Dear Jeffrey,

I’m resigning from the nonprofit board that I’ve been a part of many years. The meetings are unproductive, the chair facilitates meetings but doesn’t lead the organization, and there are two boardmembers who are consistently negative and bring the board down. It’s as though they believe the executive works directly for them, the work in committees doesn’t mean anything, and their opinions dominate virtually every discussion. I’d like to depart with some constructive criticism and suggestions rather than with anger and accusations. What’s your advice?

Signed
- Burned Out On Boards

Unfortunately, “burned out” isn’t alone. Of all the inquiries that I receive, this letter and its observations are the most common.

The Third Sector can’t afford to lose good boardmembers due to burn out or frustration. Here’s the advice that I gave to this reader in the hopes that it may help other nonprofit trustees who may be similarly considering resigning from the worthwhile causes in our community that desperately need good board leadership:

Each of the frustrations outlined in your letter has been developing over a period of time. These behaviors have become your board’s culture and you, like every trustee, have contributed to it and your resignation will reinforce it. All nonprofit boards have a culture, but as a rule, it isn’t often discussed. The subject is a prime candidate for a good board retreat.

The two best ways to understand and manage board culture is to constantly monitor it and have a group of people responsible for it. Conducting an annual board assessment gathers the perceptions of every trustee on how well the board functions. The results are then analyzed by a Board Development or Governance Committee whose chief responsibility is to evolve the board and its members to be of maximum benefit to the organization and its mission.

Unproductive board meetings are usually the result of a board not seeing its own strategic plan as policy and the board meeting as the place to discuss the issues, opportunities and deliverables associated with that plan. It sounds like the board has ventured away from its role as governors of policy.

My mantra is that a board’s agenda must reflect the 10 duties of board governance and its deliverables, implement an approved board development plan, and invite or recognize the contributions of people to the organization’s overall progress and success. If an agenda item doesn’t meet one of these three criteria, it probably doesn’t belong on the agenda or, at best, is an announcement.

As clearly outlined in your letter, the biggest elephant in your board room is the board’s culture for managing dissention and obstructive behavior. For many board leaders this is the toughest because it’s loaded with politics.

A board must agree to follow a set of rules for decision-making and everyone has an obligation to see that those rules are followed. Either by necessity, law or practicality, the decision-making rules may change depending on the topic so it’s best to get agreement on how a decision is going to be made when volunteers, committees, staff and board are involved in a process and before everyone gets caught up in it.

The current culture has led your outspoken trustees to believe they have veto power in decision-making processes.

Please share my advice, but also take my advice before you resign: Every boardmember has a leadership role in shaping the culture of a board. Talk about your board’s culture, get to know outspoken boardmembers and share your perceptions with them, demand clear decision-making processes, advocate for a board development program, invite directed and productive board meetings, and encourage leaders to keep their eyes on good governance and growing the organization in the community.

Changing a board’s culture isn’t easy. Don’t take the easy way out when a community is counting on its nonprofit boards to do some heavy lifting to help others.

(Jeffrey R. Wilcox, CFRE, is president and chief executive officer of The Third Sector Company, Inc. Join in on the conversation about this article on Facebook or drop us a line at jwilcox@thirdsectorcompany.com)