Your Organization’s Most Important Relationship
Most organizations are primarily in the relationship business - people working hard to serve, connect, and relate well with other people. Your organization likely stewards several different kinds of relationships, and each is critical to your success. They might include:
Employees
Those you serve
Board members
Funders
Volunteers
Partner organizations
Time and again, we have found there is one relationship that is far and away the most important one to get right.
If your organization has any kind of a board of directors,
your most vital relationship is the one between your chief executive officer and the chairperson of your board.
From decades of consulting for nonprofits, foundations, and mission-driven businesses, I’m convinced that when your CEO-chair relationship is vibrant, active, trusting, and strong, your organization is more than likely thriving. If that relationship is stagnant, distant, strained, or even combative, your organization is almost certain to struggle.
Let's admit it: boards are relatively strange contrivances. Unlike paid professional leaders, board members are most often unpaid volunteers who don't spend hours every week working in the organization, typically have unrelated jobs, and usually aren't experts in the mission or field. And yet boards carry the ultimate responsibility for the organization's oversight and success, and board chairs wield significant influence on the board and organization.
This strangeness creates room for a lack of alignment, confusion, miscommunication, and conflict to hamper a healthy relationship — and sadly, I see this happen all too frequently.
In fact, I’ve seen bad CEO-chair relationships end up in real fights, lawsuits, and even organizations shutting down.
Board chairs are often either completely hands-off and disengaged (leaving CEOs feeling alone and unsupported), or they get too far into the weeds with the CEO and mistake their governance role for a management role (leaving the CEO feeling threatened and subjugated).
At the same time, CEOs tend to either wish their boards would just stay out of their business (which limits the organization's potential), or they blame organizational challenges on the board not being more engaged (which is often cover for their own under-performance).
It should be no surprise, then, that the lack of a healthy board relationship is the number one reason CEOs prematurely leave their organizations.
So what are the keys to a healthy CEO-chair relationship?
We've created this downloadable one-page Guide to Optimizing the CEO-Chair Relationship with several insights, and here are a few other proven practices we've seen work time and again.
Document the Roles. Starting with your bylaws, clearly codify the role of the CEO and the role of the chair, including which decisions are independent and which are shared, and re-evaluate these things regularly with full-board input.
Pour Into the Relationship. Beyond time spent in meetings, schedule regular meals or coffee together, send quick text messages for updates and questions, and don't be afraid to pick up the phone and call each other to work through issues or questions.
Embrace Co-Leadership. Typically, two leaders of an organization is not a good idea (just ask the Popes!). But when roles are documented and followed well, healthy co-leadership — in which the CEO leads the team, programs, and operations, and the chair leads the board — can be great for the mission.
Implement Mutual Regular Evaluation. Follow best practice board evaluation of CEO performance, and a channel for healthy CEO upward feedback to the chair and board on their working relationship.
If your organization could use an outside assessment of, and help strengthening, the critical CEO-chair relationship, Good Works is happy to help.