Whether they come to be in the role of employer because they own a company, manage an organization, or because they serve on a not-for-profit board of directors, many people still feel that if they sign the cheques, they are the boss, and ultimately, should be entitled to get what they want with as few questions asked as possible. Volunteer board members and executive directors often indulge this mindset and don’t even realize it.

The short-term results can be devastating to a small or fledgling not-for-profit organization. They can include: lawsuits by disgruntled employees; high staff turnover; damaged relationships with donors and even service interruptions for the members or consumers who rely on the organization. Over the long-term, a command-and-control mindset within the leadership ranks all but eliminates the organization’s capacity for progress or innovation, as the decision-makers focus on second-guessing day-to-day operational decisions rather than on equipping themselves to deliver the community or sectoral leadership they were elected or appointed to provide.

So what prompts seemingly well-intentioned people who are reasonable in almost every other aspect of their lives to be entirely unreasonable when relating to the people they must rely on to get a job done? Often, the culprit is an outdated view of work and the workplace. A closer look at three of the common assumptions that underscore this view makes it easy to see just how risky it is to let command-and-control mindsets go unchallenged.

Assumption 1:

The “boss” knows as much or more than the employee about the organization and the work it does

Increased specialization in the world of work has unique implications for leaders in the not-for-profit and association sector. It has long been the case that no individual board member or board of directors as a whole, no matter how dedicated, how qualified or how intelligent they are, could possibly know as much as the executive director does about how the organization actually functions, what each work unit does, what it costs and where improvements are needed. In recent years, however, the executive director may not even know as much about the specific intricacies of the organization’s work as the organization’s senior managers and major suppliers do. He or she doesn’t need to. In today’s documentation-rich environment, accountability and control are automatically built into most work processes, meaning leadership is no longer about control. Now, it’s about things like coordination, collaboration, empowering those closest to the work, and creating an environment where innovation naturally occurs. An executive director who exhibits these skills, but is faced with a command-and-control board isn’t likely to stick around long.

Assumption 2:

Collaboration with employees is impossible; they must be strictly controlled or they will take advantage

Without realizing it, many people have internalized the idea that the nature of employment is inherently adversarial, with each side trying to get the most for itself while giving as little as possible to the other. For senior personnel in most fields, going to work is usually about much more than just getting a pay cheque or putting in their time. This is even more likely to be the case with executive directors, senior managers or suppliers whose entire careers have been in the not-for-profit sector. Typically, they are forward-thinking individuals, who have a passion for helping others and creating positive societal change. They are internally motivated and will naturally reject structures or people who don’t acknowledge this. To focus on controlling such employees rather than creating opportunities that capitalize on their passion is a mistake no organization can afford to tolerate.

Assumption 3:

To get work done, you need to hire employees

Most not-for-profit boards of directors make the mistake of hiring when they could just as easily outsource. Almost any organizational function one can imagine can be outsourced: from telephone reception to membership management, to communications, direct service provision and even the day-to-day leadership traditionally provided by an executive director or CEO. In small not-for-profits and associations, outsourcing is typically a better choice at least for the first few years or when budgets are tight. The advantages of outsourcing are many, including dramatically lower operating costs, better documentation, increased data security and a highly pragmatic approach that uses the best tools and technologies available to achieve the highest levels of efficiency.

The major challenge for many boards of directors and executive directors is that outsourced suppliers will usually ask a myriad of questions before taking on a project. They have to do this in order to fully understand a prospective client’s needs, culture and overall direction. Boards of directors and senior staff that are stuck in the command-and-control mindset are likely to interpret the very act of asking such questions as a challenge to their authority. They may feel even more threatened if it becomes clear that the not-for-profit organization has simply not done the level of record-keeping or analysis needed to answer the prospective supplier’s questions. Even if the organization’s prior performance is strong, its leaders may not have developed the skill sets required to participate effectively in such a collaborative forum, or to graciously acknowledge any shortcomings and ask for suggestions.

