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I learned recently that two nonprofit boards I have experience with each decided to terminate their executive directors. One decision was the result of a long cycle of feedback, evaluation, and more feedback. This I understood. The second termination was a total surprise—even a shock. This news caused me to wonder: Do executive director performance evaluations negate “at will” policies?

Lack of engagement is a common board challenge that you may have direct experience with. In my last couple of blogs, I introduced the idea of an intentional board accountability process as a way you can be empowered to deal with this effectively. To lay a good foundation for an effective process, I suggested that you start with ground rules. In this blog, I outline the 5 steps that you may want to include as you build on (and use!) the ground rules to create your board’s accountability process.

You may have heard me emphasize before that there a very few real rules about governance! I believe board members can be empowered – more than they realize – to create what works for them and the nonprofit they serve. This is really no different. I am referring to these as ground rules but they are really optional operating guidelines. Once you all agree to them, however, you should expect them to be followed.

Have you ever heard nonprofit leaders say that they had found people who matched their criteria for new board members but that, once they got on the board, they were not engaged or didn’t fulfill the basic expectations communicated when they were elected? Not a rare occurrence unfortunately! This is another example of how board culture influences board performance.

There are several steps to building a nonprofit board: identifying criteria and expectations related to the strategic needs; finding prospects who match those needs; cultivating prospects and assessing them for fit with the board’s criteria and expectations. It’s a big job! I was speaking on this topic at a board retreat. One of the board members, who was “in charge” of their recruiting efforts and had been working hard at it, said “The people we want are just too busy. We have criteria; can we split up the criteria across several candidates? We just can’t seem to find people who match what we want.”