Attracting Top Talent to your Charity or NFP
Boardng? – November 2009
One of the biggest issues facing organizations in
need of top board talent today is time poverty.
The pressures of family, work and the current
financial restraints make the willingness and
ability for top board talent to commit - onerous.
They want to commit! But those who do will give
as much scrutiny and consideration to
organizations they would like to aid as they will a company they would consider working for.
The wise and savvy governance leadership needs to approach the selection of its board with a clearly defined vision and strategy to actively attract the best to the opportunity. A few simple strategies that can make this selection more proactive and engaging are assessment, role definition and direct to market search.
KNOW THYSELF
Professional assessment can add dynamic insight into a boards structure and the strengths and weaknesses that define it. There are a myriad of options that can help you define your organizations needs at the board level. Team based analytics are very helpful in addressing such things as:
- Sources of conflict
- Breaking through group inertia and organizational paralysis
- Different approaches to problem solving
- Align board member expectations with management requirements
- Inventory the collection of instinctive strengths on the board
- Improve individual and group productivity
Once you have defined these issues and clearly understand your need according to your vision, the next step is to define both the roles of the existing membership and those of any new or upcoming directors.
YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE
After you’ve done a thorough analysis and identified areas of weakness on the board against your strategic plan, developing a role/job description is an absolute. Too many boards today settle for the status quo of referral by donor or other board members without laying a solid foundation for understanding their specific needs. The result is a helter-skelter of individuals, who may be keenly supportive of the cause but are not drawn together by a deeper harmony of complementary skills and characteristics.
Without proper and complete transparency of need and a targeted approach at the identification and attraction phase of recruitment a number of behavioral problems inevitably arise. These include irregular attendance at board meetings, leaving early or arriving late, not participating in organizational events, declining committee assignments, failing to meet fundraising obligations and making little to no personal financial contribution. Unfortunately more often than not the Executive Director and or other board members see the source of the problem as being that of the individual rather than their own. It’s not until the problem arises again and again or all momentum has ground to a halt, that action is taken to establish proper techniques to recruit top talent for your board. Holding out your highest expectations gives people room to bring their best. As Nelson Mandela so poignantly stated: “… as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same”.
List the responsibilities of the role, including: expectation for board meeting involvement; internal and external relationships required; how the member will contribute toward the vision; how performance is measured; expectations for key targets to be reached; board policies; history of the organization & a strategic plan. It is better to scare away those who won’t be able to manage the task at the beginning, than bring them on and loose hope half way through.
This process may also give you a tangible understanding of how realistic your vision is and the opportunity to adapt it according to the human resources you are able to attract.
KNOW THY ENEMY
OK they’re not your enemy, but they are the targets! Who is going to fill that empty space at your table? What is the opportunity to define specific roles when three members’ terms come up at the end of this year and who has the skills and experience to fill them?
Rather than sitting back and waiting for the right people to be introduce to the organization, today’s leaders need to set a specific strategy to go out, identify and attract the type of leaders they are looking for to build a strong and resilient board of directors. Look around in your community, who sits on other boards that has the skill sets you are looking for? They will likely know someone to talk to. What organizations are committed to supporting their employees’ involvement on boards such as yours? Are there organizations that sponsor you who would have the person with the perfect “Marketing” background?
The talent pool in Canada is shrinking and a great deal of work needs to be done to bring it back. But until that happens and even when it does, the better prepared and aware our boards are, the better supported our staff will feel and the better care our clients will receive.
