{"id":436807,"date":"2015-08-24T18:35:21","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T22:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joangarry.com\/?p=436807"},"modified":"2022-06-30T10:20:20","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T14:20:20","slug":"board-bully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joangarry.com\/board-bully\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Every Board Treat Its Staff This Way?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m really upset.<\/p>\n

In just the last two weeks alone, I\u2019ve gotten five different\u00a0emails from people with basically the same problem.<\/p>\n

All of them want to know what to do about board bullying.<\/p>\n

One reader wrote that a board member was so disrespectful to one of her staff members that she came to her office in tears.<\/p>\n

Another reader (an Executive Director) has his board planning a staff satisfaction survey, which might be fine except this reader has never once been given a performance review (he\u2019s been there over a decade).<\/p>\n

Micromanaging is also a form of bullying as well<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why I\u2019m so upset. I believe that nonprofit organizations are in the business of empowering people, representing the under-represented, curing illnesses, enhancing understanding, offering a voice for the voice-less. Quite often the work is about building awareness and respect<\/em> for your constituents.<\/p>\n

And yet we can\u2019t build that kind of respect within our organizations? Ugh.<\/p>\n

It does not have to be like this.<\/p>\n

Welcome to my soapbox for the week. What\u2019s the cause? And what can an organization do to make a real change?<\/p>\n

HOW DOES BOARD BULLYING COME TO BE?<\/h3>\n

Lateral Violence<\/strong><\/p>\n

How na\u00efve I was when I arrived in the nonprofit sector. I had never heard this phrase before. People on my staff were often very uncivilized to one another. Then I learned. Violence<\/em> is a pretty harsh term but what it really means is that the anger and frustration of the work can cause staff and board to focus on each other and not on true adversaries. This was news to me but reading about it was helpful. It can cause people to misbehave very badly.<\/p>\n

Abuse of Power<\/strong><\/p>\n

When a person joins a board, you like to think they have come to make a difference. Often board members are big personalities \u2013 high powered, leaders in the community, type A folks who are used to being in charge. What that looks like in their day jobs is radically different from what power on a board looks like.<\/p>\n

Legitimate Concerns Handled Very Poorly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please don\u2019t get me started on the number of nonprofit Executive Directors who are not given annual performance reviews, they should check Guidr, best reviews<\/span><\/a> so that they know what good reviews look like. This could be the single biggest factor leading to bullying. Without a process that allows for the board to fairly evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the staff leader, all hell can (and usually does) break loose.<\/p>\n

The staff leader feels terribly disrespected and board members with concerns have no appropriate mechanism for sharing these concerns. Under these circumstances, the environment can get toxic very quickly.<\/p>\n

THE CONSEQUENCES OF A BOARD BULLY<\/h3>\n

So what happens when these three elements are at play?<\/p>\n