Turning Trustees into Leadership teams

Turning Trustee Boards into Leadership Teams
by
William G. McGinnis
Trustee, Butte-Glenn Community College District

Over the years I have had the opportunity to observe a number elected Trustee Boards and found some to resemble my son’s T-Ball team. As an example, the outfielders were typical more interested in the grass or a butterfly than the game and were startled to see the ball actually approaching them. Likewise some trustees, even at the Board meetings, are absent and not connected to the discussion or the actions of the College. In T-ball no one keeps score so all the kids think they are winners. Again, many Boards don’t keep score of their College’s academic performance and only go on hearsay to determine if the college is doing well. Sometimes the T-ball players get into arguments over things they are not sure of and again, Board members have done similar things including name calling and finger pointing. If this were only the rare situation, there would be no reason for trying to develop activities that Boards could employ to improve their performance. Unfortunately, the rare case is a well functioning team of Board members focused on the academic performance of the College.

The time has come to move our T-ball like Trustee Boards into major league teams. To do so, we must first acknowledge that electing people to form a Board is not the best method of team building. To the contrary, often people run for a Board to change the way it conducts its business, which in turn divides the Board rather than builds a team. Understanding this situation, an effective Board will immediately follow an election of new members with a team building retreat. The basic orientation of a new trustee as to the role of the Board, the operations of the College, and the mission of higher education is not sufficient to build an effective Board.

The following team building goals and programs are adopted from Patrick Lencioni’s books on Team Building for Leaders and Managers. While Mr. Lenciono’s focus is on appointed teams in the private sector, the concepts are just as critical for Trustee Boards.

Team Goal #1 – Build Trust. The basic building block of an effective team is to build trust between the Board members and between the Board and the College President (for this article the President will hereinafter be referred to as the CEO). In order to build such trust quickly and effectively the Board needs to meet in an informal retreat setting in order to get to know each other personally. The Board members need learn to be comfortable with each other in an open and honest manner without the fear of failure or weakness. People who aren’t afraid to admit the truth about themselves are not going to engage in the kind of political behavior that wastes everybody’s time and energy. If any Board member continues to take advantage of other Board members in a manner that is not supportive, the Board will not be able to function in an open and honest manner. The key ingredient in building trust is not time, rather it is courage, the courage to expose yourself to the team and then to be honest and supportive of the team. In order to facilitate a trust building discussion, the Board and the CEO should agree upon a facilitator to help lead the retreat discussions that first will explore the backgrounds of all the team members through storytelling of personal histories. These should be relatively brief stories but detailed enough to identify three characteristics of the person’s childhood and the associated challenges. While this may sound too touchy-feely for an elected Board, it is critical to building bridges between the members. The first and most important ground rule of this exercise of course is that the discussion remain confidential within the team. Any team member using such information later especially in an open Board meeting will end any trust that may have been created through the retreat. Another exercise associated with this initial session is to have the Board members each take a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator analysis and have the results available for the Board retreat. Helping the Board members understand the personality types and thus the needs of each of the members will help the team better know each other. Knowing how to talk to each other in a supportive and informative manner will help the Board work more effectively together. A discussion of these results can also be very helpful to the CEO in learning how to best communicate with each of the Board members, especially the new members. While these steps can be used to start building trust, the process is never really complete as it must be maintained and supported over time. A breakdown in the team effort will ruin the trust already established and force the Board to start over again with the process.

Team Goal #2 – Reduce the Fear of Conflict. Normally when we associate conflict on a Board we assume that such conflict is destructive, and it occurs on Boards where people do not trust each another. This is because when the members do engage in a passionate debate, they do so with the goal of winning the argument. The members don’t typically listen to other ideas but rather look for flaws in order to defeat the ideas of other and win the argument. What we need to understand and accept is that conflict can be healthy for a Board to engage in since such discussions are needed to affect change. If a Board remains in its comfort zone forever, no changes with ever result. Push a Board too far out of its comfort zone and fear will take over. The zone between comfort and fear is the level of conflict needed to create healthy change in an organization. Board members like any other team are fearful of conflict as they are concerned that such conflict will be destructive rather than constructive. However, on a Board where the trust level is high, the members will not be fearful of debate as they realize such debate as trying to reach the best goal and not trying to win the argument. On highly effective Boards, members do not hold back their opinions but rather offer them in hopes of crafting a solution that will take all factors into account. In order to help the Board improve its conflict resolution it is necessary for the Board members to know the conflict profile of each other. Adoption of and acceptance of Ground Rules for Board meeting discussions will help the Board be open to such discussions as they will not fear being taken advantage of in a public meeting. Board meetings without conflict are boring and typically referred to as rubber stamp meetings. Board meetings in which conflict does arise in a health manner will result in the Board assuming a leadership position and bringing positive change to the College. The role of the CEO is critical in this effort as the CEO needs to bring to the Board the reason to care about the issue at hand and by raising the level of anxiety concerning the matter and how things can go terribly wrong for the College if the wrong decision is made. Also critical in these situations is the need to retain the focus of the Board on the issue and not on winning the argument/debate. A positive focused debate of the issue without the interjection of personal attacks is a must. Even among the best of Boards, conflict at times will be uncomfortable but by reinforcing the positive aspects of such debate, a positive impact is possible.

