Dealing with Difficult Board Members in a Nonprofit: Conflict ) Though most BoardAssist clients are New York-based, they serve locally, nationally and internationally. Mainly because we ask a lot of questions and we challenge management 's current approach. ), not all boards function smoothly. I don't want the board breathing down my neck when things are so tough right now The board chair doesn't recognize my authority. Linda, We have a new president of our non profit organisation in Qld, he put out an email Someone is not being difficult simply because they disagree with you. Here are some tips: So far, so good. One or two of your board members starts becoming difficult to work with. [monthnum] => 0 While boards can offer a variety of challenges to an organizations staff, one key problematic area is the relationship with the executive director. Lets talk about how much dead weight a typical board has. Without that framework, says Humphrey, people make assumptions, resources are wasted, theres no accountability, everything becomes a muddle and gifted, talented people waste their time.. [post_type] => Tip 1. As a board, determine clear expectations for behaviours and values. You need them to change a behavior not because they are a bad person, but because doing so will better serve the organization and your clients. Address the issue. Address the issue If you are unhappy with a decision a board member has made for the community you manage or feel as though they are not upholding the core values you have itemized, the first action you should take is to strike up a conversation with that board member privately. Breaching an uncomfortable topic can give rise to many fears. B- board members have a choice. What happens when one driver hijacks the car? This is a last-resort type action, and doing it right matters greatly. Finally, as you move past your point of contention, take time to debrief and reflect on the steps you can take to avoid a similar situation in the future. A thorough process includes taking adequate time to define the problem, fully identify each partys issues and interests, agree on your process for negotiating a solution, and ultimately upon a solution and how to implement it. The best solution, in these cases, may be to simply ask the person to resign. You want smart people who can see things you miss, and may push strongly to bring a different paradigm to light. Take time to distance yourself from the problem (this may require the outside help of a mediator, coach, or other trusted advisor) and understand the underlying emotions, relationships, and motivations that might be at play. ( Back to what I said at the top. Similarly, when there is a toxic board member, the organization can't move forward. COPYRIGHT 2023 | SPECTRUM ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT COMPANIES | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, Creating Good: Employees Gift 63 Days of PTO to their Coworker, Family Comes First: Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Rationale: a. There are many examples of such "disruptive" behavior, but the following are some to illustrate the point: Poor preparation, participation and lack of attendance at board meetings; Lack of understanding of the board member's role and the assumption of the role of "change agent" when it is . Dealing with Difficult Board Members - the Financial Expert Whether it be a co-worker, a neighbor, or even that very special in-law, we all have them in our lives. Many states also require registration if your organization collects substantial or ongoing donations from their residents, even if you arent specifically targeting donors in that state. But, be prepared to have it dismissed or ignored and to move in the direction the board directs. Tips for Handling Toxic Board Members DeLeon & Stang Go through your list of board members. They have just seen their B+ colleagues get all the spotlight and can see the value they can bring to the organization. Get DEI resources from respected and experienced leaders. It speaks volumes when you and your team keep cool. Strategies for Handling a Difficult Board Member April 13, 2020 , Governance Think back to the last time you had to (or at least wanted to) confront your boss about micromanaging your work. Add insult to injury; the company was running at a loss. CharityVillage Annual Conference & Awards, Writing Effective Volunteer Postings Checklist, Diversity in Canadas Not-For-Profit Sector, Canadian Nonprofit Sector Salary & Benefits Report, The Guide to Positive Staff-Board relations for Directors of Nonprofit Organizations, took a fresh look at the challenges of improving nonprofit boards. Now imagine having ten bosses instead of one. Conflict and strife will suck the very life blood from your organization. ( Every single board has someone who takes up space, has a bad attitude, or causes some kind of tsuris (trouble in Yiddish). [pagename] => I ask a series of questions that help nonprofit leaders, board, and staff understand that they dont have terrible boards. Rogue School Boards: What Can We Do? | Resilient Educator Listening doesn't mean you will take their side, but it shows them you respect them as a member of the board. Watch informational webinars and attend industry events. Confront . What should the penalty be for board members leave duly called meetings. Use executive sessions to discuss problem board members or conflicts. But dont try to do this alone. Those directors that are most difficult are often those that care the most and are doing the most work. ) This strategy makes them FEEL like