The emphasis in my ten-part series of articles written under the theme “Who’s the Boss?” has been around the actions nonprofit chief executive officers can and should take with their boards of directors to support effective governance. A sampling of such possible actions is offered below. The list was developed as a handout to accompany a webinar I recently conducted on this subject. I suggest these as a starting point for revisioning the CEO’s role in governance, following the assumption that the CEO has a legitimate executive role to play with the governing board. In my mind, this wraps up the series from that perspective.

I wrote the original articles as one who served as both a chief executive officer and as a board member and board chair. My experience, covering more than four decades, convinced me as someone with an executive “disposition,” to view the CEO/Board relationship with a more active, rather than passive, mindset. I believed then, and still believe, that I had an appropriate leadership role to perform with the board to help it perform its duties more effectively and efficiently.

There is one big “HOWEVER” that I wish to establish before I complete this conclusion. In the “Who’s the Boss?” articles, I tried to address the various aspects of CEO/board relationship through the lenses of ten questions which all implied that the CEO had an executive role to play in their answers. In the fifteen months it took me to complete the series, I had a lot of opportunity to broaden my horizons through reading, research and additional professional experience. As a result, my thinking about the CEO’s and nonprofit board’s roles has undergone a significant transformation. Some of this insight was gained from trying to learn more about (of all things!) quantum physics and the ramifications of its discoveries to the fields of cosmology, psychology, biology, philosophy and even theology, not to mention business organization, development and leadership.

You might wonder, “What in the world can quantum physics say about nonprofit governance?” Maybe not much directly, but from the perspective of complex relationships it says an awful lot. For example, one of the underlying principles of quantum physics, entanglement, (actually presaged by Gestalt psychology) is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. What this implies at the subatomic level is that everything in the universe is related in some way to everything else and that actions involving any one part, or holon, have some kind of influence on other holons, regardless of the distance between them. We may be more familiar with the word “holistic” to express this totality of a thing, but the root is the same.

The implications of this to organizational leadership goes beyond just understanding that the action of a CEO, for example, has an impact on the activities of a board chair and vice versa. This would still be operating in the limited dynamics of a dualistic universe. Rather, the actions of the CEO influence the actions of the board chair and are influenced in turn by not only the board chair but also by senior leaders, other board members, clients, stakeholders, service practitioners, professionals in the field and many others, who in turn also influence the CEO whether they are known to him or her or not. The sum of all these actions and influences exceeds the defined totality of the CEO and board relationship and comprises, instead, the entirety of what we might call “organizational leadership,” or what I will refer to in the future as “quantum governance.”

All this is to say that, because of this and other quantum principles, I have significantly revised my viewpoint on the matter of governance and organizational leadership to such an extent that I will be launching a new set of articles which reframe the original ten questions posed in the “Who’s the Boss?” series to reflect the realities of nonprofit governance in a quantum universe. From the research I have done, it seems that this is a subject that has yet to be fully explored. Where this will take me is uncertain to say the least. All I can say is, “Stay tuned!”

For now, as a finale to the original series, I offer to you the list of possible executive actions CEOs might consider as they work with their nonprofit boards to strengthen and enhance effective governance. For greater understanding of the rationale for these actions, I would refer you back to the respective articles in the series.

The Nonprofit CEO’s Executive Role in Governance:  A Checklist of Possibilities

1. The CEO’s role in building value into the board’s purpose and role:

• Arrange board training around the legal requirements of NFP boards.
• Promote accountability for the CEO’s executive leadership through systems of self-reporting.
• Identify and recruit talent and intellectual capital to the board; maintain a talent matrix.
• Clarify and support relationships and connections between the board and staff.
• Inventory and manage board member’s connections and access to resources.
• Enhance the value of the board by using technology to support inter-board relationships.

2. Executive actions the CEO can employ to help the board fulfill its duties:

• Encourage the board to periodically review and amend mission and vision statements.
• Lead the development of a CEO succession plan.
• Propose means and methods for conducting the CEO performance evaluation.
• Propose a process, timeline, and resources to support strategic planning.
• Develop a process for proposing, approving and monitoring programs.
• Ensure organizational sustainability and report metrics which monitor the same.
• Assess the capacity of the organization to manage resources and develop report systems.
• Engage board members in public relations activities to enhance credibility.
• Arrange for in-service training for the board regarding ethical practices.
• Develop and manage systems by which the board can evaluate its own performance.
• Help the board understand how to carry out its duties in a post-pandemic era.

