Directors of SEQUUS get to work with volunteer and elected boards almost every day. Sometimes we are helping deal with an important issue facing the organization. Sometimes we are leading a strategic planning session. And sometimes we are totally focussed on the performance of the board itself. We want to tell you a little about how we go about assisting boards to deal with their own performance.
THE CHALLENGE: For board members, having overall responsibility and accountability for the success of an organization, while depending upon paid staff to operate it on a day-to-day basis, is often a source of conflict and frustration. For paid, full-time managers in non-profits, learning to work with a volunteer board is often the most difficult challenge. In any jurisdiction there are literally thousands of non-profit organizations each with a multi-person board. There are simply not enough competent and commited volunteers to fill all of the available positions. For those who do volunteer it often means that they have to give up a great deal of free time in return for very few tangible rewards and increasingly greater risks. There is very little training available for new board members and far too little time is spent even orienting new board members to their role and responsibilities. Most learn from watching others. Many simply transfer behavours that they learned in other settings in other roles (even when those roles are totally incompatible with that of a board member).
BENCHMARKS & STANDARDS?: Much has been written about what boards ought to do in an ideal world where everyone understands their roles and responsibilities and there are enough competent and committed people to fill all of the available seats. We have encountered many outstanding boards and countless exemplary board members. However, we have also discovered that Boards and board members vary dramatically in their capacity to meet the ideal and far too many feel unaware or unsure as to what that 'ideal' is. How does a board measure its own performance? How do we know if we are measuring up? What does 'measuring up' mean in this context? What are the standards? What are the benchmarks? Who do we compare ourselves to? Can we set our own standards and measure ourselves against our own expectations of ourselves? While we don't have all of the answers, we have developed some tools that seem to help.
OUR SERVICES: Our involvement with boards typically begins with either a diagnosis of Board Performance and/or a Strategic Planning or Board Development session. People learn about our services from other clients, from conferences or workshops where we are leading sessions on Governance or from visiting our website and learning about our OnLine Board Assessment
service. Follow any of the links to the right to learn more.
ELECTED BOARDS, A SPECIAL CASE: Sometimes we are working with elected boards such as School Trustees. We have found that most of what works with non elected boards also works with elected boards but there are a few differences. The issue of recruiting new board members, of dismissing board members for non performance and fund raising do not apply. However there are special issues that arise from carrying out the work in front of the public and sometimes even on camera.
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