Straight out of undergrad I led a nonprofit and was mystified by my Board. I didn’t deeply know them and what made each of them tick. They didn’t really know one another (or me) either. This lack of deep ‘knowing’ impacted our relationship and sometimes led to: miscommunications, mistrust, and inaction. Since then, I’ve sat on many Boards and worked as a consultant to help strengthen others. As Oprah would say, here’s what I know for sure…
The short-cut to getting to know your board:
1. It’s all about the relationships!
We all know this. How does one develop trusting Board relationships? Really, really get to know them and create the opportunity for them to really know one another: use a research-based behavioral/personality assessment process for Board development.
Invest in deep individual personality/behavioral assessments and a fearless facilitator. I’ve found the Winslow Assessment System the most effective because it is designed by psychologists specifically for measuring workplace traits like trust, flexibility, endurance, conscientiousness and composure. Ask Board members to take the assessment in advance of your Board Retreat – they’ll thank you for giving them a welcome self-reflection break. Have the results aggregated so that your facilitator is ready to share the group’s traits and lead a structured conversation that leads to action.
Go beyond meetings, cocktail parties and fund-raisers to establish authentic connectedness – you’ll lay the foundation for a sustainably high-functioning Board.
2. What I like about you, me – and us.
Sharing the personality assessment results is guaranteed to change the quality of conversations, interactions, and action-orientation. Imagine, sharing a common language for describing the Board as a living, breathing bundle of traits rather than positions or donor amounts? At the Board retreat, you’ll initially hear things like:
- Wow, look at how strong we are in…!
- Individuals will begin sharing, “Oh that’s me” echoed by “me too.”
- I had no idea that I/you are so…creative, flexible, ambitious, responsible, in need of recognition, struggling with endurance, are coachable…
- The facilitator will guide the conversation with prompts like: What do we have in common?
- What’s different? How might this impact our work together?
The room will crackle with energy as people have revelatory moments, spot what they have in common and what differences there are between them. You’ll find your Board members getting more vulnerable with one another than ever before – this is what builds trust – igniting a sustainably high-functioning Board.
3. What’s here, what’s missing, and what’s next.
In a recent Board retreat, I was amazed see that 90% of the members possessed extremely high creativity. No wonder the Board had a pattern of sending the ED running in two or three new directions after each meeting: overabundance of an otherwise great trait. We recognized, reflected and made plans to contain that trait so that we could achieve the strategic plan goals.
Here’s a taste of how we began thinking about our behavioral/personality traits to move toward increased trust, communication and truly shared accountability:
What traits are missing or over-represented that might be holding us back from the results we want? For instance in Winslow Assessment terms: What does it mean for us that our Board is high in ambition and low in trust? Low in tough-mindedness and low in self-confidence? Now that we see our traits data in objective terms, what specific actions do we need to take?
Establishing deeper Board relationships that come with authentic ‘knowing’ of one another is a developmental best practice guaranteed to move you farther, faster!
Want to learn more about how to readily identify the core strengths of your board members? Come say “hi” on Twitter and we’ll get started!
Originally posted on http://www.nextlevelnonprofits.com September 2012