dead weight and they begin to self-select off. We are having some disput between one of our excutive memeber and two floor members.in our forum members donate some cash and ask the first people to write down their names should get the money but one of the excutive member donate and give names of those that will get while a floor member write under her comment and said that her own will not be different which makes the excutive member to private chat her and told her that she is talking bullshit. The director becomes difficult to please, unreasonable, argumentative, or just no longer wants to work as part of a team. [update_post_term_cache] => 1 Id like to give a shout out to Supportive Sally who always finds the positives in difficult situations., Id like to thank Respectful Robert. Strategies for Handling a Difficult Board Member The role of boards is also a changing one, having moved from a more operational role in the past to one that increasingly focuses on the responsibility for the organizations policies and strategy. One of the most important roles you have, as part of a board of directors, or as the executive director of a nonprofit, is to help identify and vet new board candidates. Cause for removal shall include, but not be limited to, a directors failure to attend three (3) consecutive regular meetings without a valid excuse, engaging in conduct that is detrimental to the organization, or violating the organizations policies or bylaws. Institute of Community Directors Australia (ICDA) | Dealing with Sutherns also advises boards to share collective responsibility and have the courage to ask questions about what the board needs and who is best to provide that leadership. Dealing with Difficult Board Behaviors. Executive directors with difficult boards also live with personal and vocational strain. You can do a chiropractic adjustment with some board members and educate them; others not so much. Set board and chair job descriptions, terms and succession plans. Often they disagree just to be disagreeable. So whats a frustrated and outnumbered executive director or, When the conflict resolution process threatens to go off the rails, strive to establish common ground by remembering points of shared agreement. Are you giving them the right information? Shirley: I'm sorry you have to go through this, I would have a conversation with the president to clarify expectations. Facilitation consultant Rebecca Sutherns says, Many boards operate dysfunctionally without understanding why or even realizing it. While we might all like to cast aside the possibility of an overreaching and difficult board member in our organizations, even the most well-run nonprofit boards will deal with difficult board members at some point. Question regarding of civility: One board member writes an email to the entire board of 5, criticizing the behavior of another board member at a meeting, calling her out as disrespectful and obnoxious . If not, there may be an underlying personal problem, or the individual simply didnt realize they had become a problem. The BoardSource study observes that, the rise of professional management, rather than a sudden decline in trustee knowledge and intelligence, may best explain why board members have become increasingly uncertain about their roles. For many board members, it can be challenging to determine the line between strategy and administration, governance and management. 3 Strategies for Handling a Divisive Board Member by Jeff Arnold | President, Leading Associations There are difficult, but manageable, board members who create tension at meetings but generally don't derail the work of the board altogether. He does such a great job of pointing out the gaps in our strategy while remaining positive and supportive of our mission.. Start transforming your board today with the help of my free workshop! Foundation Group is your go-to resource for getting it done. The point is, you must follow the bylaws to the letter. And you will spend more emotional energy with your B board members and your clients or your cause or your art, and you will find yourself with more gas in your tank for the work that matters. Get in touch today. Here are the steps to follow: I cannot stress too greatly how important it is to follow each of the above steps. Use down time as an opportunity for learning, whether about constituencies, issues or governance best practices. Ask the board about strategic priorities before you begin your role so that you know whether your competencies and skills are the right ones for the job at this time. Isolating a board member with a "difficult" label and seeking advice in how to counteract him/her shows a level of arrogance and self righteousness not befitting of a professional manager. They are often angry or short-tempered and exhibit in-your-face behavior. b. Bring it back to your shared interests. August 14, 2021 Difficult HOA Board Members and How to Handle Them Elected association officers are, for the most part, people who are well-regarded in the community. wasting his time with questions at a meeting with at vendor who attended the meeting in order to explain the complicated Insurance Policy. The Bad Apple - DirectorPrep Does any wording currently exist, or could be included, in some of your board approved, agency documents to better describe acceptable behavior? ) Incorporating preventive measures such as clear expectations, regular board evaluations, and a diligent recruitment process can help minimize future issues and promote a more effective and cohesive board. You dont have to be a saint to serve