Prevent staff end runs to your board members

• Published date: 01 November 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.30362
• Date: 01 November 2016

November 2016 • Volume 33, Number 3 5

DOI 10.1002/ban© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

Ensure a board culture that teaches

respect for role over time

Wouldn’t it be nice if, year after year, new

board member after new board member, the

CEO could feel secure in her knowledge that the

board will always respect its role and let her do

her job?

That’s a hard thing to accomplish, however.

President and CEO Diane Price (dlprice@

earlyconnections.org) said she has been at Early

Connections Learning Centers for 28 years.

“This topic comes up regularly,” she said, “and

usually it’s around the time new members join

the board or when there is a change in board

leadership.”

Price recommends enlisting the support of

current board members along with the past

board leadership to preach the board’s role to

new trustees and board leaders.

“Over the past few years our board officers

have done a good job of ‘training and preparing’

new officers for the transition,” Price said. “And,

of course, new board members participate in an

orientation that covers their role.”

Even for a nonprofit as old as Price’s (120

years) with a well-established culture, new

board members can create role issues for the

CEO.

“From time to time, the enthusiasm of new

members will require some intervention,” she

said. “I remind them of the role of a good policy

board and how difficult it is for me to lead the

organization when a board member thinks they

can supervise staff.”

And, sometimes, the CEO needs to take a

very tough stance with her boss—the board—

and draw a clear line in the sand. “A few years

ago I had a board chair that went rogue,” said a

California nonprofit executive. “It was a very dif-

ficult year, and when this person’s name came

up to fill another leadership position, I had a

very hard conversation with the board’s gover-

nance committee.

“I told them I couldn’t stay on as CEO if this

person continued in a leadership role. The

members of the governance committee interced-

ed, had the conversation with their peer and he

soon resigned.” ■

Prevent staff end runs

to your board members

One nonprofit executive fear that never seems

to abate is the threat of a nonprofit employee

who makes an end run to a board member—and

finds a listening ear.

This problem can create all sorts of thorny

issues for the CEO, both in the board room and

in the employee lounge.

For Howard Brooks, this is Reason 83 why

the administrator and the board chair should be

in lockstep on the issue of board/staff contact.

“They must be on the same page,” said Brooks

(Colorado Springs, Colo., howardb@erc-co.org).

“The chair must remind board members to

remind complaining staff of the only condi-

tions that make such an end run appropriate,”

he said.

Those “appropriate” conditions for board-staff

contact should be limited to issues such as sex-

ual harassment complaints against the execu-

tive or evidence of CEO financial malfeasance.

The executive director should also be doing

his or her part to demonstrate to staff that their

genuine complaints and grievances will receive a

fair hearing.

“As an administrator, I hope staff members

are comfortable approaching me with any con-

cern,” Brooks said. “That will make an end run

to our board less likely for them.” ■