Board Members as Steward Leaders

By Dr. Brian Simmons

The work of a board is to provide effective governance for the organizations they lead as trustees (biblical stewards). A trustee is one whom has been given a trust. A steward is one whom has been given a trust. So, the two are (or at least can be) synonymous!

Governance is the coming together of a group of appointed individuals to act as one for the purpose of guiding the organization of which they hold trusteeship toward the accomplishment of the school’s strategic initiatives, mission and vision guided by the school’s core values.

The board is not to be single-person driven, committee driven or complaint driven. It is to exercise effective governance as leadership. The board is to create an organization with the right people doing the right things in the right way for the right reasons so that right results will be achieved to the glory of God!

Peter Drucker has famously written that the only thing non-profit boards have in common is that they are all dysfunctional. And, what most boards do most of the time is a waste of time-Carver. No matter how dedicated or how much board members love the school they cannot be all they can be in a system of governance dominated by poor and ineffective practice.

Today, I have come to realize that I need to pivot in my strategy of helping boards to effective governance as leadership. I have been training them on the “meat” of governance, but I realize today that most boards are not ready for meat. They need milk.

So, what does the needed “milk”… the ABCs of best practice of board governance look like?

Here are a few “ABCs” …

The board should speak with one voice or not at all
The organization board policy manual is important because board decisions ideally should be framed in the form of good policies.
Effective boards define and delegate. Ineffective boards react and ratify.
Performance can only be monitored via predefined, written policy.
The board should do “board stuff” so CEOs can do “CEO stuff”. Role confusion leads to negative, unintended results quickly.
The board only has power to act as a board while together during officially schedule board meetings. This is the only time they wear their “board hat”.
The CEO is the board’s only employee. All other organizational personnel report up to the board through the CEO
The three primary duties of the board are fiduciary, strategic and generative.
The board’s primary responsibility is to select, advise, support and fairly compensate the CEO.
The board is to ensure that the organization operates responsibly and effectively.
The board is to act on specific policy recommendations and mobilize support for decisions taken.
They provide a buffer for the CEO and in common vernacular “take some of the heat”.
They work through the CEO with committees to lead the organization forward
They carefully establish the right committees and stay away from committees that mirror staff roles thus pulling board members into staff functions.
They ensure that the necessary resources, both human and financial, will be available to pursue the organization’s strategies and achieve its objectives.
They provide effective governance

In conclusion, I have come to the realization and conclusion that the myriad of problems organizations face cannot be solved until the board is trained in, understands and begins to practice effective governance. They are the foundation upon which excellence in all areas needs to be built. So, I intend to pivot from training on the meat of effective governance to the milk… the ABCs.