Alfred Sloan was the General Motors Chair and CEO who led GM from the 1920s through the ‘50s and grew it to become largest corporation on Earth at the time.

In a board meeting at GM, Sloan asked the board about an important decision: “I take it that everyone is in basic agreement about this decision?” Everyone nodded yes. Sloan’s response: “Then I suggest we postpone the decision. Until we have some disagreement, we don’t understand the problem.”

Sadly, too many nonprofits are willing to tolerate the disease of ‘congenial dysfunctional politeness’ when it comes to governing boards.

Rather than encourage board members to question organizational assumptions and ask strategic cage-rattling questions, most groups are perfectly content with a go-along-to-get-along culture.

The result more often than not: Stunted growth. Unenthusiastic or ineffective program execution. Poor morale. Lack of innovation and growth-oriented investment. And sometimes even tolerance of corruption.

No wonder in last year’s Agitator Survey, when asked about support from the top, 37% of the respondents said fundraising support from their CEO and Board was “lacking” … 20% said, “they’re clueless”.

As Simone Joyaux noted in response to that Agitator Survey: “Development officers quit. Bosses fire development officers. Boards don’t play. Organizations don’t get it. This vicious cycle threatens financing of the sector. And, this has been going on for years and we aren’t really fixing it.”

It does no good to wring our hands thinking: “That’s the way it is; nothing I can do about it.” In fact, there’s quite a lot anyone who cares about the future of his or her organization can do.

As a first step, go online and order Simone’s practical and powerful new book, Firing Lousy Board Members: And Helping the Others Succeed.

I can’t think of anyone better-versed than Simone in the practical understanding of the interconnection between poor governance and diminished fundraising. And how to fix it.

In reality the book is far, far more than a rant in favor of ridding organizations of awful board members. Instead it’s a helpful, detailed guide on how not to fire folks, but instead focus on finding the right board members and enabling them to be successful. Firing is only the last resort.

Simone covers important topics, in highly readable and practical terms:

• Distinction between board and board member;
• Finding the right board members;
• Role of the governance committee;
• Monitoring board members.

The book also contains a kit of important tools:

• Board job description;
• Performance expectations of the board member;
• Evaluation tools;
• Skills inventory.

Unfortunately, some organizations and their leadership are too afraid to do this important work. What a shame. The process is not as hard as you might think.

More importantly, bad board members produce bad governance. And bad governance is a huge risk for the nonprofit sector.

At worst, bad governance can put an organization – and its board members – on the media’s front page and in the regulators’ and watchdogs’ gun sights involving scandal and corruption. At best, bad governance will stunt or erode an organization’s base of support and drive away the most talented staff and volunteers.

Firing Lousy Board Members: And Helping the Others Succeed should be read — and acted upon — by every CEO, board member, and development officer. Order copies for your group today.

What’s your experience with bad boards as barriers to growth? And how about good boards as enablers of growth?

Roger

P.S. For those who want to dig deeper, I recommend you familiarize yourself with Simone’s columns and insights that can be found in a special section of SOFII.

You can also download helpful checklists, how to’s and podcasts from the Board Development Section of Simone Uncensored’s Learning Center, here and here, and her recent “Tough Talk About You and Your Board” delivered at the AFP Int’l Conference.