Issue No. 276 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting says there is a 30-minute fix to solve the confusion over the three board hats: Governance, Volunteer and Participant. Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.
Board Dysfunction X 11.3 Million!
Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, famously said: “There is one thing all boards have in common. They do not function.”
Google “board dysfunction” and you’ll hit the jackpot with 11.3 million results! So why is dysfunction so rampant on church boards, nonprofit boards and company boards?
One reason is the confusion over the three board hats: Governance, Volunteer and Participant.
In the hot-off-the-press ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 2: Balancing Board Roles, the short DVD and the Board Member Read-and-Engage Viewing Guide makes this obvious, but seldom practiced point:
“If you need a board member—recruit a board member.
If you need a volunteer—recruit a volunteer.”
The 20-page viewing guide (12 per toolbox) includes a board self-assessment tool for each hat—a perfect resource for your next board meeting.
Agree or Disagree?
The Governance Hat:
• “We invite spiritually discerning and governance-savvy people to consider board service—but we don’t propose marriage on the first date!”
• “In our organizational annual planning process, we seek to hear God’s voice and spiritually discern His direction. We also ‘own the strategy.’”
The Volunteer Hat:
• “We are crystal clear—when recruiting new board members—that the Volunteer Hat is optional for board members and volunteer service must be passion-based, and aligned with a volunteer’s spiritual gifts, strengths and ‘social style.’”
• We have written board policies and/or protocols that carefully define the reporting relationship for board members when they volunteer in the organization. (Read: The Imperfect Board Member, by Jim Brown)
• During a board meeting, when a zealous board member inappropriately brings a Volunteer Hat situation or problem to the table, our board chair graciously moves the discussion back to the agenda and true Governance Hat topics.
The Participant Hat
“Board members should be informed, up front, of the organization’s realistic expectations regarding attendance at ministry events (graduations, walk-a-thons, annual celebrations, etc.). Effective boards leverage a Board Member Annual Affirmation Statement, a document signed annually by both new and current members that spells out the specifics for all three hats. This annual affirmation also adds rich meaning to the spiritual calling of board service and inspires high commitment.”
This second-in-a-series toolbox from ECFA includes online access to helpful templates, including the annual affirmation statement, plus other resources.
The “View-Inspire-Engage” toolbox includes the 11-minute DVD, 12 Board Member Read-and-Engage Viewing Guides, and a Facilitator Guide with just-in-time help to engage your board on this fork-in-the-road core competency. The Facilitator Guide provides three discussion options:
Option 1: 15-30 minute board discussion
Option 2: 30-60 minute discussion
Option 3: Board Retreat (or a 2-hour session)
Referencing the ten basic responsibilities of nonprofit boards from BoardSource, this ECFA resource will enrich a board member’s understanding of the additional stewardship requirements of Christ-centered boards, especially noting the difference between decision-making and spiritual discernment (how do boards hear from God?).
In the book, Stewards of a Sacred Trust: CEO Selection, Transition and Development for Boards of Christ-centered Organizations, David L. McKenna writes,
“When asked what they would do differently, retired CEOs most often say, ‘I would give more time to developing the board.’”
So how much time does your organization invest in developing and enriching the work of your board?
I had the privilege of writing the video script and viewing guide content for Series No. 1 and No. 2 in the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series. So I know you’ll appreciate the brevity and real life chuckles for the “In the Trenches Board Stories” vignettes. Series No. 2 includes the humorous episode, “The Day We Pushed Frank Out the Door…and Off the Board,” which spotlights the solution when a board member has high passion for the Volunteer Hat and zero passion for the Governance Hat.
If your board tends to have fuzzy distinctions between the three hats, then this could be the most cost-effective investment in your board this year. This resource will help your board members focus their limited time on their highest priority: Governance. As Peter Drucker reminds us:
“Time is the scarcest resource
and unless it is managed
nothing else can be managed.”
To order this toolbox from ECFA, click on the title: ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 2: Balancing Board Roles – Understanding the 3 Board Hats: Governance, Volunteer, Participant.
Click here to read my review of Series No. 1: Recruiting Board Members – Leveraging the 4 Phases of Board Recruitment: Cultivation, Recruitment, Orientation, Engagement.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) In the Governance Hat discussion, the toolbox quotes Jim Brown, author of The Imperfect Board Member, who writes, “Boards don’t need to hear how busy the CEO is—they need to hear about results.” What does our board measure? Are we activity-driven or results-driven? Do we measure spiritual impact?
2) The toolbox quotes Ram Charan, “With the right composition, a board can create value; with the wrong or inappropriate composition, it can easily destroy value.” Really? How could our board destroy value here?
Sustaining Motivation: A By-Product - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
This issue’s big idea from Mastering the Management Buckets, (Chapter 12, The Volunteer Bucket) is to think differently about what motivates a volunteer.
Al Newell, co-founder of High Impact Volunteer Ministry Development, says if you pursue discipleship, then motivation will follow. He writes:
“Sustaining motivation is better understood as a by-product as opposed to a goal of itself. It is my experience that if you pursue discipleship with volunteers, motivation will follow. If volunteers see the fulfillment of their role as ‘obeying and serving God’ rather than serving you or your organization it will cause motivation to swell.”
Before you copy, steal or misappropriate all the secular tips, tricks and manipulations for motivating volunteers, just take a breath, read your Bible, and then discern what is really at the heart of volunteer service. It could be a fork-in-the-road paradigm shift for your organization!
Visit the Volunteer Bucket webpage for free downloads and more resources.
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