The relationship between a nonprofit CEO and her board is meant to be a smart, forward-thinking partnership. This partnership sustains the organization’s mission. It navigates challenges, pursues opportunities, and makes trade-offs. It distinguishes between the trivial, the urgent, and the important. At broad levels, it contributes to the effectiveness of the entire nonprofit sector. The success of its board/CEO partnership propels an organization into the future.??
Successful board/CEO partnerships lead to win/ win scenarios. For instance, boards that maximize their relationship with the CEO recruit new trustees more easily, fundraise more effectively, and facilitate greater board member satisfaction. They get to spend significant time on some of the most exciting aspects of trusteeship, including generative discussions and vision development. Simultaneously, they empower the CEO to reach the heights for which they hired him, which means a happier, more effective organization, which means a happier, more effective board, which means… well, you get the picture.
Successful board/CEO partnerships are premised on adherence to the duties of care, loyalty, and obedience. These duties outline good governance. For instance, the duty of care commits the board and CEO to wise management of an organization’s finances, and the duty of obedience commits the board and CEO to adherence to legal requirements. Boards and CEOs that do not build their work around these duties risk organization health and egregious errors. Boards and CEOs that play the long game fulfill these duties. They recognize the value of these duties across multiple spheres: community good, organization sustainability, nonprofit sector reputation.
Successful board/CEO partnerships are the result of work. Unfortunately, there’s no magic spell that transforms rocky CEO/board relationships into harmonious ones. To get to where they want to go, both the CEO and the board must pursue specific characteristics. With that in mind, here are six elements of a successful partnership:
- Honesty and candor. Without honesty and candor, board members and CEOs may find themselves saying one thing and doing another. This leads to confusion, resentment, and ambiguity. Honesty and candor do not ensure that all involved think the same way. Instead, they’re the tools that all involved must use to chart a path forward. A commitment to honesty and candor assumes that difficult conversations are an essential part of the process, not an enemy to be avoided.??
- A commitment to keeping egos in check. Left unchecked, board or CEO egos are dangerous playthings. Boards that tolerate outsize egos facilitate behavior that is likely to repel other board members. They may hazard initiatives that are not in the organization’s best interest. They may ignore trendlines. Conversely, the desire for personal and group achievement motivates and, properly channeled, leads to great things. The best way to balance egos is to codify behavioral norms. Boards reluctant to do so should ask themselves which is worse: offending someone with an outsize ego, or putting the entire organization at risk?
- A commitment to governance. The CEO oversees operations. There may be instances where a board needs to step into operations, and a good board is willing to do so. However, as Jeffrey Sonnefield writes, “If a board is healthy, the CEO provides sufficient information on time and trusts the board not to meddle in day-to-day operations. He or she also gives board members free access to people who can answer their questions, obviating the need for back channels.” Boards that maximize their relationships with their CEOs ensure that, unless necessary, they focus on governance.?
- A commitment to generative discussions. The idea of generative discussions is described by Chiat, Ryan and Taylor in “Governance as Leadership” and by Cathy A. Trower in "The Practioner’s Guide to Governance as Leadership.” As the authors of these books explain, generative discussions are broad, open-ended conversations about the meaning of any number of concepts, trends, and opportunities. For instance, a board might have a generative discussion around questions such as, “What do we mean when we talk about ‘vision’?” Among their many benefits, generative discussions invite new thinking and new insight. By making it possible to talk about what things mean, they deepen the CEO/board relationship.
- Board structures that make sense. Boards that maximize their relationship with the CEO have ongoing conversations about committee structures, the content of agendas, and care deeply about how their time is used. Just because something’s always been done one way doesn’t mean it can’t be done differently now. Just because all other boards are doing it doesn’t mean it’s in the organization’s best interest. At the heart of such conversations is mindfulness, and an acknowledgement that principles may be fixed but circumstances change.?
- A commitment to recruiting great trustees. Boards have duties to care, loyalty, and obedience. I believe they also have a fourth duty: pruning. Many nonprofit boards refuse to streamline their ranks. Instead, they tolerate trustees who don’t give, don’t participate, and don’t contribute. Trustees who exhibit these behaviors obscure board, CEO, and organization potential. They substitute mediocrity for excellence. As a result, the organization flounders. Their time and the CEO’s time may be consumed by the inconsequential. On the other hand, in partnership with their CEOs, boards that recruit great trustees (typically trustees of high capacity and extensive networks) are much more likely to achieve their goals.??
As I mentioned earlier, these are only some components of a successful board/CEO partnership, and each takes work. But that work is an investment, and that investment is likely to develop its own momentum. Boards and CEOs may find it challenging to develop one characteristic, but easier to develop the one after that, and the one after that.
Michael Walter?writes about nonprofit leadership. He is Director of Special Initiatives at Encore Community Services in New York City.?
