Starboard’s Blog

A discussion that I had today with a board chair caused me to think about word choice and the potential trap we can fall into as we work to strengthen the make-up of a board. Think about how current board members might react when they hear discussions about “recruiting a stronger board” or attracting “better board members.”  It would be reasonable for them to ask, “So what’s wrong with me?”

Let’s acknowledge that in the same way that organizations and their leaders need to adapt and change to meet new challenges, so do boards of directors.  For most organizations, that means that the skill-set, talents, and experience the board needed 6 years ago, for example, are likely to be different than what are needed today.  So we aren’t looking for “better” or “stronger” board members.  We are looking for board members who have the skill-set we need today and as we look to the future.

Take the time to look at your strategic plan…at where you want to be in the future…and then honestly assess what you’ll need from your board members in order to help you get there.  It is likely that as board members “term out” that you won’t want to replace them with new members who appear to be similar or even identical.  More than likely, you will find this to be a great opportunity to expand and diversify the skills, talents, abilities and experience of your board.  Don’t miss the opportunity!

As boards begin to get strategic about their recruitment (see my earlier posting: “Why me?”) it makes sense to start using a tool that most describe as a “nominating grid.”  The grid can be as simple or complex as you want to make it, but the goal is to show on a single page what board skills, abilities, and experience you’ve identified as being essential and where the gaps are.  Used correctly, it brings real focus to the nominating process.

Some easy instructions:

1. List down the left side of the spreadsheet the skills, abilities, and experiences that you’ll need in the coming 3-5 years in order to move your strategic plan forward.  List items like “legislative experience, fund raising skills, etc.,” rather than “banker, accountant, lawyer.”  You want attributes, not job titles.  Also list any other key factors to which you would like to pay attention, like the number of men and women and other diversity factors that may be appropriate to your board.
2. Across the top, list your current board members, grouped by when their terms end.  This will help you see what skills, abilities and experiences you may be losing each year.
3. Ideally, a board survey or inventory filled-out by each board member in advance will help you identify what strengths each of your board members have (reflected in the spreadsheet with an X), but this can be done by one or more members of the nominating committee, or the executive director, in a pinch.
4. Review the spreadsheet as a committee to identify where the gaps are (or will be), and identify where the focus of the recruitment effort should be.  Only after completing this process should the group start generating names of potential board members.

It is always amazing to me to see how a simple tool like this can change the conversation from “I know a guy in my neighborhood who would be great,” to a much, much more strategic discussion about what the board and the organization really needs.  Just be sure to develop your own criteria for the left side of the page (that is the essential strategic discussion) and take the time to review it annually.