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Who’s the Boss?

John Bauer February 4, 2019 blog, News
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Ten Critical Questions About Nonprofit Governance and the CEO’s Role

I have a particular sensitivity to this question for several reasons. In addition to the fact that I spent a 42-year career in executive leadership positions having to work with either school boards or nonprofit boards of directors, I also spent many of those years serving on boards. These included as the board chairman of the organization I eventually led as its CEO, as the chairman of the board of a national association of 300 social ministry organizations, and as a member or chair of hospital, church, school, media ministry and civic organization boards of directors. In other words, I have over four decades of having been on BOTH sides of the board room table. In every case, I took my board responsibilities seriously, but it wasn’t until I became the CEO of a large nonprofit that I really came to appreciate the challenges facing CEOs with respect to their boards. 

What seems to underlie these requests, however, is a lack of clarity around “who’s the boss?” Is it the board or is it the CEO? While my glib answer is “Yes!” the answer is a bit more complex than that. I could also respond with “It depends,” but that, too, isn’t very helpful. It seems to me that exploring the CEO’s executive role with respect to the governance function would be of value to CEOs who are experiencing challenges with their boards of directors. A study of this role could also be of value to nonprofit boards as they seek to clarify their relationship and responsibilities to the CEO and as they communicate their expectations of the CEO in return.

I wish to make a distinction here between the executive function a CEO has with respect to the operations of the organization, and the executive function the CEO has with respect to the board of directors. The difference may be subtle, but it is an important one. Both roles inherently involve acting as a leader. The former could be thought of as “leading down,” while the latter is “leading up.” The chief executive officer is clearly “the boss” when it comes to running the organization, and the board is clearly the boss inasmuch as they hire, evaluate and fire the CEO. 

However, as a CEO, I often had to reflect on my “executive role” in relation to the governance function of the board. I had to consider those executive actions that both supported the board and at the same time drew support from the board. Too often, CEOs assume a passive posture toward their boards in the mistaken notion that because they are the hired employee of the board, they must accept whatever the board says they must do. While that is true in the sense that the nonprofit board’s primary responsibility is hiring the best chief executive for the job and ensuring the continuity of the organization’s mission, the leadership responsibility vested in the CEO must have a reciprocal effect on the board and how it functions. Some have described this as a partnership. I’d go so far as to say that the ideal represents co-leadership through reciprocal governance.

As you can imagine, how far influence is extended by the CEO and/or the board on the other is more art than science, depends on the level of trust between the two, and will vary as personalities and leadership styles change. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the challenges posed by the competing and complementary roles of CEOs and their boards can be effectively clarified for the benefit of the organization and all involved. 

To navigate the nonprofit governance minefield, I’d like to propose ten questions to CEOs for consideration. If asked and answered, I believe any nonprofit – regardless of size – can move toward more coherent and effective governance practice. Because I am framing these questions from the perspective of the chief executive officer, they are intended to stimulate thinking and acting from the executive role toward the board. I will be as practical as possible in terms of things the CEO can do to strengthen the board’s effectiveness, clarify roles and responsibilities, and improve executive effectiveness.

Here are the questions:

  1. Why do I need a board?
  2. What is it supposed to do?
  3. Who’s on the board and how do they get there?
  4. How should it be organized?
  5. What’s my role around board meetings?
  6. How can I get them to support the mission?
  7. How can they help me raise money?
  8. What’s their role in strategic planning?
  9. How do I want them to hold me accountable?
  10. How can I help them function more effectively?

As I did with the ten-part series on strategic planning, I will be posting my response to one of these questions each week. At the end of the series I will make available a downloadable e-booklet which compiles the articles into a single monograph. 

I will also be up front about what I am NOT going to do in this series. I am not going to propose or recommend any one style or model of governance. There are many resources available for organizations to consider using if they believe the governance model is in need of revision. I am also not going to propose specific lists of duties or responsibilities for boards or their CEOs. Again, many resources, some listed below, are available to help organizations write position descriptions. Finally, I am not going to tell anyone what they must do. Answers to the questions will vary from organization to organization. I learned a long time ago that leader effectiveness is most often context specific. What may work exceedingly well in one organization may not be successful in another. My hope, therefore, is that this series serves as a thought resource for nonprofit CEOs and their boards and serves to promote conversations that can lead to effective practice in their organizations. 

Resources

The Council of Nonprofits publishes many online resources, conducts governance workshops, and provides consultation to nonprofit organizations. https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/board-roles-and-responsibilities

BoardSource is the recognized authority on governance and board responsibilities and has a resource library of hundreds of books, monographs, reports and pamphlets. In addition, they provide a board development consultant practice supported by online assessment tools. https://boardsource.org/about-boardsource/

Tweeten, Byron. Transformational Boards. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2001 (Byron was very well-known in Lutheran circles for his insightful consulting to nonprofit CEOs and their boards. His book is one-of-a-kind and frames the roles of CEOs and their boards for effective governance. 