your community. With that goal in mind, he started Vantage Point,helping make board service easier, more rewarding, and more effective through common sense governance, effective strategic planning and key board development techniques. Lessons I learned. This act can often create deep conflict among school board members as well as district administrators and principals. Coming to agreement on what a conflict is about is like untangling a ball of yarn. While that is one outcome, there are other ways to work around a board member's counterproductive behavior. Sometimes, that can lead to conflict that is uncomfortable, unproductive, and even contrary to the organizations best interests. And not only is that common, it is something you should expect. Board members may start doing this with each other, and it builds a board culture that makes the productive and positive people feel valued, while the toxic person gets squeezed out. their job as a director. They will want to try every solution until a problem is solved regardless of the cost. Transforming Your Board from Difficult to Dynamic: A Step-by-Step Guide It's not. For a while, things go very well and it seems youve landed a high value, hard working board. Our nonprofit clients range from start-up organizations to some of the most established names in the nonprofit community, and serve interest areas from arts and education to the environment and poverty relief. We offer New Yorkers who want to make a real change in the nonprofit world an unrivaled selection of board options and advice on selecting the right one for them. We can easily deal with directors who might cause a bit of healthy friction during board discussions as long as they stick to the issues and avoid getting personal or rude. At one firm I was involved with, a board member created a difficulty by submitting excessive expenses for attending board meetings. Sometimes the number is zero. But doing so, can hurt your organization and your relationship. Boards of directors, by law, hold nonprofits accountable to the broader community through what are broadly described as duties of loyalty and care. Here are a few traits of problem board members: Acting in the best interest of the community is one of the most important guidelines board members should adhere to. Eventually, you create the best panel of candidates you can and invite them to join the board. Mainly because we ask a lot of questions and we challenge management's current approach. Unfortunately, the deck may be stacked against youespecially if you have been unaware of the magnitude of the problem or just simply slow to react. Supporting prosocial behavior rewards the great board members behavior. What do you do? While governance models make it clear that boards of directors hold the power within nonprofit organizations, struggles for power and authority often emerge because, as a paper issued by US-based Governance Matters for Nonprofits observes, There are no firm guidelines about where board oversight leaves off and executive management begins. Executive directors may find themselves saying variations of the following, quoted from the above mentioned paper: Governance consultant and author of The Guide to Positive Staff-Board relations for Directors of Nonprofit Organizations, Sandi Humphrey, says, Its very difficult for chief staff officers to walk into the board meeting and tell them they are doing a lousy job. Lianne Picot, executive director of the Peel Leadership Centre, agrees. Sort of like death and taxes, there is a certain inevitability to it. Aside from this critical conversation, there are other organizational tools that can help you address a problem director. ( Copyright 1995-2023, Foundation Group, Inc. Start a Private Foundation SureStart PF, 501(c)(3) Recovery For Revoked 501(c)(3) Status, Charitable Solicitations (Fundraising) Registration, Assurance Membership Plan Bundle Annual Compliance Services. Does your Board of Director job description include verbiage about acceptable or expected behavior? Sometimes all it takes is a frank discussion. But then, something starts to subtly shift. All we ask is that it be done in a respectful and professional way. This attitude becomes problematic when the individual fails to listen to his fellow committee members, acts impulsively, and refuses to get further insights or education on the issues at hand. Your bylaws should contain provision for removing a board member. Whether your board member does not perform his or her assigned roles, has a bad attitude or has done something to cast a pallor over your organization, dont wait to discuss it with him or her. , Founder You need to ignite them and work to convert them to high performers. InitLive was recently acquired by Bloomerang. When a member oversteps their authority, it takes away the opportunity for the other members of the board to share their opinion, serve their community, and fulfill their own responsibilities as a member of the board. ( Dealing with difficult board members Most experienced not-for-profit board members will tell you that one of the most rewarding aspects of their position is the opportunity it gives them to work alongside some fantastic colleagues. If you find yourself with the latter situation, you need to first decide if the behavior or situation warrants confronting it. It's inconsiderate to the other members to force them to deal, meeting after meeting, with an uncooperative, difficult member. If they can find a position at another organization, they often leave, but even those who dont have somewhere else to go sometimes quit