Have you ever had the situation where Board members have tried to directly instruct staff, or have questioned senior management decisions outside of the Board meeting, or have taken partial control of staff functions?

Have you viewed this as appropriate and advantageous to the organisation, or disruptive, annoying and interfering? Or maybe even both?

We come across this quite often when we are working with nonprofit Boards and senior executives. We have had late night telephone calls from Directors regarding their concern about management techniques, asking advice about what the Director should do if management isn't doing what the Director expects. We have had emergency meetings with CEOs when they are ready to resign because a Board member has been "interfering". We have seen numerous emails where senior executives complain bitterly about the Board becoming involved in "operational" matters. We have talked with many Boards about their concern that management is not managing. And the list goes on.

There is not always a clear case of inappropriate interference by the Board or Board Members. 

On the one hand, Directors have the right to access everything that goes on in the organisation (with some exceptions mainly related to privacy laws), as in the end, the Director is ultimately responsible. It is also appropriate, prudent, and necessary that a Board member take an interest in the operations and management of the organisation, and that they have conversations with staff and ask questions outside of Board meetings.

On the other hand, the Board members are not staff, and have not been retained to develop operational implementation of strategy. Board members seldom have the specific skill sets required to implement the operational strategies, which is why skilled staff have been hired.

So, what can be done to satisfy the Directors' need for knowledge and accountability, and the executive leadership and staff’s need for operational autonomy?

To read the full article please click here. 

This article was sourced directly from the Strategic Awareness Essentials website here.