THE ROLE OF THE BOARD
By
Rafael Aquino
Published June 5, 2019
Serving on the Board of Directors comes with many challenges;
however, understanding what your role is can make it a bit easier.
Within your associations' documents, you will find a section which
outlines the duties and responsibilities for each officer on the
Board. A good board will know each other’s role so that each board
member can stay in his/her lane. In doing so, more can be
accomplished by the Board and the professionals they have hired.
Unfortunately, more often than not, Board members become
micromanagers, and as Eric mentioned on Monday, don’t allow the
professionals to do what the Board hired them to do. This kind of
approach irritates employees or contractors, reduces productivity,
and creates an environment of higher than normal staff/vendor
turnover. So why does this happen? In my humble opinion, it is
TRUST. Trust is the foundation of any successful relationship, and
without it, neither party can indeed have a successful relationship.
As Steve Jobs once said, “It doesn't make sense to hire smart people
and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell
us what to do.”
If you find yourself in this kind of a situation, a meeting should
be held so both parties can identify what the root of the problem’(s)
are. Once identified, I recommend taking the following steps,
create clear procedure’s (SOP) that outline what his/her
responsibilities are and what they are accountable for. Identify
what actions should and shouldn’t be taken. Break down the
responsibilities, who’s assigned to them and when are they due.
Finally, mutually agree upon meeting dates to check in on the
process that is being made. Once these steps are taken, the Board
should allow the manager/vendor to do what was assigned. Please
note, that the Board should not swing to the other side of letting
go of all responsibilities but rather to learn to allow the managers
or professional to do what they were hired to do.
Remember your role as a Board Member is to lead, and the best
leaders support their team members by acknowledging and providing
positive reinforcement for work done.
I’m curious to hear from our readers. Do you micro manage your
manager/vendors? If so, why and is it working?
