Spend time on board relationship, connections when you take the top job

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.30518
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• Date: 01 September 2017

Editor: Jeff Stratton

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View this newsletter online at wileyonlinelibrary.com • DOI: 10.1002/ban

Spend time on board relationship,

connections when you take the top job

Executive Director Rod Braun (Pella, Iowa,

rbraun@christianopportunity.org) is almost ready

to retire. He took his current position 30 years ago

at a time when the organization’s board meetings

might run from 7 p.m. to 1:45 a.m. and employees

who attended the meeting were expected at work

the next day.

“Five weeks later, at a board meeting at 2:45

a.m., the CEO resigned,” Braun said. Braun was

thrown into the position after a staff petition to

make him executive director persuaded the board

to give him the job.

“I knew nothing about CEO and board interac-

tion, so one of the first actions I took was to sub-

scribe to Board & Administrator,” Braun said. He

also picked the brains of colleagues and developed

a network of people who worked similar jobs.

“My second year here I got on my state associa-

tion’s board and five years later was Iowa’s repre-

sentative to the national association,” he said.

“Any time we face major challenges I now have

a state and national network from which to pick

brains and ask questions,” Braun said.

Braun tried to figure out what happened to sour

the relationship between his predecessor and the

board. “Emotions ran high about that and it was

hard to sort truth from fiction, but what I learned

points to two problems,” he said.

The previous CEO didn’t delegate, even to

competent managers. Even as the organization

grew from $1.5 million to $12 million in budget

size, the CEO kept his hand in everything, which

led to physical exhaustion. “That included ad-

missions and the HR end of things,” Braun said.

“He ran this place from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday

through Saturday.”

His second major mistake was that he took

all issues to the board for approval. “The board

became used to being very hands-on, which

made my early years here very difficult,” Braun

said.

The fix for this was to bring in a consultant

to speak to the board about appropriate roles to

undo what the predecessor had created. “If it was

me saying these things, it would be viewed as a

power grab, whereas the outsider would be viewed

as neutral,” Braun said.

Braun’s next step was to set up a policy manual

in which key decisions are written down, he said.

“It’s maintained to this day,” Braun said.

The board’s executive committee reviews this

manual each year, Braun said. The board made

the decision to do this years back, reasoning that

no one can remember all of the key decisions.

September 2017 Vol. 34, No. 1 Editor: Jeff Stratton

continued on page 4

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Limit board requests of staff 2

‘Skip-level’ meeting improves leadership 4

Hear from stakeholders, staff and board

when you take a new job 5