Stop Asking Your Executive Director to Do Your Work

February 15, 2011

Stop Asking Your Executive Director to Do Your Work

Nonprofit board members are in a difficult position.  They are often not trained to fulfill their role as a member of the Board and must rely on the advice of the Executive Director in order to fulfill their job.  The problem is, one of the jobs of the Board of Directors is to hold the Executive Director accountable.  That means that the Executive Director is actually placed in charge of the group which is supposed to oversee the Executive Director.  Do you see a problem here?  We shouldn’t blame the Executive Director.  Someone has to provide direction and leadership.  If no one else will, the ED is forced to step in.  What should boards do?

1. Do Tell the Executive Director What to Produce

Every organization exists to produce something of value.  Among other things, business usually produce wealth.  Nonprofits usually do not produce wealth, but they do produce beneficial changes to our society.  The YMCA produces children who can swim and will not drown.  Religious organizations produce people with a sense of meaning and connection in their lives.  Food banks produce people who are not suffering from hunger.  These are the ends of our organizations.  The Board’s job is to understand what situations need to improve and direct the Executive Director to improve those situations.  If we divided the work of nonprofits into What and How, the Board’s first job is to define What benefit the organization should produce and let the Executive Director figure out How to produce it.

2. Don’t Tell the Executive Director How to Run the Organization

Boards do have to care about how the Executive Director will produce the results.  Executive Directors have the experience and expertise to run nonprofit and should be held accountable for the effectiveness of the organization.  When Board members tell them how to do their work, you remove the responsibility from the Executive Director and become accountable in their place.  What you should do it inform the Executive Director about the standards you expect for their work.  For instance, if the Executive Director is planning on making a large purchase of a product over $1000 you may want the purchase to be made after receiving a few competitive bids.  You are not telling the Executive Director what to buy or even which item to choose, but you are setting the standard for prudent business practices.  If you do not know what constitutes a prudent business practice, that is a perfect topic for an upcoming board meeting rather than listening to endless reports.

3. Learn What a Board is Supposed to Do

It sounds basic, but many (to many) board members and even Board Chairs do not know what the Board of Directors is actually supposed to do.  They know that there should be meetings with lots of reports, but can they clearly state what the Board is supposed to produce?  Not a chance.

The clearest and most well thought out prescription for what a board should do is called Policy Governance.  Read this excellent article by John Carver.  Policy_Governance_in_Non-Profits

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