In the short term, this can result in not-for-profit organizations hiring people to do things in-house even when it is more expensive and less efficient to do so. There is also a significant long-term cost, as outsourcing generally leads to greatly enhanced empirical data about the organization and the people it serves, which forces the both the board of directors and senior staff of the organization to adhere to much higher standards of performance.

If you serve on or work for a board of directors that wants to move beyond a command-and-control mindset, The Association Expert can help. Please contact us at 1-877-685-4288. 

 

One of the most important aspects of succeeding as a volunteer and making a meaningful contribution to an organization is understanding your own motivation for volunteering. Many well-intentioned people carry with them unconscious expectations of what a particular volunteer experience should provide for them. Leaving these expectations uncovered, unexamined and unchallenged is one of the surest ways of winding up frustrated and burnt out. It’s also one of the surest ways of hurting the very organization or cause that you're trying to help. 

If you’ve ever volunteered on a non-profit board, you’ve likely seen the destructive results of directors’ unconscious and unchallenged expectations. They’re often what prompt board members to behave in irrational ways. They may dismiss opposing viewpoints or new ideas out-of-hand, resist efforts to gather quantitative data about an organization’s activities or target market, or reject policies or procedures that might clarify board and staff roles. They may even sabotage the efforts of staff, suppliers or other volunteers in service of their unspoken expectations. In most cases, they won't even realize that they're doing this and that their behavior is doing both the organization and the people it serves a grave disservice.

When the role for which you’re volunteering is to provide leadership, you owe it to yourself and others to do this in a conscious way. This is essential if your goal is to act in the best interests of the organization as a whole and the population it serves, even if these interests don’t in any way dovetail with your own. Self-knowledge, self-awareness, self-management and a willingness to engage in honest and ongoing self-reflection are traits that characterize virtually all board members who make meaningful contributions to the advancement of their organizations. They don't expect a pay-off for the time and energy they spend volunteering. They understand that they're there to give, not to get.  They have the courage to be honest with themsleves when they aren't operating from this higher plane. In short, they're willing to let the challenge of giving transform them in ways that transcend money and power.

Destructive motivators for serving on a volunteer board
Generally speaking, if you’re serving on a volunteer board for any of the following reasons, you are likely to be dissatisfied with your volunteer experience:
-Advance your career
-Gain resume experience
-Expand your circle of acquaintances to include more individuals in positions of power
-Leave your mark on an organization, industry or sector
-Get credit for your ideas
-Exercise leadership in ways you can’t in your professional career or personal life
-Increase your influence in the community
-Influence the direction of an organization or industry
-Influence the direction of public policy concerning an industry or sector
-Influence public perceptions of an industry, sector or organization

But aren’t these the main reasons why most people volunteer? Yes, unfortunately it is, but the real question is why so many people have made the assumption that it is acceptable to expect precious donor and member dollars to be used to facilitate the personal or professional agendas of individual volunteers. If any of the above factors are driving your decision to serve on a board or your actions as a board member—either consciously or unconsciously—you will be diminishing the organization from your first day at the boardroom table. Please, do the organization and the people it serves a favor and stay home.

Constructive motivators for serving on a volunteer board
If you come to serve on a volunteer board as a result of the following motivators, congratulations, you are exactly the kind of person the non-profit, association and community sectors need more of:
-You have been deeply moved by a societal challenge that has not yet been fully addressed and you’re willing to learn all that you can about it, so that you can be of use in finding solutions.
-You have nothing left to prove personally or professionally, only a heartfelt desire to give so that you leave the world a better place.
-You have resources that you wish to commit to improving society or helping people, even if it’s only in one small way.
-You delight in learning from and collaborating with those whose strengths, skills and life experiences differ significantly from your own.
-It gives you pleasure to see others succeed in ways you couldn’t ever have done yourself.
 
The bottome line? The best directors aren’t always the best educated, most experienced or most results-driven. In fact, great boards need process-oriented individuals as much as they do results-driven ones. Sincerity, humility, integrity and faith in people are often better predictors of effectiveness, longevity and satisfaction in board volunteers. A commitment to organizational sustainability and long-term growth is essential, as are patience, perseverance and the ability to cope with and to accept complexity.  Most of all, volunteer board members need to have the willingness and self-awareness  to move beyond traditional power-based and transactional ways of interacting with others as that is what true philanthropy is all about.

