by Susan Detwiler | Mar 20, 2014 | leadership, management, nonprofit, Standards, work
Does the quality of the Executive Director make a difference?
You bet it does. Or, at least in the corporate world, a great CEO seems to have an outsized impact on the strength of the corporation.
Walter Frick, reviewing work by professors Quigley and Hambrick at Penn State and University of Georgia, makes the case that in corporate America, when business is more dynamic and less predictable, the CEO has a disproportionate effect on the success of the corporation. They looked at data spanning more than 60 years “ the equivalent of 18,000 firm-years, that is, the combined years that the firms had been in existence “ and found that the effect of the CEO almost doubled from 1950-2009.
What does this mean for the nonprofit world? Look carefully at this quote from Frick:
an increase in business dynamism has amplified the impact of CEOs over time, but that effect is at its highest in companies where industry and economic constraints still limit the firm’s options.
While I wouldn’t make one-to-one comparisons between for-profit and nonprofit organizations, you can’t deny that by its very nature, the nonprofit world is continually under economic constraints, with limited options, facing increased competition for support, higher needs, and declining resources. How well you manage these constraints is a function of the Executive Director and the Executive-Board partnership.
One of the most important functions of a Board of Directors is to hire, evaluate and, if necessary, replace the Executive Director. The quality of the partnership between the Executive and the board has an enormous effect on whether the board’s vision is achieved, or whether the board and Executive spend most of their time on minutiae.
Hiring well, and putting in place a sound evaluation system based on relevant criteria, can make a huge difference in the future of your organization. And, if there is any similarity to the for-profit world, it is even more important in uncertain times.
Consider it an investment in the future of your agency.
For more hallmarks of transformational boards, or to find out more about achieving nonprofit Standards for Excellenceâ„¢, get in touch. Let’s have a conversation.
Susan Detwiler
by Susan Detwiler | Mar 6, 2014 | governance, leadership, mission, nonprofit, philanthropy
Dear Nonprofit Board President,
Your board members need to hear this.
In person… From you.
“Thank you for all the time and wisdom you’ve been contributing to our organization. We have a firm foundation now, with a great executive at the helm.
Our clients rely on us to change their lives. You’ve heard their stories; and I’ve heard how passionate you are about what we do.
Every time we’ve invested in making our dreams happen, we’ve had a great return on that investment. We invested time and energy into finding a path out of debt. We invested time and energy into finding our new executive.
And in the last year, we’ve made great plans for the future.
Now we have to make those plans a reality. When you joined the board, you made a commitment to invest in our future. It’s time to fulfill that commitment so we can start the new year knowing we can make those goals come true.
Please join me in making this organization, that I know you passionately love, your top philanthropic priority.“
If your board members think the only reason for 100% participation is so other funders will give to you, then you need to rethink who’s on your board.
Donors give money.
Volunteers give time.
BOARD MEMBERS GIVE BOTH!
If you’d like to hear more about inspiring your board members “ please get in touch. I’d love to hear from you.
Susan
sdetwiler@detwiler.com
by Susan Detwiler | Feb 24, 2014 | governance, leadership, mission, nonprofit, Standards
How’s your Board experience?
Should you delight your board? Should you not? Is this even a question you ever contemplated?
Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers* and The Secret to Delighting Customers*
were both published by Harvard Business Review: the first in 2010; the second in 2013. Very different titles, but very similar premises. A satisfied customer is one whose whole experience is satisfactory. Not just a single episode of customer service; or a single phone call experience. It is the gestalt of the experience with the company that either keeps a customer loyal, or sends her away.
The same is true for Board experience. Have you seamlessly delivered what you promised your Directors or Trustees when they first joined the board?
Did you set out Board expectations before they accepted a Board position? Are you holding them to it?
Did you promise to keep them regularly informed? Are you delivering?
Did they expect to have meaningful, generative discussions about the future of your organizations? Are you creating an atmosphere so that can happen?
Were they passionate about your cause when they joined? Are you feeding that passion?
Did you tell them you needed their wisdom and insight to plan for the future? Are you actually using that talent?
