I had an amazing conversation with a client this week. He’s the Board President of an organization that is facing many challenges.
They’ve been around for years but have relied too heavily on government grants. (Can you feel what’s coming?) Over the past few years, the state has cut their budget repeatedly, so this organization’s funding is shrinking. They finally realized a couple of years ago that they were going to HAVE to do some fundraising if they were going to maintain their service level, so they hired their first Director of Development. She’s doing a good job – writing grants, running events, sending out newsletters and appeals, etc.
One of the biggest problems in this organization is the Executive Director. He seems to get in the way of progress more than he helps. At a recent Board meeting, it was clear that the ED wasn’t on the same page with his Development staff.
Back to my conversation with the Board President. Great guy. Trying hard to do the right thing. He took the ED to lunch and told him, in a supportive way, that he should be supportive of his Development staff’. Basically, he gave the ED an attitude adjustment! I was so proud of him for that, but also in the way he did it. He was firm and supportive at the same time. I’ve been really concerned about this organization for a while, but they seem to be moving in the right direction (however slowly).
As the Board President and I talked, I realized yet again how important – no, how CRITICAL it is to have a strong leader in the Executive Director role. In order to really be successful, you MUST have someone who can hold a vision, motivate staff, and do the right thing.
I recently led a call for the Get Fully Funded Support Club on strong leaders. I talked about the 10 characteristics of a strong leader, what to do if you are the leader, and what to do if you’re not the leader. If you’d like to listen to the audio, simply become part of the club and you’ll have access to this audio plus many more. It’s just $17 for your first month. www.getfullyfundedsupport.com/benefits.html.
Good post.
Interesting that the Executive Director and Director of Development had not “vetted” the ideas prior to the board meeting? That just seems to be good staff work. Sounds as though there are internal issues within the staff that could be corrected.
Steve
Steve, I believe you’re right. That’s what I thought too. It’s important for staff to talk these things through before Board meetings and obviously that didn’t happen.
Sandy