Oops…You’re the Boss.
How Boards can support organizations going through voluntary leadership transitions.
According to ChatGPT, I should definitely join a Board of Directors:
“Joining a nonprofit board can be a highly rewarding experience for several reasons.
1. it allows you to contribute to a cause you're passionate about, leveraging your skills and expertise to make a meaningful impact on the community.
2. it offers the opportunity to develop and enhance your leadership and strategic thinking skills, .
3. It can expand your network, connecting you with like-minded individuals and potential collaborators.
4. It also provides a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities within the nonprofit sector, enriching your understanding of societal issues and organizational dynamics.
Overall, board service offers both personal fulfillment and professional growth, while playing a crucial role in advancing important missions and initiatives.”
Making an impact on a problem I am passionate about … enhancing my leadership skills … growing my network … gaining insight into societal issues … taking action to improve my community? Sign me up! Sounds like a dream role.
It can be, and in a lot of ways ChatGPT has got it right. Personally, my board experience has enabled me to make an impact on a broader scale. I've met some incredible people, and board service has given me opportunities to grow my skills and expertise.
But when you’re sitting on a board of directors, all it takes is one unexpected meeting request that ends with you holding a resignation letter to throw off your whole week. Your whole month, even. Because you are the boss now. Running a real business. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just had a baby, begun a much-needed career break, or have to rush from the meeting to drive your kid to college. You’ve suddenly gone from eager volunteer to unpaid staff. And not just any staff, but the most powerful staff in the organization. Sorry to rain on the parade.
The good news is, you’re likely not the only person on the board feeling the stress of the resignation, so this will be a collective experience, and the burden of finding a replacement won’t be just yours to shoulder. Unless everyone else scurries away like roaches when the lights come on- we are, after all, volunteers. Kidding (mostly) aside, navigating a successful leadership transition within a nonprofit organization is the biggest impact you can have as a board member. And during this time of unprecedented and widespread leadership change in the nonprofit industry, the chances of a board member landing in this kind of position are actually quite high.
Yes, with power comes great responsibility, and this is your opportunity to shine. Here’s how:
Get comfortable with your power. Whether you knew you were signing up for this or not, the organization is depending on you to step into your new role with confidence. When a leader announces their resignation, employee anxiety often skyrockets. If you’ve ever loved a job, you know how much your happiness at work is tied to the person you report to, and even to the person at the very top. We fear the unknown, and since governance models don’t generally focus on familiarity between board members and staff, your job is to show staff they can count on you — yes, you, a group of volunteers — to hire someone they’ll want to follow.
Announce the departure to the board and leadership. Once the shock of the resignation wears off, communicate the departure to the rest of the board. Then, gather the outgoing leader and any board members who can jump into a last-minute meeting together to discuss a plan. This plan should include:
Designating a small group (2-3 people) of board members who will respond in real time to needs as they arise, with permission to make quick decisions as necessary, throughout the leadership transition period.
Deciding how and when to tell the leadership team—the outgoing leader’s direct reports. The outgoing leader should be the one to do this and report back to the board when it’s complete.
Deciding when, where and how the board will meet directly with the leadership team. This should happen as quickly as possible after the team learns about the resignation.
Meet with the Leadership Team. Do a power pose before this meeting, because the more you can project confidence, calm and thoughtfulness, the better this conversation will go. Besides demonstrating that the leadership team can trust you, the goal is for the staff to feel that their worries and concerns have been heard. Let them be anxious and scared before they have to become confident leaders to their teams. Leverage their expertise about how to proceed with additional communication, both internally and externally. Learn about the leadership team's top-of-mind concerns, as this will inform your transition plan.
Oversee and support the communication plan. After meeting with the leadership team, the outgoing leader and staff should begin drafting an internal and external communication plan. Meanwhile, the board starts on the transition plan. The communication plan should be a very detailed document that outlines key messages (which will require details from the transition plan), exact dates and times announcements will be made, and each person’s role in making those announcements and fielding questions from staff and stakeholders. Staff are to be notified first (and told exactly when they can start communicating publicly), quickly followed by major donors and community partners, other donors and stakeholders, and lastly to the public via social media. Once the staff-at-large are told, the rest should happen within two days.
Create a transition plan. This is a board-only activity, with input and resources gathered by the outgoing leader as needed, and should happen before the staff-at-large and stakeholders are notified. An executive search often takes about six months, and most outgoing leaders can only give a month’s notice if they are leaving for another job. You’ll need someone to lead the organization in the interim. Boards will often quickly promote an internal leader in the interim, which in the short term alleviates staff and board anxiety, and plow into a search and recruitment process. This isn’t always a bad plan. However, slowing down to consider all of your options is important. Once the plan is created, communicate it first to the leadership team, and then incorporate it into the key messages of the communication plan as outlined in step 3. If you need help with this step, connect with me about my transition planning services.
Find an interim leader. The urgency of the concerns you learn about from staff and through conversations with other board members will help you determine the type of interim you need. For the most part, trained interim executives are prepared for most scenarios, but it’s best to confirm the candidate you’re considering is confident enough in their expertise to meet the organization’s needs. For example, if the most pressing concern is workplace culture and leadership retention, finding an interim whose passion and expertise is in finance and fundraising may not be the best fit and vice versa.
Choose an executive search firm. We are facing an unprecedented amount of turnover in nonprofit leadership, and talent pools have diminished significantly. For these reasons and others, many organizations are investing in search firms to actively recruit their new leader. If you decide to go in this direction you will get the best results by working very closely with them throughout the process, and by ensuring your interim leader is involved, as they will quickly become the expert on the needs of the organization.
Relax and let go. That was a joke, but you’ll be tempted. This is the point where you’ll feel like you’re no longer useful. Someone is leading the day-to-day, and someone else is finding the next leader, so why would anyone need you? It’s true they may need you less often, but they still need you to remain active. Stay closely connected to the interim leader. You are their boss, and they will still need support. If your interim leader is an existing staff member who is serving as interim while also doing their “regular” job, do not underestimate the support they’ll need from you. Check in regularly, provide updates on the executive search and see what they need from the board. Consider hiring them a coach to support them as they navigate this critical responsibility they were not planning to have.
Once the new leader is hired, the real work begins. Again, you’ll be tempted to let go and relax, because you’ll be relieved and excited to have chosen a new leader you are (hopefully!) very excited about. It will feel like the finish line, but just like a marriage, the wedding is just the very beginning. The Bridgespan Group’s article “The Nonprofit Board’s Role in Onboarding and Supporting a New CEO” is an incredible resource that covers all the bases.
If you are currently on a board of directors, thank you. Serving on a board of directors for a cause you care about is an incredible opportunity to contribute to the organization, and while a leadership transition is stressful, seeing one through is by far the biggest impact you can have as a board member. If you need assistance with any part of this process, from planning, to interim leadership and coaching, we’d love to work with you.