What Is A Board To Do?

A lot of my work is with boards—training them on their roles and responsibilities including fundraising, facilitating conversations about succession, leading strategic planning sessions.  What I have noted over the years is that most boards are amazing.  Many in a positive way—they understand their job and do it with zest.  Some in a very negative way—seemingly willfully not understanding what they should be doing.  Most, however, are very much in the middle of the road. They mostly know what they should be doing but they too often leave a very light footprint on the organization.  While most Executive Directors see this in fundraising, I find it more troubling in strategic and succession planning.  

This is particularly insidious when the organization is run by the founder.  The board seems to feel that this person who is so central to the organization now should be the person who determines what comes next. It is too typical for board members to tell me that “the ED hasn’t given us their vision or plan for what happens after they are gone.”

What am I missing?  This is not the founder’s decision as to what happens when they are no longer around. The organization—hard as this seems to be for too many to understand—is not theirs.  To the degree that a public charity has an “owner,” it is the community at large, and the board as a governing body represents the community.  That means that the board is on the hook for deciding what happens then.

Think about it.  Your beloved ED is run over by that proverbial bus and isn’t ever coming back to work. And, alas, there is no succession plan.  What happens now?  Yes, the board starts to look for a successor.

With a succession plan, there would be steps to follow that have been considered in a time of less stress.  There would be procedures for what comes next.

A lot of the succession plans I work on are really not plans.  The ED has announced their retirement in X months, and I work with the board to determine the procedure for finding a replacement.  I love it when a board tells me that through this process they feel they have become a stronger board.  Which is precisely what should occur.

But sometimes we do actually consider various scenarios:  The ED resigns with more or less time for the board to find a successor.  Two different cases that are similar but not the same.  The ED is resigned—that is, the board decides that it is time for the ED to go.  This requires thinking about what needs to be in place before that occurs and yes, how to fire an ED in the best possible way.  And then there is the emergency succession:  the ED is out of the picture for a long stretch, but the intention is that they will return.  And the final succession, in short order the ED is not around and will not be returning.  Period.  End of.

You can do internet searches or buy a book and find some good generic advice on succession planning.  But your organization is not generic.  It is important that you do a plan that fits your culture and your resources.  “No worries, we have a great number 2,” is not a scenario that fits most small nonprofits.  Indeed, naming a specific successor only works when the ED gives you time to ensure that person wants the job and, now in the light of actuality, is the person you want.

Succession plans need to take into account what the organization will want to be 18 months after the new person takes over.  What specific things will you want to keep; expand; let go of?  What new things do you want to introduce?  Your hypothetical succession plan—the one that you create but hopefully won’t be using for years—couldn’t give you those answers.  What it will do is remind you at the time that these are issues you must grapple with, and will provide you with a process to follow.

The most important factor to remember about succession planning is that the person who holds the job is not the person responsible for what happens after they are gone.  They should be (instructed to if necessary) ensuring that all relevant documents are easy to access and that there is a record of past and ongoing work.  And if there are future plans that those, too, are clear and easy to find.

Succession planning in so many is much more than deciding who takes on the job of the person leaving.  Whether you are planning for executive or board succession, your anchor point should be what the organization will look like once this change is made.

When a leader leaves, change is inevitable.  Good succession planning helps to guarantee that the change is good and what the board—who understands the clients’ needs and the organizations strengths and weaknesses—desires.