In the course of two, four, six years of board service, there are bound to be times when a trustee’s experience on a board will be less than satisfactory. There are going to be times when finances are tight, or a capital campaign stalls, or an Executive Director leaves, or there are obnoxious people taking up board space (no, never!). But overall, have you made their Board experience worth their time and talent?
The nonprofit world focuses on the competition for dollars. But the competition for good Directors and Trustees is also fierce. Good board members ask hard questions before they join your board, and will hold you to the answers. But they’re worth their weight in gold, because with an engaged, passionate, knowledgeable board, you can aspire to higher heights.
But they’ll only stay if their Board experience keeps them coming back for more.
______________________________________________
*Read Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers
**Read The Secret to Delighting Customers
by Susan Detwiler | Feb 3, 2014 | collaboration, leadership, management, nonprofit, Uncategorized
For years, the words Appreciative Inquiry seeped into my consciousness.
It began at a two-day national development seminar, and most recently at a five-day conference for lay leaders, nonprofit professionals and clergy. By this time, it appeared everywhere, either explicitly or implicitly; there seemed to be a whole track of sessions that demonstrated appreciative inquiry in different settings.
On a very simple level, Appreciative Inquiry begins with:
- appreciating and valuing what is;
- envisioning what might be;
- engaging in dialogue about what should be; and
- innovating to create what will be.
So what does Improv Comedy have to do with Appreciative Inquiry? Good question. Two main rules of Improv Comedy are Yes, and¦ and your main focus is on your partner.
First, whatever is thrown at you, you have to accept it and build on it. 
For example, if someone picks up a banana and uses it to call you on the phone, you can’t say, you idiot, that’s a banana! You have to go with the flow, answer the phone, and say, Hey! I was just about to call you “ your Mom’s here and wants to know what you did with her gold-plated antique chamber pot she inherited from your Dad’s Aunt Phoebe in Alaska! The point is, you have to accept what has been handed to you, and figure out what to do with it.
Second, with every sentence being a potential surprise, you have to focus closely on your partner, listen to whatever is being said and try to understand where she’s going with it.
In a nonprofit setting, if a board member says, our students aren’t showing up for tutoring, the response is yes, and let’s figure out the ideal situation. If you can envision an ideal situation, then you can work towards that ideal. If you say, yes, but they’re dealing with issues at home, the buses aren’t running at the right time, their parents don’t push them¦. you’re not adding to the conversation. You’re focusing on problems and seeming defensive, instead of hearing that the board member cares about the situation and inviting him to a shared vision of a better future.
Yes, and…
acknowledges that the comment was made,
appreciates that it is a concern,
inquires into what would be better.
And starts a dialogue about creating a better future.
by Susan Detwiler | Jan 27, 2012 | governance, leadership, management, mission, nonprofit, Standards
One of the Standards for Excellence states that
Board membership should reflect the diversity of the communities served by the organization.
But what does diverse mean? In the early days of affirmative action, there was a water cooler joke that to get hired you needed to be able to check off certain boxes “ black, Hispanic, female, with an Asian surname. The more boxes you could check off, the more likely your resume would be read.
Wow, is that dated! Not to mention extremely offensive! That’s not diversity, that’s tokenism.
Instead, look at what a Board Source white paper Does Board Size Really Matter says about diversity versus inclusivity.
Increasing diversity in itself cannot be the ultimate goal. The goal must start by understanding the power of difference ” searching for the perfect mixture of attributes, using what individuals have to offer, negotiating for the best solution. Being inclusive of diverse opinions and approaches is the solid foundation when building diversity.
Of course, every organization is different, so mandating a list of skills, attributes and perspectives isn’t possible. Instead, what do you need from your board in the way of passion, viewpoints, talent, skills, and contacts?
Only after you’ve figured this out, should you go out and engage prospective board members of all kinds. Board members who are collectively inclusive of a diverse constituency will be your best defense against stodgy ˜been there, done that’ mentality.
But merely checking off boxes doesn’t do it.
If you’d like more information about Standards for Excellence, let me know. Click here for more info!
While I wouldn’t make one-to-one comparisons between for-profit and nonprofit organizations, you can’t deny that by its very nature, the nonprofit world is continually under economic constraints, with limited options, facing increased competition for support, higher needs, and declining resources. How well you manage these constraints is a function of the Executive Director and the Executive-Board partnership.
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