Do you find yourself as a trustee or leadership team member of a small charity grappling with the complexities of board governance? You are not alone!
Here Clive Bawden, Founder of Governance360, shares seven short tips drawn from his own practical experience as a Charity Trustee, as well as his work with Governance360. Read on for some straightforward, actionable and helpful advice that will minimise your admin and maximise your impact.
1. Clarify roles and responsibilities regularly, not as a one-off
With a family member involved as a CEO of a charity, I know full well that one of the greatest challenges you may face is that of role creep – or more practically, too many cooks at the broth peering into the detail. It is really easily done – after all, volunteers want to help and add their skills and knowledge, whilst leadership team members are stretched for time and resource. You can easily see how people trip over one another and seek to ‘interfere’ where perhaps they aren’t wanted or needed.
Tip one therefore is that you should document the outputs and duties expected from key roles (including that of Chair and Trustee) AND keep reviewing this at a regular interval (I’d suggest every six months or so). I’d also advocate including this on away day or ‘strategy days’ – it really does stretch the board and the leadership team to discuss what is working and how to improve matters
Having seen it done on two occasions to date have seen this simple, but effective device drive real change in the room, leaving everyone clear when they leave what they need to do and what behaviours they need to change too.
2. Conduct a skills audit
It is always surprising to me to find how many boards don’t conduct a skills audit as routine, even now.
Start by assessing the current composition of your board. Create a (simple) skills matrix that maps out the expertise and attributes of each member, including areas such as financial management, legal knowledge, fundraising experience, and sector-specific expertise.
This will help you identify any gaps or overlaps in your board’s collective skillset.
3. Implement term limits
While long-serving board members can provide valuable institutional knowledge, it is important to balance this with fresh perspectives and new ideas. Whilst it is often the elephant in the room for many charities where finding new volunteers is a challenge and losing the current ones is therefore ‘easier’, I would strongly suggest moving to term limits if you can.
How though do you keep the board’s scrutiny independent – not least since the Trustees are at risk on a personal level if seen to be lacking independence should things go wrong. Like point one on roles and duties, you might find that actively discussing this topic in your strategy or away days helps drive a debate about the Board’s independent and scrutiny perspective.
4. Develop a succession plan from within
Proactive succession planning is crucial for maintaining board continuity and effectiveness. Whilst you probably have a plan in place for new trustee recruitment, it is equally important to identify potential future leaders within your current board and provide them with opportunities to develop their skills and take on additional responsibilities. This could include chairing committees, leading special projects, or mentoring new board members – all of which is done far less than you might think from what I see out there.
Surprisingly simple and effective to implement.
5. Enhance meeting effectiveness
Board meetings are the primary forum for collective decision-making and strategic discussions – they are, after all, probably the most expensive, and most important meeting your organisation has each month, so why are they so poorly done?
This article isn’t long enough for a big debate on this topic, however one simple tip to bring agendas to life is by timing them and working with the Chair to ensure that key areas for debate really do get the time dedicated to them that they deserve.
After all, how many board meetings start with the CEO singing for their supper by reading 36 pages of their report out loud?!
6. Leverage technology
OK – an obvious one given the writer, but it makes sense in the modern world to embrace digital tools to streamline your meeting processes and improve engagement. Two simple ideas are to:
- Deliberately schedule some meetings as virtual, if nothing else to ensure that all board members can attend with more flexibility should they prefer;
- Implement simple board portal software for secure document sharing and collaboration (plug for Governance360 over…).
7. Don’t hide from risk
I often pick up the Risk Register and its workflow in the board roles that I hold. It always seems to be the last thing on the agenda, ideally delegated to a sub committee and generally is too complex and out of date.
Sound familiar?
The tip here therefore is to mix things up a little – after all, risk is probably the main thing that could destroy your ability to meet your charitable objectives – so why not start your next meeting with the Risk Register for a change. If nothing else, you’ll realise how the world has moved on since you last rewrote it.
Conclusion
Effective governance is an ongoing journey and not a destination.
Regularly revisit these tips and adapt them to your organisation’s evolving needs. By maintaining a commitment to continuous improvement, you can ensure that your board remains a valuable asset in navigating the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
I’d love to hear how you get on and/or your feedback on the tips above – feel free to contact me at clive@governance360.com if you’d like to provide your views.
Governance360, a corporate partner of the Association for Cultural Enterprises, offers affordable, simple to use board workflow software that creates less admin and more impact for you and your Board, with prices starting from £75 per month per organisation. Cultural Enterprises members benefit from exclusive rates with Governance360 as well as a free risk register. Find out more
