25 Jan, 2023

Create Your Board of Directors Balance & Alignment Plan

By |2023-01-23T22:47:22-05:00January 25th, 2023|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

Find balance AND alignment.

The decisions your board of directors makes not only influences your organization’s growth, but impacts how your staff does its job. When a board can’t function, it’s due to one or more of these issues. When these issues arise, it’s time to develop a plan for addressing them.

I’ve been increasingly interacting with board members in my consulting projects. I sit on a few boards myself. These experiences illuminated for me how difficult the nonprofit model can be, and how difficult it can be to make the key parts of a nonprofit–board, executive director, and staff–move smoothly like a wheel.

Speaking of wheels, I considered whether this blog post should focus on balance or on alignment. In fact, when I Googled “balance vs alignment”, I came across multiple articles around tires. This article explains the difference between tire balancing and tire alignment:

“It’s easy to get tire balancing and alignment confused. After all, they both sound like they would do the same thing. But in reality, they are very different services. In the simplest terms, tire balancing uses weights on your wheels to keep your vehicle from vibrating, while an alignment keeps all of your wheels pointing in the same direction for safety and performance.” 

Within the context of boards of directors, individual and collective skillsets, networks, ability to fundraise and speak on behalf of your organization, and ability to choose the best leader to serve as executive director are the balance. Their personal identities and values, ability to engage with staff and other stakeholders, and ability to understand how their decision making impacts how staff are the alignment.

It can be a delicate process to develop a plan to increase balance and alignment within your board and between your board and staff, but with intention, commitment and support, it’s possible.

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4 Jan, 2023

Ask Nicole: What To Do with Ineffective Board Members?

By |2023-01-23T19:53:51-05:00January 4th, 2023|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

Have a question you’d like to be featured? Let me know.

The board of directors is a governing body for an incorporated organization, consisting of individuals that provide strategic governance and support to an organization’s leader, staff, and stakeholders.

Here in the United States, in order to maintain 501(c)3 nonprofit status, an organization needs to have a functioning board. And, unfortunately, inactive and ineffective boards are pretty common in the nonprofit world.

I’ve experienced various board dynamics, both within my consulting role and as a board member for a few nonprofits over the years. I’m fortunate to have served on boards with members dedicated to serving in this capacity and care about organizational mission. However, even with my personal experiences and my interaction with boards in my projects, I’ve noticed quirks among boards that are confusing at best but can also be detrimental to staff if not checked.

While its considered an honor to serve on a board, the decisions a board makes can positively or negatively impact how staff carry out the organization’s mission.

So, how much of this is the fault of the board, and how much rests on the shoulders of the organizations that invite them to serve? Below are 10 things I’ve noticed, and how to spot them in your board:

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24 Aug, 2022

Try This: Assess Staff & Board Buy-In

By |2022-08-22T13:24:01-04:00August 24th, 2022|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

Try this and let me know how it goes for you.

This post is a follow up to What’s in it for Me? Evaluating Stakeholder Engagement, where I shared, “If [the question] “What’s in it for me?” sounds self-serving, it’s because it is. In order to increase engagement, communities and the people driving the actions to produce change should easily see how their involvement leads to the change they wish to see.”

In other words,  what you’re asking them to do not only has to make sense, but has to be worth it for them.

In theory, as their leader, what you should say goes, right? These days, this isn’t without a lot of push back.

In an ideal situation, you wouldn’t have to convince staff and board that what you want to happen matters. I’m sure it’s frustration when you experience the push back.

I recently finished a project where I observed that the executive director cared about that the process than staff and partners did.

Well, I could tell they understood the importance of the project and how it could support their work, but there was major hesitancy.

Let’s explore getting your staff, board (and anyone else that’s important to your project) on board.

This activity is ideal for:

  • Board of directors, staff, and other stakeholders expected to participate in this project

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Schedule time for this activity, where you can work with minimal interruption. Make sure to schedule breaks!
  • Whatever setup you use to capture your process (laptop, pen and paper, whiteboard, etc.). Make sure it’s kept in a place that you can refer back to

The steps:

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