For workshops on this subject and self-development exercises you can share with your team, please contact The Association Expert at 1-877-685-4288.

In the early stages of an association's life cycle, members of the board of directors are typically a loosely woven “coalition of the willing.” They tend to be devoted to “the cause,” but may not have a great deal of board governance experience. Even if they do, they can easily get carried away by their own passion for a particular project or initiative, interacting with the association’s executive director or staff team with a sense of urgency that doesn’t take into account the day-to-day realities of association management and administration. As a result, executive directors and senior association staff may feel torn in many directions, as well-meaning volunteers keep handing off items for follow-up.

One of the most common staff mistakes at this stage of the organization’s development is trying to respond to every board request as it comes in, or at least as quickly as possible. In their efforts to offer a high level of customer service, staff may in fact be reducing the efficiency and quality of the association’s operations simply by continually attending to “urgent” rather than “important” tasks. Volunteer board members can help prevent this by verbally acknowledging that just because an issue is of high priority in terms of their volunteer work, doesn’t mean that it should take immediate precedence over other items staff are working on. An organization and its members benefit when both volunteer board members and senior staff approach operations with quality, efficiency and sustainability in mind. Here are a few ideas:    

1)            Set a consistent schedule
Tasks that are scheduled in advance and that are part of a daily, weekly or monthly routine are far less likely to be problematic than tasks that are undertaken “as needed.” A task that is assigned to a specific individual or group, and is scheduled to take place at a specific time, such as every second Monday at 2:00 pm, is a task you can follow-up on as a director or manager. Everybody knows it needs to happen, it is part of at least one person’s job description, and it becomes part of your organization’s regular operating routine.  

2)            Stop task-switching
In association environments, most employees, suppliers and volunteers must balance many competing demands for their time. To keep pace with these competing demands, they’re often inclined to try to tackle each item or request as soon as possible after they’ve received it. This is a recipe to for decreased efficiency and increased error rates because it typically involves switching from one type of task to another. Categorizing incoming items or requests and processing them in batches not only reduces the time each task takes to complete, it allows the individual or group performing the task to compare similar items within each batch, thereby enhancing operational consistency.

3)            Reduce time stress
One of the side-effects of working in the age of instant and pervasive digital communication is that many of us feel obligated to provide instant responses or results, even when dealing with complex issues, projects or processes. As an association board member, executive director or manager, it’s important to recognize this tendency in yourself and others and deliberately choose a different approach. Now isn’t always better. Always give yourself, your staff team and your volunteers much more time than is necessary to complete various tasks, so that people can truly think about what they’re doing, can perform at their peak and can take some satisfaction in task completion rather than being pressured to jump to the next task.  

4)            Reduce task complexity
The truth about most work processes and systems is that they evolve incrementally and often don’t keep pace with the organization’s growth. As a result, what started out as a perfectly simple process that worked well when it was designed may have been added onto so many times that it is so complex or time-consuming that nobody, no matter how well trained or how much time they have, can correctly complete certain tasks on a consistent basis. Long-time employees or volunteers who have been part of this evolution may not even realize this is the case. Prior to assigning a task to an employee, supplier or volunteer, take an honest look at the steps involved and ask yourself if each one is really still necessary. Simplify wherever possible.

5)            Accept that mistakes are part of life
Ironically, associations that take steps to anticipate and respond to errors made by staff or volunteers tend to deliver better member service and achieve higher levels of organizational performance. They also tend to have higher board member and staff retention rates. One of the reasons for this is that anticipating potential errors and developing plans to deal with them forces the association’s leadership team to undertake a significant amount of operational and process analysis. The level of shared insight team members develop allows them to quickly move beyond the blame game when problems occur and to move toward sustainable long-term solutions.  

To find out more about how The Association Expert™ can help you develop affordable, customized strategies to enhance the quality or efficiency of your organization’s operations, please contact us at 1-877-685-4288.

