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“Pity the leader caught between unloving critics and uncritical lovers.” Leading Leadersi As we determined the subject for this issue of Vantage Point at The year 2000 was the year we truly began to realize great leadership on the Board of Directors is essential to the effectiveness of paid employee leadership. Many Executive Directors (EDs) or Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) do not arrive at this conclusion readily - or easily. In fact I believe many EDs/CEOs continue to resist acknowledging it is up to them to lead the Board to lead the organization. Individuals join a Board of Directors often with only a negative experience of acting on a Board. In the Board experience they have had, no one is really sure of the role of the Board. And they often think this is the way it is. Rarely do Directors have an experience of truly governing – and moving past their fiduciary role to be strategic and generative in their thinking. We realize this from having worked with hundreds of Board of Directors over the past twenty years. We also have learned this from the research conducted in the National Survey on Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizationsii. How does a Board learn to become a great Board? We believe, from the research and from our own learning, this can happen when the ED/CEO focuses on people first, and recognizes a focus on the people in the governing body that leads the organization is the place to start. In discussing the strengths a Board of Directors can have, our most recent past chair, Miranda Lam, coined the terms “forest people” and “tree people.” We have recognized that for a Board to lead an organization with paid employees, who have expertise in the field, the members of the Board must be “forest people.” When there are “tree people” on the Board of Directors, it is most logical for them to be interested in operations, and this can take away from the time the Board must spend in being strategic in their thinking and generative in their questioning. How often do EDs/CEOs set out to build great Boards? From our experience, the ED/CEO will spend a majority of the time s/he has on finances and programs. However, s/he will not necessarily spend time on people. If there is any focus on people, it tends to be time spent on paid employees. It is not common for a new ED/CEO to spend time understanding it is critical to build a great Board. Is that because they are volunteers, and it doesn’t make sense to spend time on volunteers? Or is it because if the Board is great, that is threatening to the ED/CEO? Or is it because no one has really “trained” to be an ED/CEO – and, like Board members, EDs/CEOs also learned by having a bad experience with an ED/CEO, and building a great Board was not part of that ED/CEO’s role. To create and develop this opportunity to lead leaders, the ED/CEO must have a sense of self-awareness and be prepared to give and receive feedback on a regular basis. Most EDs/CEOs do not have the luxury of receiving ongoing honest feedback from the Board of Directors who leads the organization. Usually it is not until the ED/CEO pushes for an assessment that s/he receives any feedback. Is there a possibility for ongoing, informal feedback? The ED/CEO will gain significant benefit from receiving constructive feedback, especially when it is from leaders to a leader. The challenge is often the ED/CEO is very knowledgeable about the issue area on which the organization is focused. Members of the Board often act as if that is the only area that is important to the Board. If the Directors are “tree people” they wish to focus on the issue area. When the members of the Board are “forest people”, however, they can move to understanding all the areas where the ED/CEO could learn and grow. They will know it is important they do this for the good of the organization. So that brings us full circle. The ED/CEO must focus on building a great Board in order to become a great ED/CEO. Did any of us ever think of that? Is it true? I believe it is – and it is the first major step in building a people-first organization - if we truly are to look at our organizations with A People Lens©iii. In order to become really effective, the leaders must all have a major focus on being great leaders. The Board of Directors does not serendipitously become great. Initially the ED/CEO has to begin to build a Board of great “forest people” and begin to lead the Board. Then the Chairs of the Board, in each term, along with the ED/CEO, continue that task through the years (yes, it does take years!). These people become strategic and generative in the way they lead the organization. For the ED/CEO and the Chair and all the members of the Board, it is about leading leaders! Colleen Kelly is the Executive Director of Volunteer Vancouver and the Principal of Volunteer Inc. Jeswald W. Salacuse, Leading Leaders: How to Manage Smart, Talented, Rich, And Powerful People (American Management Association, 2005).
See http://www.nonprofitscan.ca/page.asp?nsnvo
About Volunteer VancouverAs the mission of Volunteer Vancouver is to inspire Volunteer Vancouver
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