Emotional Intelligence

This summer I have been picking the brains of leaders of diverse board-led organizations. I am gathering their insights regarding the characteristics or behaviors of effective leaders, whether they are board members or managers. The most frequently mentioned factor has been emotional intelligence; in fact I think I have heard more people bring up this skill in the past month than in the past several years.

Emotional intelligence can be defined as the ability to identify, assess, and manage one’s own emotions, the emotions of others, and the emotions of groups. Several leadership specialists purport that an organization’s emotional health impacts its bottom line more than does its mental health. Patrick Lencioni suggests that it is now the norm for companies to make smart decisions, yet those with healthy cultures experience notably stronger results. Stephen M.R. Covey states that organizations with high levels of trust can accomplish things with greater speed. Ken Blanchard promotes managing people differently based on their individual competency and confidence with the task at hand. Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify people’s emotional reality and relate to them in a manner that respects them, engages them, and inspires them to work effectively for positive results.

Passion Is Essential

There was a common thread to many of my business conversations this week – the necessity of leaders having passion for their organization. A sole proprietor shared that he has to reignite his passion for his business before he can lead it into its next growth phase. CEOs expressed concern that some of their board members are not engaged with the organization because they are not passionate about its mission. An Executive Director was excited about prospective new board members who have passion for the non-profit’s cause. A board chair was energized by the enthusiasm which several board members are applying to their role. Can positive emotion really be that valuable?

I am reminded that good sales people watch for the emotional responses of potential buyers. We humans make most of our decisions emotionally. Then we use logical analysis to assure ourselves that our emotional preferences are reasonable. If we aren’t passionate about where we work or volunteer, we begrudge the time investment and don’t achieve desired results.

Leaders Consulting with Followers

Last week I facilitated a strategic planning session for the children’s ministry at our church. This event was a great illustration of the benefits of leaders engaging a larger group of interested people when significant decisions need to be made.

Although we have consistently offered Sunday morning children’s programs since the church was founded in the 1990s, the offerings have been adjusted by various involved volunteers without any documented big picture plan. Recently we have had diverse feedback from parents, asking for things we already offer, expressing needs that we aren’t addressing, and wondering about differences among classes. To serve our members and their children well, it is time for us to develop a strategic plan for children’s ministry.

Although the four members of our children’s ministry team have different backgrounds and expectations, we don’t represent the diversity of our whole congregation. When developing a strategic plan that could shape the direction of our children’s ministry for five years or more, it is critical that we get broad input.

Government Communication with Community Members

An elected member of city council is accountable to the citizens residing in the community. This accountability includes listening to, serving, and communicating with those residents. The city administrator’s job, whether she is elected by the public or hired by the council, has the responsibility to provide services to the same residents. With two parties fulfilling the role of local government whose job is it to communicate with community members? Well, that depends on the matter at hand.

City council has the responsibility to develop policies, local bylaws, or local legislation for the good of the community at large. For councilors to be informed about the needs of the community so they can make decisions that truly serve the public, it is important for them to frequently be in conversation with a diversity of community members. The focus of councilors’ communication with the public is to listen to concerns that impact the city as a whole and to inform the residents on council decisions. Topics to address might include the condition of the parks, the maintenance of the roads, the quality of garbage service, or the realities of city finances.

Who is in Charge in Government?

A city councilor in the United States recently asked me how she could increase her interaction with the residents of the city so she better understood their hopes and needs without stepping on the toes of the mayor who was elected by the public as the senior full-time staff person. This reminded me of the inherent challenges in not having a single-line of authority within an organization.

In a company that has a CEO reporting to the board of directors, the vice-presidents reporting to the CEO, and each department head reporting to one of the vice-presidents, etc., the official lines of authority are clear. People can go ahead and do their job knowing from whom to get approval for new projects or procedures. The CEO, one person, a full-time employee, is responsible for coordinating work throughout the organization.

Board Chair’s Authority

I have recently observed diverse practices in the fulfilling of the board chair’s role, from exercising too little authority, to appropriate authority, to too much authority. In most cases the intent of the board chair is to serve, not to exert personal control. However, a clear understanding of who is to be served and what constitutes excellent service is often lacking.

The board chair’s role is to facilitate effective governance of the organization’s affairs. The individual has been selected to ensure that the board fulfills its leadership role. This includes such things as all board members being engaged in the work of the board, the board appropriately guiding and monitoring the organization’s work, and authority resting at appropriate levels in the organization.

Managing Board Change

“We’ll appoint a committee to handle the changes in our governance structure so all the board members don’t have to invest so much time in the process”, suggest the boards of many organizations who are planning governance overhauls or mergers. While a committee can increase the board’s efficiency by researching options, collecting feedback from stakeholders, and communicating key findings, I have not seen effective and efficient implementation of significant governance change without all board members investing several days of their time.

Beyond the Boardroom

“What the board members do outside the boardroom is even more important than what they do in the boardroom” a seasoned board member recently commented to me. There is a lot of truth in this statement. It is only during a board meeting that board members have authority to make decisions for the organization, but being equipped to make quality decisions and presenting a positive leadership image for the organization take lots of time beyond board meetings.

The benefit of board meetings is for diverse board members to dialogue on key organizational issues so synergetic decisions can be made by engaging diverse wisdom. To maximize effective discussion during time-limited board meetings it is important for board members to receive and review background information on each agenda item before the meeting. The board is responsible to make decisions that position the organization to be effective in its environment; this requires that board members stay on top of trends in the industry and in society at large, as well as being current on issues within the organization. To be equipped to make quality decisions, many top notch board members spend more time preparing for board meetings than attending them.

Board Members’ Transparency and Tenacity

Recently I have seen several organizations that are struggling with quality board member communication. Even when all the board members are passionate about the organization and have the common good at heart they are not experiencing the joys of being part of a high performing board team that leads the organization to great results.

One of the challenges is the lack of transparency between board members. In the interests of time efficiency board members aren’t spending the time needed to get to know each other well. On the surface the board members may trust each other, they believe that their colleagues are honest and well intentioned. However, their trust doesn’t go deep enough for them to risk sharing their thoughts, feelings, and gut reactions openly with each other. This too often leads to decisions that are only accepted at the head level. Board members leave the meeting not bought-in with their heart and therefore do not promote or enthusiastically support the board’s newly stated philosophy. The rest of the organization, in turn, does not get the message, and thus does not have the benefit of effective leadership. Even if the board’s decision was a quality one, there are no followers because the rest of the organization does not get the message. This lack of effective leadership significantly impedes results. Increased board member transparency leads to decisions that are accepted, more clearly communicated, and impact positive organizational results.

Planning for Results

Stephen Covey’s first habit of highly successful people, “begin with the end in mind”, also applies to organizations. The purpose of strategic planning is to articulate goals for the organization for the next one to five years. These goals define what the organization is expected to achieve by the specified dates.

Setting such specific goals is a key aspect of the board’s responsibility to direct the organization. Effective directors are proactive about generating ideas for organizational progress. They develop specific and time-bound goals that state very clearly “what” the organization is expected to accomplish. Then the board asks the staff to develop an operational plan indicating “how” the desired results will be achieved. The operational plan outlines the action steps or tactics that will be completed to get the desired results.

Too often board members are happy to let the staff who work for the organization many more hours per week develop the strategic plan, and then the board members simply rubber stamp the staff proposal. Such board members are abdicating their leadership responsibility.