when they become too frustrated by the experience. Are you suggesting that I be complacent about my dead weight? In theory, boards are created to provide support, guidance, and oversight to ensure the well-being of an organization. Two problems with generalities. Stating it was from the committee, but we new nothing of it and he hadnt asked us. BoardAssist has been responsible for bringing over $200 million into the nonprofit community through our board placements over the last 23 years. The most common omission of human decision-making is the failure to ask how did we get here? A full debrief allows us to assess the human and process variables that led to a negative outcome. If you can't justify your position, don't assume you are "right" and others are wrong. The worst thing you can do is send an email with a list of offenses and start an email war. When you give attention to positive behavior, the toxic person is more likely to shift course to get the recognition he/she craves. , President & CFO And, this question hits at the heart of it. Do damage control. They fall into various behavior categories: A chair may sometimes be aware that they are the problem but not be aware of how they can fix the situation. So what are you waiting for? [tag__not_in] => Array [post__not_in] => Array Read the latest from our community of fundraising professionals. Remember they still have full rights as a board member. People seem like jerks often because we dont know their stories. But unfortunately, thats not always true. Please add your thoughts about it below. Difficult people. I think both of those would help to avoid this type of situation in the future. Dealing with Difficult Board Behaviors - Dennis C. Miller A = rockstar who initiatesB = willing to do something if askedC = dead weight, B+ = you can imagine them being an A if onlyB- = they are just north of a C. I promise you that when you finish this exercise, you will see that you dont have a terrible board, and referring to it that way is a problem. As a one month new board member with no experience I was asked to take the minutes of the board meeting and the homeowners meeting in the absence of the secretary. As someone with experience working as and with board members in activist situations, we are often considered "difficult" - at least initially. Board chairs need to develop strong facilitation skills, emphasizes Sutherns. The number is often low. A spreadsheet or an old-fashioned piece of paper. (Think of a childhood did not did too argument; thats what specific examples avoid!). I would encourage you to speak with an HR or Organizational Development Professional who can offer specific advice for framing conversations like this. For Sutherns, A board that establishes a clear, aspirational governance model accompanied by clear roles and responsibilities decreases the likelihood of conflict with management. She also advises making an obvious channel for conflict resolution. Susan Fish is a writer/editor at Storywell, a company that helps individuals and organizations tell their story well. Remove the offending board member (if possible). Learn how your comment data is processed. There was no thought in finding less expensive hotels, car rental companies or flights. No board or management team is above answering to simple business principles. The example above uses an I-message by describing the behavior in terms of its impact on you or your perceptions of it rather than as the truth. I-messages decrease defensiveness in the receiver who can feel attacked when you use you-messages. Think about the differences of these two statements: Again, the latter example will likely begin a fruitful conversation while the former will make the person defensive, hurt feelings, and not achieve your goal of improving your organization. But no matter how hard we try, no matter how experienced we are at board building, sooner or later nearly every nonprofit leader faces this problem. ) function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} In our sector, the people we serve cant always leave, but they experience the effects of dysfunctional boards just the same. Respect from board members will prove beneficial even after they are no longer serving on the board. Failing Forward | How I'm Dealing With Difficult Board Members Overstepping Board Members These board members often mean well and sometimes they don't. They cross the line and direct the activities of staff. One can quickly become consumed with navigating the politics and soothing hurt feelings rather than pursuing the business at hand. The CharityLawerBlog is brought to you by Caritas Law Group. If it was an honest mistake, make sure he knows the appropriate protocol for communications that reference the board: who needs to review it, who needs to approve it, etc. And it does. 5 Traits of a Problem Board Member | HOA Community Management Be specific and provide examples to illustrate your point but remember to always be respectful and avoid becoming defensive. A few minutes taken to listen to the opinions and ideas of a board member can help to resolve issues. Describe the unacceptable behavior you have experienced, using specific examples, including time and place, Describe how it hurts the board and the mission, that it has increased over time and has become a distraction from the mission and activities, Provide specific feedback obtained from other directors or garnered via annual reviews, or other sources, Make it clear that certain behaviors will not be tolerated (if appropriate).
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