While there are many bloggers expressing their opinions about leadership and governance, Joan Garry provides one of the most experienced voices. Grounded in a solid academic career, Joan has worked with innumerable nonprofit agencies to improve leadership and governance practice. She also writes a pithy blog that gets to the heart of the CEO/board tension. She can be found at:  https://www.joangarry.com.

Rick Stiffney is the retired CEO of Mennonite Health Services and is a well-known consultant to nonprofit boards of directors around governance. He authored many practical and down-to-earth short articles on boards and their CEOs. The archive can be found at: https://mhsalliance.wordpress.com/about/

How to Achieve Your Preferred Future (e-book)

John Bauer October 3, 2017 blog, News
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I know it has been about a month since I posted anything. Since posting the downloadable PowerPoint presentation on strategic planning, I have been busy writing an e-book which describes the process I am advocating in much more detail. It is yours at no charge. Absolutely free.

Why? I was told by one of my business mentors that in spite of a PhD and 42 years of executive experience, the knowledge I possess about strategic planning has a street value of $0.00. Anybody with a computer or a smart phone can Google the topics I have been talking about and find the same information.

What does have value in what I have written? What value do I bring to the table? First, understanding how processes work, I know how to facilitate the use of knowledge to achieve desired outcomes. I know how to make this stuff work for the benefit of the client.

Second, I am really good at synthesizing complex concepts and organizing them in coherent patterns to achieve optimum outcomes.

Third, I know how to manage projects such as strategic planning. Let’s be honest. I know that if you wanted to learn calculus, you could buy a calculus text book and teach yourself, right? Would you do it, however? Not very likely! It’s not that you aren’t smart enough. It’s not that you don’t have the prerequisites like algebra and trigonometry, which I assume you do. It’s that it is hard work requiring time, commitment and self-discipline. Who is going to hold you accountable if you skip an assignment or turn in your homework late? No, if you want to learn calculus, you sign up for a course at your local college or university.

Finally, I bring trustworthiness to the table. After a 42 year career in executive leadership, I have absolutely no desire to run anything. Instead, I have a burning passion to help nonprofit organizations achieve their preferred futures, to become much more effective in carrying out their missions, and to help nonprofit leaders become the most outstanding, visionary champions of their cause possible.

So, here is my offering to you. A downloadable e-book which is yours to use as you see fit. Share it with other CEOs. Share it with your board and staff. Spread it around. Hopefully, it will find its way into the hands of someone who truly wants to achieve his/her preferred future.

Click here to download:

How to Achieve Your Preferred Future

 

 

Coherent Strategic Planning: Extra Bonus

John Bauer August 10, 2017 blog, News
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I promised that I would share the schematic of how this approach to strategic planning works. In trying to answer the ten critical questions for coherent strategic planning, I have developed a number of charts and diagrams to help my clients understand the process and the intended outcomes of each particular planning activity. What I have concluded is that compiling all of this into a single schematic or diagram is very difficult and confusing. So, instead, I am offering a free download of a PowerPoint presentation, versions of which I have used with various clients. You will find the link to the downloadable file below.

I have also added additional commentary and explanation to each slide. I saved the document in the “notes” format, so when you open it, you should be able to view the slides and their associated commentary immediately below each slide. If you have any difficulty, please contact me at john.bauer@bauerj.com.

Please feel free to share this file with others.

If you’d like to hear from clients I’ve worked with using this process, please contact me and I would be happy to put you in touch with them.

As always, feel free to leave comments below, or contact me directly with any questions at john.bauer@bauerj.com.

Here is the link to the downloadable file:

Strategic Planning Process – Bauer – 8-10-17

 

Question Ten: How Will You Tell Your Story?

John Bauer July 31, 2017 blog, News
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The strategic plan you have just completed tells a story. It provides a setting with historical background, location, conflict, challenges and exciting opportunities. There is definitely a plot line with plenty of foreshadowing and suspense. There are characters who play critical roles in the story. Most of all, your story can evoke strong feelings of loyalty and support. Those who encounter your story should be moved emotionally, should connect with the characters and their cause, and should be inspired enough to share the story with others.

If you think I am exaggerating with this attempt to analogize between a strategic plan and a story, I would suggest that you are ignoring the power of narrative in influencing the affective psyches of the people who are connected to your organization. Believe me when I tell you that your strategic plan has the potential to influence the attitudes of funders, enhance employee loyalty, evoke satisfaction among your clients, inspire respect in the minds of competitors, and build support from your board of directors.

A good strategic plan sends a powerful message to constituents that you have a compelling mission, that you understand your environment, that you are visionary and forward thinking, that your organization has the capacity to change and move into the future, and that you know where you are going. Telling that story in the right way to the right audience for the right reason is the final step in this ten-part approach to coherent strategic planning.

You may ask, “How can a strategic plan, complete with charts and tables and lists and goals and all manner of other technical information, be told like a story?” The answer is that the form and substance of the story depends on the audience.

