Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes. - Peter Drucker
Person A achieves results. Plans are implemented. Risks are taken. Mistakes happen. But results are achieved, and typically members are more content. Change may happen more frequently, but it engenders excitement more than chaos and stress.
Person B talks and plays the politics game with skill and finesse. Results are often mixed, and there is always a reason why action was not taken or objectives achieved. Generally, the crowd of membership malcontents is large and growing. Change is infrequent or meaningless, and yet there seems to be ever-present chaos and stress.
By getting too involved in the day-to-day at the expense of focusing on the future, and not setting objectives and evaluating against them, Boards run the risk of creating a Person B. Boards that focus primarily on the future, and are advocates of performance management and evaluation, are more likely to recruit and retain Person A.
Unfortunately, the Board’s compensatory rewards for Person A and Person B are typically not that different. It is a bit like tipping a waiter -- he or she generally gets a tip within the diner’s usual tipping range regardless of his or her performance. Frequently, only extremely poor performance results in no tip. How will a waiter who provides inadequate service know that change is required when there is no feedback and the rewards don’t correspond to performance?
The Board needs to shift their attention away from day-to-day intrusions, and begin some serious future-oriented planning. Then they can begin to articulate where the organization should be going, and how they will know when they get there. With this knowledge and understanding, the Board can begin to identify performance measures. Once expectations are known and commonly understood, then evaluation of the CEO means something.
I think that some executive directors feel that everything they do is evaluated under a microscope, and this leads to a preoccupation with playing political games. To avoid this trap, turn the Board’s attention away from evaluating the day-to-day, and to setting, and evaluating against, defined and communicated strategic objectives.
Members want leaders as Drucker defines them, even if it seems some Boards do not!
Wayne Amundson, president of Association Xpertise Inc., can be reached at (403) 607-4821 (or admin@axi.ca).
Readers
are invited to submit their responses in support or disagreement with the views
expressed in this column. Direct your comments to the editor.