Questions from a New Executive Director

Susan had a new role as Executive Director of a non-profit organization, and she wanted to know if there were additional responsibilities she should know about in order to support her board. She knew the difference between non-profit governance and its operations, but wondered about her role.

Was there anything she needed to do to provide leadership support to her board? In particular, were there things she needed to do to provide leadership around board development?

Susan is not alone in her uncertainty. Truth is, while most non-profit management leaders recognize that effective organizational leadership starts at the board table, many struggle to understand their role in supporting board development.

When Susan came to me with her concerns, as a non-profit board coach and trainer, I was to assure her that the Executive Director plays a vital and unique role in encouraging, leading, supporting, and helping to build the capacity of the organization’s board of directors.

This blog post provides a summary of the unique role Executive Directors play in board leadership development.

A Summary of the Executive Director's Role

Ask any board leader and they will tell you: behind every strong governing board, is a strong Executive Director.

To fulfill their role in support of the board and its members, the Executive Director must:

• Clearly understand all elements of board governance.
• Be committed to promoting and supporting strong board leadership.
• Actively promote and support board leadership capacity building.
• Provide informed governance coaching.

The Importance of Coaching

Notice the use of the word coach (not trainer, consultant, or leader) in describing this part of the Executive Director's role.

When it comes to supporting the board in this area, the successful Executive Director ensures that board capacity building and leadership development are ongoing and active. Out of respect for the governance process, this means the Executive Director should not lead in this area. Instead, the Executive Director coaches board development from behind the scenes.

To help members of the board increase their individual and collective governance and leadership capabilities, an effective Executive Director:

• Supports the board in its process of ongoing evaluation of individual board members and the board as a whole.
• Supports the board in creating and implementing board development strategies.
• Keeps the board informed of board development training programs and opportunities.

Okay ... So, What’s the Focus of My Role?

Traditionally, the Executive Director's role focused on operational success and remaining accountable for operational performance. When taking on the position, the Executive Director recognized they were responsible and accountable for the collective achievement of strategic operational outcomes defined by the board.

However, without a strong organizational foundation, operational success is difficult to achieve, especially in the long-term. And, as important as management and staff are to the foundation of any organization, in the non-profit world, the board of directors is the organization's foundation.

This goes to the heart of my response. As I suggested to Susan, the role of an effective Executive Director also includes accountability for supporting, coaching, and even helping to manage the programming needed to keep building the board's governance leadership capacity.

Thinking of the Board as a Program

This requires a shift in perspective. It requires non-profit management leaders to think of the board as a "program". What is more, the board is the organization's most important program. When this shift in perspective is taken to heart, everyone involved experiences renewed passion for organizational success.

And who better to oversee the successful management of this "program" than the Executive Director? After all, Executive Directors have proven experience in managing programs designed and delivered by the organization.

When the senior operational leader of an organization begins to think of ongoing board leadership development as a “program”, new levels of organizational success are achieved. Boards and their members show increased interest in their role and in the positive impact their board leadership delivers.

Support from the Board of Directors

To make this shift in perspective a reality, boards are encouraged to boldly expand their Executive Director’s job description to include management of the board leadership development program.

And as we all know, with great power, comes great responsibility. If boards formally expand the role of their Executive Director, they need to provide support and resources to help the Executive Director successfully manage this responsibility.

The resources needed by the Executive Director to manage board leadership development include:

• A budget for board and board leadership development that is in line with the importance placed on this "program."
• A commitment by the board and each of its members to actively participate in ongoing governance leadership capacity building.

When these important resources are in place, the Executive Director will be well-positioned to coach and support the board and the organization to achieve new levels of success.

Call to Action

Boards of Directors:

1. Does your board currently think of board leadership development as a formal program?
2. Consider recent experiences with board development activities. On a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being low and 5 being high), how effective has the organization been in providing the required levels of board development programming?
3. What steps could the board take to ensure board leadership development programming is either strengthened or sustained?

Executive Directors 

1. Do you think of the board leadership development of your organization as a "program", or is it something that you tend to take care of on an ad-hoc basis?
2. If your approach tends to be ad-hoc, what coaching steps could you take to help the board strengthen its governance leadership capacity?

The UpCloseTeam welcomes your comments on this e-newsletter. As always, we invite our readers to submit their questions about effective governance topics or concerns. Send your comments to [email protected].

Your Friend,
Jon Close