Using Metaphors to Strengthen the Executive Director/Board Chair Relationship
The relationship between the Executive Director and the Board Chair is critical to the success of a nonprofit organization. A strong, working relationship between these two positions goes a long way to ensuring that the relationship between the Board as a whole, and the rest of the organization, is also strong.
Frequently, the nature and purpose of this relationship is ill-defined, and can result in dysfunction, stress, under-performance, and even turnover. So, what is the nature and purpose of this relationship? It can be many things:
A boss/employee relationship - with all the power dynamics implicit in that relationship
An equal partnership - leaders of two distinct elements of a nonprofit organization working in concert
A mentoring (or coaching) relationship - one might have greater leadership expertise than the other
Depending on the circumstances of the organization, any one of these definitions (or multiple) could be appropriate, and the relational dynamic could change over time. The difficulty comes when the two parties have different understandings of what the relationship is. If I’m expecting my Board Chair to be my mentor, and she sees her role as being a traditional boss, rocky times are ahead, especially if expectations are not set ahead of time.
Metaphors are an extremely powerful tool that can help define and clarify relational dynamics of this type. At a recent conference, we asked attendees to engage in small-group discussions to construct a metaphor which best represents the Board Chair/Executive Director relationship. It was a fun activity, and suggested metaphors included a couple of examples of row boats, a house, and even a sandwich!
The groups who used the row boat metaphor listed the following relational dynamics the image represents:
Two people rowing together to move the boat forward in an agreed direction
Working in harmony
Side-by-side partners
Working together, with each having specific responsibility for a different side of the boat
For an Executive Director and Board Chair to actually have this discussion is remarkably fruitful, especially if no previous work has been done to clarify the purpose of the relationship. What is more, the actual metaphor does not need to be perfect. Its power is in the discussion that the image provokes, with the two parties actually outlining the dynamics of their relationship using objective terms.
So, try it out. Make sure you both read this blog prior to a meeting, create a metaphor that captures the essence of your working relationship (to the extent possible), and talk about the ways in which it fits and the ways it might not fit. This is a very valuable discussion to have. And keep the discussion alive in your ongoing work together.
If you’d like to learn more about this theme, please register for our presentation at the Colorado Nonprofit Association’s ‘Connecting Colorado’ conference in Ft. Collins on August 24th.