Making your Charity board sing…. (No, really….)

Working with a fantastic Board of Trustees this week on making their governance really 'sing'. They have humility and confidence in equal measure; they do deep thinking and reflection as well as pragmatism. They disagree agreeably. We're working together on an audit based on the Charity Governance Code, a skills audit, and getting the balance between operational and strategic oversight. We're thinking more deeply about vision. And making sure that CEO has just the right kind of support so that together they can take the organisation to even greater things. And we're talking about it all. Properly. Reflectively.

Here's something I've noticed: Boards really soar when they have, not just a great Chair and members, but also the ability to ask themselves questions about their own performance, behaviours, and drivers. Reflection for a Board is not navel-gazing; it's absolutely vital.

In the same way that CEOs can benefit so strongly from coaching and mentoring, I see that Boards benefit from just the same. Sometimes the CEO takes on that role, which is not fair, but all too common. Sometimes the Chair is able to do it - and that kind of leadership is perhaps one of the most vital facets of what they can offer. Chairs having the support and guidance to do that is important.

But it can also be very helpful to have an outside assessment of your work as a Board, not just in its nitty-gritty of policy and procedure, but how it works together. Outsiders see things you can't see. My experience in organisations I've run has been that this is when the organisation's governance comes on in leaps and bounds.

While I help people go through codes and do self-assessments, one of the most vital thnings I do in any consultancy is simply observe - at a board meeting, a strategy day, whatever. And then to help others in there observe and discuss. Simply being able to pick up on what is happening in a group (not least, my interest in Tavistock methods and systems psychodynamics can be incredibly helpful, both to me in helping, and to the organisation in helping itself). This goes for matters of EDI, general effectiveness, decision-making, and indeed, understanding of central purpose.

It's a real privilege to be taking on that role with charities myself now - brilliant trustees, and brilliant governance are possible with the right resources and input. Even if, as I've made clear, I think there is an unfairness of expectations in the ever-increasingly Baroque regulatory requirements. That makes these volunteers all the more impressive.

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