No association or other non-profit board of directors training session would be complete without a review of the board’s responsibility for setting policy and the staff’s separate and different responsibility for executing policy. It is extremely important for a board and staff to understand and adhere to the lines that separate their different roles and responsibilities. A blurring of those lines by one encroaching into the other’s territory can result in an association becoming dysfunctional.
There is a problem with this, though. So much emphasis is placed on what is different between the two that sometimes little or no attention is paid to matters that should be the same for the board and staff. Most important among these is a shared commitment to the core values of trust, respect, and communication. These values serve as the underpinning to the staff-board relationship. Neither the board nor the staff is any more or less obligated to contribute in building a foundation of trust, respect and communication. Failure to do so by one or both will lead to an association becoming dysfunctional as surely as when one crosses the line into a role or responsibility held by the other.
Trust. It sounds as simple as it does obvious. However, small fissures can develop almost imperceptibly in the board/staff trust relationship and can eventually lead to a deep schism. Retracing a major internal issue to its roots will often reveal a lack of fundamental mutual trust. One of the most frequent trust issues that can creep into the relationship is that of motives. Members of a staff may come to believe that one or more board member’s judgment is being driven by self-interest rather than the association interests. The same question can arise from a board perspective about the staff – is the staff looking out for itself more so than for the association and its members? When motives come under fire, trust is the first casualty.
The best way for staff members and board members to avoid issues of trust is for each to take ownership of their own trust worthiness – for each to focus on themselves along with the members of their own group, and to steadfastly demonstrate that their motives and other matters of trust are above reproach, and to call the hand of any colleague who demonstrates otherwise.
Respect is the second value that must be mutually held by an association’s board and staff. The starting point for mutual respect is for each to recognize that the other is fully deserving of respect. A successful association staff is one that is dedicated to the association’s interests, hardworking, and effective in carrying out the work. A successful board is one in which the volunteer leaders give of their limited time, raise themselves above self and parochial interests, and willingly share their expertise. Boards and staffs that exhibit these characteristics richly deserve each other’s respect. Conversely, maintaining respect in the absence of any of these qualities is very difficult.
Communication is a critical value, both as a means to the ends of trust and respect, and also as an end unto itself. Trust can be demonstrated by what is communicated and how. A board communicates trust when it provides basic strategic direction on a matter, and then steps back and allows the staff to determine the best way to execute that direction. A staff communicates respect when it seeks board members’ experience based advice on matters related to the industry or profession represented by the association.
The importance of communication for communication’s sake can be seen in the common staff misstep of becoming so focused on getting the work done that there is a failure to adequately inform the board that the work is getting done. Boards are just like individuals. If they don’t receive information, they tend to make up information. And if they are not told that the work is getting done, the information they may understandably make up is that the work is not getting done. Another failure to communicate example is when board members have issues or at least questions about staff performance, but don’t communicate those concerns, or don’t communicate them in a proper manner.
One of the most important factors in solidifying a board and staff’s sharing of the values of respect, trust and communication is the extent to which that sharing occurs in the relationship between the associations’s chief elected officer and the chief staff person. Clearly and frequently modeling these values in their partnership will serve to foster the same trust, respect and communication in the broader staff and board partnership.
That word – partnership – sums it up. Partners – be they business, personal or an association board and staff – will bring different abilities to the relationship, they will have different roles and they will carry out different responsibilities. But despite all those differences, there must be a common bond that connects them – one forged from trust, respect and communication.
September 08, 2008
