When Internal Discordance Goes Public

YOU'RE READING YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER AND YOU come across this headline "Financial Woes, Board Defections Hurt Arts Center: Former board members question executive director's decisions." Well, that's a little gut-wrenching (particularly if you work or volunteer in the nonprofit sector, or if you're an ED).

How would you react? You'd probably dig right into that article, wouldn't you? Would you also ask yourself what the heck is going on that it's so bad to have made this kind of news?

As you pick your way through the article it becomes clearer that taking the ugly stuff to the press is a symptom of more deeply rooted dysfunctionality. Sure, we readers can see it in a instant -- the lid's just blown off a whole kettle full of long-standing problems:

lack of internal communication (particularly between the board and the CEO)
misunderstanding of roles and responsibilities (on either or both the board's and CEO's parts)
misplaced or unmet expectations
an "us" versus "them" mentality -- a lack of governance or leadership sharing, sometimes overlaid with suspicion
the organization is hemorrhaging red ink (and has been for some time) -- this could also be a symptom, which becomes the tipping point for an explosion/implosion

Don't you think that folks turn to the court of public opinion when they feel they've been wronged and they're not being heard? In one case it was the fired director who needs to clear her name. In another it's a board member who hasn't been able to convince enough of her board peers to fire the director. Or it might be the only way a person thinks his/her concerns will be taken seriously.

Like turning on the lights in a dark room, sometimes moving organizational dysfunction into the realm of public scrutiny can be a good thing. In the case of one organization, local citizens are now calling for the board (via letters to the editor and op-ed pieces) to engage the community in an honest conversation about the organization's future. Sometimes it can help release the toxicity from the organization and offer opportunities for new people and perspectives to become involved.

Sometimes it can have the opposite effect.

Either way, the organization and its mission gets derailed, because it can't function until the crisis is addressed.

How would you handle an internal crisis that suddenly goes public?

Photo: Dear Karrth Sair, from Shadow Viking

Three Most Important Nonprofit Executive Director Soft Skills

If you were asked to narrow down the list of executive director qualifications to the three most important, which ones would you identify? Would the list consist of soft skills, hard skills, or some combination? Would your list be based on the great ED you are or one you've worked for, or would it be your wish list for the ED you haven't been fortunate yet to work for? This was an assignment in my recent online class in leadership and administration for the American Association for State and Local History . I asked the class to review three-five advertisements for museum directors and analyze what these listings intimated about the organization’s past experience, current focus and goals, and future aspirations. Then, I asked the class to identify what they consider to be the three most important qualifications they would look for in a director. (Okay, so there's more than three if you dissect my three big groups.) Soft skills outnumbered hard skills, although

Back in the Saddle

MY LAST POST WAS NOVEMBER 2012, A LIGHT YEAR AWAY it seems, that marked the beginning of a long push toward completing a manuscript on history museum leadership with my co-author, Joan Baldwin. We finally submitted 350+ pages to our editor at Rowman & Littlefield this week. If all goes well, we expect the book to be available in early 2014. It's taken us two years to get to this point, so six more months or so of revision and production don't seem too long to wait until we can hold the final product in our hands (and you can, too!). The project put a lot of things on hold, including this blog. I'm glad to be back writing about intentional leadership -- leading by design -- for nonprofit boards and staffs. Certainly, my thoughts are now informed by the forthcoming book, in which Joan and I posit that nonprofits need to focus resources on leadership, not just management. Most cultural nonprofits are at a crossroad, as is the sector in general, where nothing is qu

What Would Make You Turn Down an Invitation to Join a Board?

THERE'S SO MUCH WRITTEN ABOUT RECRUITING BOARD TALENT, I thought I'd spend a little time thinking about it from the prospect's point of view. Clearly, there are boards where the line is long to get on them. But what would make you turn down an invitation? Here's a short list to get the conversation started: 1. You've had no prior exposure to the organization. Your immediate reaction is "did you pull my name out of a hat?" (Is that lady in the picture the head of the Nominating Committee?) Seems as though there must be a hidden agenda at work (like you're rich and once you become a board member you'll pour all your resources into the organization) or the organization is simply looking for any warm body to fill a seat. 2. The organization doesn't have a good reputation. There's something to be said for street cred. An organization that's floundering may be strengthened by your participation or you may find yourself sucked into

Leading by Design

Search This Blog