This rude statement reflects CEO frustration with the apparent failure of one or more Board members to read the packet of information sent prior to the Board meeting.
Why does the CEO believe that a Board member has not read the packet? When the Board member asks a question at the meeting that the CEO knows is answered in the packet.
My father led two international non-profits and, when I became CEO of a NYC non-profit, told me that I needed always to remember the 80/20 rule - and that it really is the 90/10 rule. The rule is:
Board members spend 90% of their time on their own business and lives, and 10% on your organization.
He suggested that if I remembered that, I could reduce or even eliminate my frustration with Board members. I may live and breathe my organization, but it is completely unrealistic for me to expect a Board member to spend even half as much time on the organization.
In fact, he warned, if a Board member does start to spend a lot of time on the organization, I am in trouble. When Board members start focusing more than 10 or 20% of their attention on a non-profit, it means they have lost confidence in the CEO.
I was delighted then to expect Board members to focus 10% of their time on our organization, and for them to rely more on me to run the organization and tell them what they really needed to know.
Communicating with Board members then is about top-level messages about:
- Successes
- Key decisions that need to be made
- Critical shifts in environment that affect the organization
- Financial status (including fundraising)
- Key visibility
- Future opportunities or challenges
- How well the organization is fulfilling its mission
If you want to give the Board more details, do it after writing a headline that summarizes the content. Or let them ask questions at the Board meeting to get more information. You can always follow up with written details after the meeting, to the one or more Board members who request that information.
EXAMPLE:
Gala Raised $1.2 million, Net of $850K Exceeds Goal; All Board Members Attended.
You can add more detail, such as "Auction raised $250K, Juniors after-party attended by 250 and raised $150K. Great feedback from attendees. May need to move to larger venue next year. Separate Juniors event being planned."
The one exception to this "top level message only" rule is that CEOs always need to call out by name each Board member who has participated in some way in furthering the organization's work. This creates a culture of acknowledgement (which always encourages people to do more), as well as peer pressure for Board members to look good in front of the rest of the Board.
What about problems? I didn't list those under what you need to tell Board members about. That's because I think problems are better discussed in person, at a Board meeting, and preferably after the CEO has already discussed the problem with at least the Board Chair and hopefully the Executive Committee. Some kind of resolution or approach is needed before the entire Board is informed. The Executive Committee is entrusted by the full Board with running the governance between meetings, so let them act in that capacity. If the problem needs to go before the full Board (and some never do), then you want to have a headline that shows how you are solving it with the help of the Executive Committee.
IMPORTANT: Don't mistake the length of time spent on a report for lack of interest in the organization. People who agree to be on Boards are interested in the organization, and in being thought well of by their peers. Also, they are not stupid. They do understand what you tell them. And if you tell them what they need to know, they will continue to trust you.
CEOs have enough frustration with running a non-profit organization. You don't have to allow unrealistic expectations about Board attention to cause even more.