Team Goal #3 – Foster and Provide Commitment. Once the debate has been completed and a decision is at hand, the commitment by all the Trustees on the Board and the CEO is necessary to bring about success. Commitment will be defined for the purpose of this article as a group of intelligent, driven individuals buying into a decision precisely when they don’t all naturally agree. Board members need to know that their perspective has had an opportunity to be heard, understood, considered, and explained within the context of the ultimate decision but not necessarily adopted. The patience of the full Board is important to allow each Board member the opportunity to express their view and to spend sufficient time considering such views. The practice of limiting Board comments to positive and/or constructive views concerning recommendations can help forestall adversarial debate. Once a common decision is obtained, the Board needs to assure that the CEO as well as the full Board is clear about all aspects of the decision. Clarity, among all the Board members and the CEO, is critical to the success of a decision. The Board chair can greatly benefit this process by readdressing the decision before the vote is taken by the Board and then following the vote by restating the decision to the CEO and allowing the CEO an opportunity to ask for clarity of the decision. Another tactic that can be used to assure clarity is to restate the decision and align it with a goal of the College. This not only assures clarity among the Board but it also draws attention to how the decision aligns with the mission and/or goals of the College. In order to do this properly, the Board must be familiar with the College’s goals and strategic plan. These can be published in the agenda packet for each meeting or printed on a document observable in the Board room. A final note on commitment, although all Board members will never agree 100% on all decisions, a 100% commitment to the decision of the Board is needed and should be expected of each Board member.

Team Goal #4 – Be Accountable and Hold Others Accountable. Accountability is not only the willingness to remind one another when the Board and/or individual Board members are not living up to the desired performance standards but also to hold oneself responsible as well. In the case of a Board of Trustees, the Board Chair has the primary responsibility to lead this effort. As an example, if a few of the Board members are engaged in a heated debate, the Chair needs to step into the middle of the situation and remind the members of the standards of conduct (ground rules), the primary goals of the College and the desired goals of the Board. Another example is when a Board member is disengaged from a discussion and perhaps is reading a book or doing their e-mail on a blackberry, the Board Chair needs to bring the discussion to a halt and invite the disengaged member to participate in the discussion and possibly remind the member of the Board’s adopted ground rules they have all committed to previously. Contrary to popular thought, it is when the Board members stop holding each other accountable that they begin to lose respect for each other and over time, the Board begins to splinter. The importance here is to provide constructive feedback on issues being discussed and to have full participation of the Board on all the issues. The variety of opinions of the various Board members will assist in the development of a comprehensive decision that is more productive than decisions made by a minority of the board. The Board, through a follow up retreat held after four to six months of working together, can work on building accountability through exercises intended to draw out the aspects demonstrate positive as well as problematic behavior of the Board Chair in leading the Board. The exercise will also include the Board Chair commenting on similar aspects for each of the Board members. This exercise could also be used as part of the annual evaluation of the CEO if sufficient trust is present between the CEO and the Board, for the CEO to comment on Board issues. In order to have this exercise be successful, it is necessary for the Board to follow up in six months with a review of the comments made and a Board self-evaluation as to whether any improvements or decline have occurred since the initial meeting. This process would fit well with the Board’s annual self-evaluation process. The final aspect of this issue is to have the Board throughout the year, revisit its goals and the College’s goals to be aware of progress, barriers to progress, and whether any changes need to be made to policy. The conversations of the Board regarding performance need to focus on the goals especially those associated with Student Learning and Student Success. Again, to have a strong Board, the members must not only be accountable but they must hold each other accountable. The Board Chair is the key player in this effort and must be willing to confront difficult situations.

Team Goal #5 – Focus on Results. The work of the Board is only as good as the results of the College. Having wonderful Board meetings is meaningless, if the College is not performing well. The Board, through an annual retreat, is responsible for establishing goals for the College, itself and the CEO. These goals should only be adopted if the Board and the CEO can agree upon a set of measurements for each of the goals and a timetable for reporting the performance on each goal. Some Boards have started using a scorecard for reporting on each of the goals supported by various computer software packages available to assist in this effort. The Board Chair and CEO during the orientation of a new Board member need to acquaint the new member with the various goals and the associated measures and the time table for reporting. They also need to remind the new member of the schedule for the adoption of new or revised goals and familiarize the new member on how the new member will have input into the goal setting process. We often hear of complaints concerning micromanaging by Board members, such micromanaging can be prevented by the Board focusing on the results and not the process of achieving the results. The “how to do it” issues are the responsibility of the CEO and staff and Board’s attention should be on goal setting and results. The use of a scorecard and the periodic reporting of results will assist the Board in retaining its focus on such matters. The results on which Boards need to focus must be linked to the College’s mission and vision (or strategic plan if one has been established for the College), with the majority of the measures linked to the College’s mission. As an example, if the College provides educational services for transfer preparation to universities, the Board should have a results based measure describing the College’s performance in this area. The measures must be agreed upon by the full Board and the CEO as being meaningful and linked to the goals, mission and vision of the College. A trap to be avoided is when a Board member or more attempts to lobby for their own constituents rather than for the entire College. The result of such lobbying creates a competition for resources and attention rather than creating a collaborative situation. In summary, the best measure of a great Board of Trustees is that it accomplishes the results it set out to achieve. To do this, the Board needs to remain focused on the desired results by keeping them visible to the Board and the CEO throughout the year.

Conclusion: A college’s Board of Trustees and CEO willing to spend the time necessary after the election or appointment of a new member to first build trust among the Board members and with the CEO, then to remove the fear of conflict, followed by a shared willingness to commit to the goals of the Board and College, including holding each other and the CEO accountable, and finally by focusing the Board’s attention on the College’s results will become an outstanding and high performing Board of Trustees. Such a Board not only benefits their college but also their students and ultimately the communities they serve. Remember to provide service to others above self.