A small effort that gives you a big boost in your relationship with your board.
I’ve known many situations where an executive director needed support from their board and didn’t get it, because the board members were essentially strangers to the ED and to the work.
So, I recommend that you make sure to build time into each board meeting to show off the successes of your organization’s work.
The insider newsletter is a way for an executive director to keep their relationship with their board warmed up.
Why is there a need for this?
If you’re an ED who’s a stranger to your board, they might not be there for you when you need them — and then you can be in real trouble.
And this can happen more easily than you might think: If your board meets for two hours a month, that’s only 24 hours over the course of a whole year — which is not much time for them to get to know you.
It can get worse: If the board cancels the August meeting “because everyone is on vacation,” and then cancels the December meeting “because the holidays are so busy” — now that’s only 20 hours a year.
Say a board member misses two meetings? Now that contact time is down to 16 hours, or the mere equivalent of two workdays out of an entire year.
And if board meetings are filled with reports, that doesn’t leave much time for you to build a relationship with each of the board members.
What does an ED need from board members?
- Partnership: You want board members to know you, appreciate you, and be on your side. You want them to be your advocate, too.
- Crisis Management: If they only spend time with you in meetings where you’re talking about problems and crises, they might begin to see you as a “problem person” — even if you handle those problems really well in the end.
- Strategic Planning: When it’s time to do strategic planning, you want board members to have respect for you, listen to your ideas, and take your proposals seriously.
- Annual Evaluations: When it comes time for your annual evaluation, you want board members to see you as someone who is successful and upbeat.
- And if, God forbid, a board member decides they don’t like you and comes after you? You’ll want to have a strong relationship with the rest of the board members so they’ll stand by you and defend you.
Make time to develop a positive relationship with each of your board members. This could be calling them, taking them to lunch, or asking them to give you their best thinking one-to-one on critical issues.
And I recommend that you set up an “Insider Newsletter.”
Here’s how it works.
It’s an email.
You keep it short: Maybe only two or three sentences. Sometimes it can be a little longer if you have a really good story to tell.
You use the same subject line on every one, like: “Insider Newsletter,” “Top of the news from the Teen Action Program,” or “Sound bite from the Teen Action Program.” Whenever board members see that subject line, they know it will be a quick read and a fun read, so they’ll click on it first.
Most importantly, the content is only good news or thank yous.
For examples, read more.…