 
Max De Pree: “A friend told me recently that when he gets his agenda package only a day or two before the meeting, he knows he is not being taken seriously.” Read more.

#5. Called to Serve: The Error of Leadership Indifference 
The author references an entire chapter on trust in his book, Leading Without Power: Finding Hope in Serving Community. It’s worth the read—especially the baseball story of the distracted second baseman who allowed a runner to steal second, resulting in two errors on one play. “After a few minutes the official scorer, not knowing exactly how to score such a play, announced over the public address system that he had decided to write off the second error to ‘defensive indifference.’” Read more.

#6. Seven Ways to Address Absentee Board Member Syndrome 
Sometimes (let’s be honest!), board members skip meetings because they are not needed. The CEO and staff do all the talking. Next steps are all buttoned down. Read more.

#7. Called to Serve: Coherence With Corrals
The board sets the fences to the corral—thereby giving the CEO and senior team clarity on what needs, or does not need, board approval or even reporting. CEOs, however, must report when policy has been violated. “You should know that last Friday, I had to operate outside the corral due to the following extenuating circumstances.” Read more.

#8. Called to Serve: Don’t Neglect Your CEO’s Growth 
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:
   --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?” Read more.

#9. Called to Serve: Challenged With Measurable Work
De Pree cautions boards not to play down what you expect of board members. “Misleading expectations result in nothing but grief. To tell you the truth, good people don’t want to be part of something that requires little of them.” Read more.

#10. Called to Serve: There Are No Committee Statues!
   --Max De Pree: “Always keep in mind…that people, not structures, change the world.”
   --G.K. Chesterton famously said: “I've searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees.” Read more.

Thanks for reading in 2017 and inspiring your board toward greater God-honoring effectiveness. And for more resources, follow the “40 Blogs. 40 Wednesdays.” color commentaries on the new book by Dan Busby and yours truly, Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Click here.

Baiting the Board Hook for Maximum Engagement

About now, 12 days before Christmas, a few CEOs (and more likely, their executive assistants) are scrambling to find meaningful gifts for their board members.

Here’s a gift idea that will keep on giving and giving and giving. What if…your CEO pledged to wear board member shoes all year?

I recently came across the following insightful metaphor from Bill Hoyt in his book, Effectiveness by the Numbers: Counting What Counts in the Church: 

“It is not according to the taste of the angler,

but according to the taste of the fish

that one baits the hook.”

When your CEO and senior team members (and CFOs especially) step into the virtual shoes of board members, I’m guessing several things will happen:

#1. BOARD PREFERENCES. CEOs will support the board according to the board’s taste (preferences, learning styles, meeting times, etc.) and not the CEO’s taste.

·            Example: Your CEO’s learning style might be listening, but the learning style of her board members might be reading. (Click here to listen to The Flourishing Culture Podcast on learning styles, and much more.)

#2. BOARD REPORTS. Board reports will be delivered on time (or even early!) so board members have adequate time to pray, discern, and reflect on board meeting agendas, reports, and recommendations.

·            Insight: “What kind of CEO waits until the night before the board meeting to dump on the directors a phone-book-size report…Surely not a CEO who trusts his or her board.” (Read the HBR article, “What Makes Great Boards Great.”)

#3. BOARD TIME. When CEOs wear board member shoes, there will be greater sensitivity to the limited time board members actually have for board work.

·             Idea. Urge your CEO to serve on another nonprofit board—to experience the boardroom from the other end of the table. It will be a wake-up call!

#4. BOARD STRENGTHS. There’s a humorous story in Lesson 25 of Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, “Align Board Member Strengths With Committee Assignments.” The big idea: CEOs and board chairs must leverage the “3 Powerful S’s” of every board member: Strengths, Spiritual Gifts, and Social Styles. That would be a huge gift to every person.

·            Example: When you assign me to committees that don’t leverage my strengths, I’m likely to skip the meeting. But when you invite me to serve in an area that aligns and exercises my 3 Powerful S’s—whew!—that’s an instant holy calling!

If you still need a gift—in addition to a Christmas card with the above pledge—then (you guessed it) give every board member a copy of Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Merry Christmas!

BOARDROOM ASSIGNMENT: Take five minutes at your next board meeting and ask every board member to share how God has wired them: spiritual gifts, social style (analytical, driving, amiable, or expressive), strengths, learning style, etc.

MORE RESOURCES: Follow the “40 Blogs. 40 Wednesdays.” color commentaries on Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Click here.

Would You Have 60 Minutes of God-honoring Governance?

If you enjoy college football (I do) and you live on the West Coast (I do), then you’re probably a fan of the Football in 60 TV broadcast for the Pac-12 conference.

The promo: “It’s a no-time out, no-huddle offense—just the game in condensed form. Each week Pac-12 Networks broadcasts each of the previous week’s games, cut down to an action-packed hour. Each episode includes enhanced footage not seen in the live game broadcast. Football in 60 is the ideal football fix in a fast and furious format for the busy fan.”

This got me thinking. What if we videoed your last (perhaps tedious) board meeting that went on and on and on… And then cut it down to just one action-packed hour: 60 minutes of God-honoring governance!

