In the majority of cases, board members of nonprofit organizations work together smoothly, productively and respectfully in order to advance the mission and serve the cause of the not-for-profit entity. But, occasionally, boards find themselves with a director who regularly promotes their own agenda or interferes in the day to day operations of the organization. A disruptive member can cause good volunteers to resign or cease contributing their expertise to the discussions and work of the group. Here are a few solutions to resolve the problem as well as some strategies to prevent that problem from occurring.
Board Member Disruptive Behaviors Defined
A board member can be considered to be disruptive if he or she exhibits a continued pattern of behavior that prevents the board from doing the work of the organization. This behavior includes:
- Regularly ignoring the agenda
- Pushing their own interests rather than those of the organization
- Talking excessively and dominating the discussion
- Lobbying for their position with select board members outside of meetings
- Missing a significant number of the meetings and making no effort to stay engaged with the business of the organization
Solutions for Handling Problem Behaviors of Board Members
First, the board president and executive director need to determine the cause of the disruptive behavior. According to Barry S. Bader et al in their Feb 2007 article, “Disruptive Board Members”,www.greatboards.org/pubs/advisors-corner-disruptive-board-members.pdf it is important to identify the source of the difficulty. For example, is the member domineering and aggressive because that is the expected and condoned behavior at their work site? Is a board member consistently late and unprepared because he or she didn’t appreciate the level of complexity of the work and didn’t understand the time commitment required when they agreed to serve? Understanding the cause will help the board president to craft an effective solution.
Once the cause is identified, the board president should have a one-on-one conversation with the offending individual. The behaviors that are creating the problem need to be presented in a dispassionate manner along with a solution (e.g. do not continue to push a point of view that conflicts with that of the organization and let other contribute). The individual needs to commit to the new behavior and understand that continued disruptions will not be tolerated.
If the behavior persists and all else fails, then the problem board member must be asked to leave.
Strategies to Prevent Problems Before They Arise
- Careful selection of prospective members by the nominating committee –the nominating committee need to ask how the prospect performed on other boards and look for any red flags (e.g. short tenure on boards, lack of a positive recommendation from other boards or groups)
- Develop and use a board member job description when interviewing prospective member s and orienting new members once they join.
- Use yearly evaluations to compare board member performance relative to the job description.
- Term limits also offer a means of moving directors off, but a problem should not be allowed to persist that long.
Board members willingly contribute their time and talents to help nonprofit organizations. Their expectation is that they will not have their time wasted and work disrupted by a board member that can’t function as a team member.
 |