Ensuring that your association has a compelling vision, not  just for itself as an organization, but for the industry or sector it
represents is one of the most important things you’ll do as a volunteer board member. Do it well and your contribution to the advancement of industry will  be felt for decades to come, inspiring and empowering future generations of entrepreneurs. Do it poorly and your industry can quickly become less relevant to consumers and less appealing to investors. Declining levels of association  membership are usually a strong indicator that the board either hasn’t developed or hasn’t communicated a vision for the future that resonates with the members. The strategies listed below are just a few of the options available to an association board that isn’t living up to its full leadership potential. It will usually take a combination of approaches to overcome the vision-impairment challenge.
 
1)  Make sure all directors understand the role of an industry association  board
Just because someone heads up a successful enterprise doesn’t mean they automatically know what their role as an industry association director is. Ensure that each director understands what the organization’s mission is, has a good sense of the organization's history and of his or her obligation to create new opportunities for all of the association’s members, not just those of a certain size or in a certain location or following a specific business model.

2)  Encourage directors to continually evaluate their own expectations
Associations of all kinds suffer when board volunteers look to their involvement in the organization to meet personal needs such as gaining resume experience, enhancing their own profile or advancing a certain agenda with respect to regulatory changes. The interests of the  membership as a whole, both now and in the future, always have to be each director’s primary focus. When individual agendas or a desire for recognition are allowed to prevail, the range of possibilities the board will consider becomes too narrow to be effective.
 
3)  Do less and think more
Vision, leadership and groundbreaking ideas will always be in short supply at the board level if board members are spending time and energy on the wrong things. If the bulk of their time is spent on "administrivia" or short-term "projects," insufficient time and attention will be allocated to expanding the organization’s knowledge of the factors affecting its members. A first step to tackling this problem is for the board chairs to start monitoring how the board as a whole and individual board volunteers spend their time. You can inexpensively outsource most any task involving handling money, data or member communications, but there is no subsistute for volunteers who are focused on representing members' interests at the board table. 

4) Foster a learning culture at all levels of the organization 
Knowledge inspires imagination and ultimately, vision. Many small and fledgling associations use a working board structure. Each board member takes on a different task or role and engages his or her contacts both within and outside of the organization to make their project a success. Larger associations tend to focus on governance and making sure the organization’s policies are sufficient to ensure sound staff performance relative to predetermined goals. Both models leave volunteers at risk of becoming so consumed by specifics that they do not keep enhancing their knowledge of the industry, beyond their immediate sphere of experience. A learning board commits to both continuous learning and to continuous sharing what it learns with the membership at large. The learning board understands that members with a broader vision will result in a better future for the industry as a whole. 
 
5)  Acknowledge the underlying cause of past mistakes
There is perhaps nothing so toxic to the vision of an industry association board than reluctance to admit and truly understand past mistakes. Volunteer board members have a tendency to assume that because the faces around the board room table or in the office have changed, the organization’s output will as well. However, if an organization’s vision or values have been unclear in the past, this is most likely reflected in the organization’s policies (or lack thereof) and the association’s performance will be less than optimal, even if the current board, staff and suppliers are great. Never settle for serving on a board that goes from crisis to crisis, simply because everyone is too polite to confront past mistakes. What isn't acknowledged can't ever be fixed.

6)  Focus on the mission
Mission statements and organizational efforts to develop mission statements are often the butt of jokes; however, crafting a concise statement of the organization’s mission can be a good way of focusing the board’s attention on what’s really important. At minimum, an association should have in writing and periodically revisit and reaffirm the following:
-Its vision for the industry or sector
-Mission of the organization
-Values or principles that guide the organization’s decisions and actions
More than just PR tools, these items are vital guidelines for organizational performance. In most cases, the best way to develop or revise them is to engage an outside professional with strong facilitation skills and experience working with organizations of your association’s own size and scope.

Please contact The Association Expert if you need customized board member orientation manuals, training or other resources to help your board of directors overcome leadership challenges.