Article March 3, 2014 ISSUE

Yielding to God's plan

Charles Lindahl

I have been a volunteer management consultant for over ten years with a nonprofit organization that matches retired executives with administrators and boards of nonprofits that need help with planning, board development, fundraising, and executive coaching. Last year I was asked to lead a small team to help the board of a prominent public agency. Early in our first meeting the executive director mentioned that the board was ineffective because one board member was aggressive, opinionated, and out of step with other members. The executive director was very discouraged and said that my team was being brought in to deal with an impossible situation. We said we would interview all board members and use our findings to develop plans for a daylong board meeting.

During our interview, the “problem” board member confirmed the executive director’s predictions by taking positions opposite to those of the other members. This member had a very negative attitude about the board, the effectiveness of the organization, and the executive director. The picture we gathered from our interviews was one of an intractable situation—it seemed there was little promise of achieving consensus on anything.

When we met with the board chairperson to share our findings and recommendations, she focused on her conflicts with this problem board member. Her main concern was how we were going to structure and conduct the meeting to reduce the likelihood that the board member would “hijack” it.