3. Executive actions the CEO can take to build an effective board using best practice models:

• Help the board identify qualifications and attributes of board members.
• Work with the board to set terms of service and the number of terms.
• Recruit potential board members who can function in a virtual environment.
• Guide and support the election/appointment of board members.
• Clarify with the board the CEO’s role in recruitment and development in a post-pandemic world.

4. Executive actions the CEO can take which aid in organizational development:

• Promote periodic evaluation of board size and organization.
• Develop a process for evaluating and reorganizing committees.
• Educate the board around alternative governance models.
• Development and proposal of board operating principles and policies.
• Maintain a policy and procedure manual for ongoing reference.
• Support virtual board meetings and follow-up by ensuring media technology efficiency and effectiveness.

5. Executive actions of the CEO that use the board to support the mission:

• Engage and manage board member involvement in publicity and marketing.
• Train and manage board members’ involvement in advocacy efforts.
• Create and control opportunities for board/staff interactions.
• Establish and maintain boundaries and procedures for Board/staff communication.
• Utilize director talents, networks and connections through virtual meetings.
• Create and support a board portal through the organization’s website to promote discussion of important topics and issues.

6. Executive actions the CEO can take to gain the board’s help in fund raising:

• Meet with each board member to obtain commitment:
  • Give – a personal, annual gift,
  • Get – commitment to connect with potential donors,
  • Get off! – encourage service elsewhere.
• Educate the board on deferred giving and legacy giving options and encourage the same.
• Recommend capital campaign goals, themes and processes, and invite board members to make a personal “over and above” gift.
• Work with the board to set a fundraising goal for the board and report progress.
• Invite directors to accompany the CEO and development staff on donor calls.
• Educate and engage the board in virtual fund raising strategies and invite participation.

7. Executive actions to support and direct strategic planning:

• Educate the board on best practices regarding models and methods of strategic planning.
• Provide resources and consultants to facilitate the process.
• Assign staff as appropriate to support planning efforts such as conducting an environment scan, sustainability analysis and capacity assessment.
• Make sure that annual operations plans and budgets are tied to strategic planning goals.
• Develop a calendar of milestones with the board that support annual updates to the strategic plan.
• Recommend for use by the board decision-making tools which promote ongoing strategic thinking to address unanticipated changes and challenges.
• Regularly report key performance indicators to the board which measure progress toward achieving strategic goals.
• Keep the board’s focus on strategy and the strategic plan by creating meeting agendas which are organized around the strategic goals.

8. Executive actions the CEO can take that support the board in effectively and appropriately evaluating the CEO:

• Conduct an assessment of Board culture, team comradery, and interpersonal relationships between CEO and the board to build trust and conflict tolerance.
• Tie the CEO’s performance goals and expectations to the strategic plan.
• Ensure accurate, relevant and timely reporting of performance data related to key objectives identified in the strategic plan.
• Recommend evaluation processes that appropriately reflect the professional needs of both the CEO and the board and which provide sufficient input from board and staff around CEO performance.
• In order to uphold trust and openness, discourage executive sessions of the board in the absence of the CEO other than to set compensation.

9. Executive actions the CEO can take that support the board in evaluating its own effectiveness:

• Recommend methods and models for the board to conduct an annual board performance assessment.
• Develop and recommend a process for evaluating incumbent board members seeking a subsequent term.
• Recommend a process by which individual board members can evaluate themselves according to established expectations.
• Facilitate informal evaluation discussions about meeting effectiveness (e.g., plus/delta).
• Recommend generative questions to evaluate board effectiveness around one issue (e.g., sustainability, capacity, risk, strategic thinking, program performance, resource investment).
• Develop methods for evaluating virtual meetings and decision-making processes and evaluate the board’s effectiveness using media technology.

10. Executive actions the CEO can take that make sure the board remains focused on the organization’s sustainability:

• Develop and report data relating to program quality, execution, and profitability.
• Periodically engage the board and leadership in a comprehensive capacity assessment.
• Engage outside auditors to evaluate financial integrity.
• Obtain third party assessment of investment philosophy, policy and performance.
• Actively participate in executive successions, except when the board is setting CEO compensation.
• Develop and manage a system of risk management and mitigation and report assessments of the same at board meetings.

This checklist is far from exhaustive. My aim was to provide a representative set of possible executive actions which are consistent with the overall aim described in each of the associated articles. Through it all, the underlying belief is that “Who’s the Boss?” matters very little when viewed in the larger context of organizational mission, mutual trust, collaboration and shared responsibility for governance.