Hey, Where is Everyone?

I literally asked myself, Hey, Where is Everyone?” in my first role as president of a volunteer board of directors. I was blindsided when a significant number of my board members resigned because I ran them away. I had unrealistic expectations, too much focus on the results, and too little attention to the people. It was a huge learning experience for me about leadership! I took all of the lessons learned and applied them in my future board roles. Thanks to a little learning agility, I was much more successful in engaging my board members and building coalitions of volunteers. 

I shared my lessons learned with other Association for Talent Development (ATD) chapter leaders during the ATD Chapter Leaders Conference (ALC). My goal was to ensure that they were equipped to be successful leaders in their new board of director roles and learn from my many mistakes and observations over the years.

Although my session was in the last breakout slot of the conference and the only thing between them and the concluding ice cream social, the participants left energized and ready to tackle their new roles with tips for success!

Nine Board Dysfunctions

Serving as a leader in a volunteer organization takes a different set of leadership skills than when you lead employees. We talked about how the skills differ. I shared the nine common board dysfunctions as well as shared strategies for how to identify and overcome them. Below are the nine dysfunctions that I shared.

• Dominating members

• Conflicting agendas

• Lack of order

• Hostile environment

• Secret meetings

• Lack of trust

• Slackers

• Political and personal agendas

• Lack of respect

Overcoming Board Dysfunction

I lead a brainstorming discussion with session participants and then shared 17 board engagement strategies to avoid the dysfunctions. Here are just five of the strategies to avoid board dysfunction…

• Embrace diversity

• Value those who get it done

• Celebrate success

• Give feedback not criticism

• Demonstrate kindness

The participants were left with five ways to keep their board on track and ensure that they dysfunctions to lead you to ask the question, “Hey, Where is Everyone?”