For the board of directors and the executive leadership team, the strategic plan as a whole is the story. It has to be assumed that individuals in these two leadership areas require the story in its entirety in order to properly execute their responsibilities. Therefore, printing the entire document (please, not in four-color glossy brochure format!) for use by leadership is necessary if you intend to use it on a regular basis to guide discussion, frame decisions, evaluate progress, and celebrate accomplishments. I would argue, in fact, that the strategic plan should be printed and included in each quarter’s board briefing book and that agenda items for board discussion be drawn from the strategic plan. To avoid having the plan die a dusty death on somebody’s shelf, it must become the operating manual that guides all activity.

Because typical strategic plans can get rather lengthy and detailed, how can the story be told to employees, donors, volunteers, clients and others in a way that accomplishes the purposes I’ve listed above? I’d like to offer a few suggestions for your consideration. Not all of these may be appropriate for your organization, but I hope you will be able to gain some ideas on how to tell your story. Just keep uppermost in your mind the needs of the audience you are seeking to communicate with and the form of the story will take its own shape appropriately.

  • Print the organization’s mission, vision and core value statement in poster-sized format and post them throughout the facilities. A little money spent to have this done professionally will communicate to those who see them that the organization places a lot of value in these statements as guides for action and descriptors of the corporate ethos.
  • Print the Position and Goal statements in a similar poster-sized format and post them alongside the mission, vision and core values posters. It may be sufficient to just publish the position statements. However much detail is provided, they must be easily readable and must communicate the big picture direction the organization is taking.
  • Publish a “precis” of the strategic plan, i.e., a two or three pages executive summary that can be printed in small booklet form to use with donors, volunteers and others. In such an abbreviated form of the plan, marketing and communications staff will want to reframe the strategic plan into a readable narrative that engages the reader and leads to some type of conversion, be it a donation, greater commitment, volunteering, or other types of engagement.
  • Depending on the audience, such a brochures or marketing materials may or may not be supported by colored graphics and a professional layout. The question driving those decisions should be: “Will this document in this format significantly support the purpose for which it is intended with the intended audience?” Some would argue that slick four-color expensive brochures can turn off committed donors who might question spending money on an expensive marketing piece. Others will argue, however, that doing it right communicates serious commitment to the vision and is essential for attracting new donors.
  • My mentor once described the role of CEO as “chief story-teller.” If the organization has the capacity to post videos (e.g., through YouTube, vimeo, or other formats) to employees and others, the CEO might consider a short five-minute video in which he/she talks about the strategic plan and what it means.
  • In addition to mission, vision and core value statements, one organization I worked with posted each year’s initiatives, their tactical annual action plans, throughout the organization to help employees understand better why certain decisions were made and why actions were taking place.
  • Organizations which are centrally located and hold annual “town hall” meetings – either for staff or clients – should consider devoting one such meeting to the strategic plan and what it means for them. Such high-level presentations are great for soliciting feedback and for better understanding of issues that might impede progress.
  • The strategic plan should be prominently exhibited on the organization’s website. However, I would recommend against posting annual initiatives, key performance indicators, and other data that might be either too technical, confidential, or subject to interpretation. The organization’s media, marketing and communications staff should work with leadership to post a narrative version of the strategic plan that is user readable and attractive. The heart of the strategic plan is comprised of the position and goal statements and these should be most prominent in any online presentation. How much of the back story and analysis should be included is a judgment call, but in my view, should be kept to a minimum.
  • For tech-savvy organizations, many opportunities exist for mounting social media campaigns around the strategic plan, posting various positions and goals, and inviting comments and support. Those with active intranet systems, discussion boards using programs such as SharePoint can serve to further embed the strategic plan goals into the life of the organization. Similarly, board book platforms can promote discussion in and around board meetings, giving opportunities for directors to engage in generative discussions related to strategic issues.
  • Organizations which are dispersed could consider holding focus group sessions in remote locations to explain the plan and its implications for the company in its various locations. Ideally, such focus groups should be held before the final plan is rolled out to promote ownership of dispersed stakeholder groups. I used this tactic to great effect when I was facilitating a strategic plan process in the context of a merger. Stakeholders in the acquired company gained access to the CEO and became insiders and participants in the planning process, making sure that their regional concerns were heard.

Organizations engage in comprehensive strategic planning in order to identify and achieve their preferred future. The strategic plan, told as a story, is intended to generate support and commitment to that future. Whether that is in the form of money, time, ability, loyalty, or respect – the story is told with a deliverable in mind. Suffice it to say, the story of the strategic plan, artfully shared, can go a long way toward helping the organization achieve its preferred future.

I would love to hear about your experiences in how you communicated your strategic plan to your constituents. Feel free to leave comments and reactions.

If you would like to explore further ideas on how to tell your story, please call or email me. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss (with no obligation on your part) any aspect of this article or those that preceded it.

And of course, I am always available to discuss how I might be of service to you in achieving your preferred future.