It’s a good thing to have members with passion for your mission, but a side effect of highly motivated leaders is strong ideas with egos to match. Not necessarily bad, but if a member disregards board orientation efforts and materials and declares they have the solution, the challenge is in keeping everyone on task instead of retreading. The prudent leader will take the time to understand the entity’s history, why something was done or tabled, and other information or data which can illuminate next steps.
It is also tempting to become sequestered in an ivory tower. In smaller agencies where staff is minimal or nonexistent, this means little or no work might get done.
To overcome this obstacle, you need the three Ws in your board members: wisdom, wealth, and work. It is the rare person who brings multiple qualities in one neat package, but it’s essential to have all three in varying mixes. Visionaries might get to create the agenda, but vision without action is a daydream. Workers can get the job done, but action without vision is a nightmare. Wealth is an extension of work, in that financial resources help the organisation accomplish goals which would be otherwise impossible or extremely cumbersome.
Set clear expectations which welcome vision, but not to the exclusion of action. Effectively use those who are task-oriented but not capable of rising fully to the level of strategic leaders.
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From "How to Avoid the Pitfalls of Nonprofit Hell"