Would you have 60 minutes of God-honoring governance?

What would the replay reveal?
• Holy moments when your board faced a fork-in-the-road decision with confident prayer and discernment?
• Or, a wide camera shot of opposing sides rehashing the rehash of the last meeting’s rehash of the issue that won’t go away?
• Perhaps…a board chair with wisdom and grace—moving toward the end zone, but with sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s nudges to go slower and invite every board member to participate?

Try this at your next meeting. Mention the Football in 60 concept and ask one board member to observe and take notes. Then at the end of the meeting, ask that board member to share the meeting’s highlights and lowlights. Might be interesting!

BOARDROOM ASSIGNMENT: For a helpful resource, order the new governance book by Dan Busby and yours truly, Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. (Read my book summary here.) We’ve invited 40 guest bloggers (40 Blogs. 40 Wednesdays.) to add their color commentary to the book’s 40 short lessons. To download a sample chapter and/or order the book, visit the book’s webpage here. It’s the perfect year-end gift for every board member. Check out the bulk pricing for 10 or more copies.

Order direct from Amazon

Agenda Clutter

I picked up a new term today—agenda clutter!

Ralph Enlow, president of the Association for Biblical Higher Education, used that descriptive malady in the Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom Blog—which launched today. He writes: 

“…I find that the fatal combination of passivity and agenda clutter conspires to crowd out efforts to walk the talk of continuous board development.”

Enlow is one of 40 guest bloggers (40 Blogs. 40 Wednesdays.) for the new book, Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, by Dan Busby and yours truly. Visit the blog here. Visit the book’s webpage here.

Enlow did not define agenda clutter—because we all know it when we see it, right? It looks like this:
   • Too many agenda items in too little time.
   • Too many staff members reporting on too many topics that have already been reported on in too many emails.
   • No prioritization of topics. Equal time allocated to A, B, and C priorities.
   • No “heavy lifting” on one key topic that engages the board—prayerfully and strategically. (See Lesson 36 in our new book, “Decrease Staff Reporting and Increase Heavy Lifting.”)
   • No time limits for agenda items.
   • No “meeting before the meeting” consultation between the CEO and the board chair. (See Lesson 5: “Before the Board Meeting: Collaborate, then wisely build the board meeting agenda.”)
   • No coaching of report givers—board, staff and consultants. (See the book recommended in Lesson 36, 15 Minutes Including Q&A: A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations, by Joey Asher.)

Those are the first seven that popped into my mind, and like you, I can name more encumbrances that contribute to agenda clutter. 

But perhaps there is a deeper issue at play:

The same old/same old agenda template:
it’s faster to replicate last quarter’s agenda than to take time for prayer and allow the Holy Spirit to breathe new insights into this board gathering
on what-should-be holy ground.

What might happen in your boardroom when you eliminate clutter?

BOARDROOM ASSIGNMENT: Invite an outside observer, or a board coach, to observe your next board meeting—and assess the level of agenda clutter. Ask: do our boardroom deliberations and decision-making/discernment practices align with our mission and the most effective stewardship of God’s work here?

Order: Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, by Dan Busby and John Pearson (Download a sample chapter here.)

Read the Blog: Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom Blog

Board Member Giving Commitments That Stick

Most boards have the expectation that every board member be a “donor of record” to the organization every year. Fewer boards have learned how to spiritually inspire all board members to be generous givers. (I’ll define “generous” in this blog.)

So during a coaching session with a ministry’s governance committee recently, a board member shared how he reminds himself—every day—about his giving commitment.

In my last blog, “7 Ways to Address Absentee Board Member Syndrome,” I mentioned a helpful template, the “Board Member Annual Affirmation Statement,” which details a board member’s roles and responsibilities for the three board hats: governance, volunteer, and (event) participant. The template also communicates the board’s expectation (and preferably its written policy) on board member giving—and that expectation is communicated and affirmed by board prospects during the “dating” phase of recruitment. 

In the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 1: Recruiting Board Members, the materials note that “board nominees must meet our 6 Ds criteria” which include: Discerning Decision-Maker, Demonstrated Passion, Documented Team Player, Diligent and Faithful Participant, Doer (walks the talk!), and Donor. Here’s the Donor detail:

“DONOR: Because Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, ‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,’ this nominee is already a generous giver to our ministry. (Note: Many organizations define ‘generous’ as prioritizing your organization in the Top-3 of a person’s annual giving. Board members at all income levels can be generous.)”

So with that commitment—to be a generous giver to the ministry—here’s what this board member told us: “I taped that commitment form to the wall—right by my desk at work. It reminds me every day about my annual giving commitment.” Brilliant!

For more resources on inspiring board members to be generous givers, read “The Role of the Board in Development” (chapter 3) in Development 101: Building a Comprehensive Development Program on Biblical Values, by John R. Frank and R. Scott Rodin. That chapter lists four keys and four cautions to help board members be successful development partners.

BOARDROOM DISCUSSION: If we truly believe that “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” then why would we not seek to inspire every board member to prioritize their giving so our organization is in their Top-3 each year? And…if we concur, how will we make this expectation clear to prospects and nominees to our board?