logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Destroy Your Executive Committee, Part 2: 5 False Rationales

Simone Joyaux
June 10, 2011
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

Simone P. Joyaux, ACFRE is recognized internationally as an expert in fund development, board and organizational development, strategic planning, and management. She is the founder and director of Joyaux Associates. Visit her website here.

First, read my previous column. I’m on a worldwide mission to destroy all executive committees. Staff – and yes, even board members – are joining me in this mission.

Here’s the rationale. Here’s the response to every one of the reasons people say.

1.   The executive committee meets in case of an emergency, in lieu of the board. Because it’s hard to get the full board together.

Excuse me? It’s an emergency, something vital to the organization. And you disregard the full board and bring together the executive committee. Ask the rest of your board members how they feel, giving this emergency power to a subset of the board. And in this day and age with conference call capability and email? Please. A true emergency belongs to the board.

2.   The CEO needs a small group to talk with about very confidential items; a kind of think tank or kitchen table cabinet.

Stop right now! Nothing is confidential to a subset of the board. If any committee of the board knows something, it’s the right and responsibility of the full board to know it. Governance is the legal and moral authority of the board. The board cannot delegate that to any single individual or entity.

If a CEO wants a smaller group to chat with first, and then of course chat with the full board, pick the people who have the expertise. If the issue doesn’t fall within the purview of any committee, e.g., governance, finance, fund development. (Because if it fell within a committee’s purview, you’d take the issue to that committee.) So you bring together board members who have expertise and particular insight about the issue.

Or, let’s say you have a personnel issue. It’s actually a management issue and you won’t take it to the board since it isn’t governance. But you want to chat with a couple board members. This isn’t governance work so it isn’t board committee work. Call (or bring together) a few board members (and outside experts, too, if you wish) to chat with you.

Remember, the CEO can chat with any board member she wishes. The CEO doesn’t need to get permission from the board chair. The CEO doesn’t need to pass everything by the board chair.

3.   The executive committee includes the officers and committee chairs and sets board meeting agendas.

Seems to me that’s a waste of time. (Wow, lots of time. Imagine you are the treasurer. You chair the Finance Committee and go to those meetings. You serve on the Executive Committee and go to those meetings. And you go to board meetings. Ugh.)

I recommend that the CEO and Board Chair together develop board meeting agendas. The CEO should know what’s happening in every single committee. Either the CEO is the staff person for a particular committee. Or another staff person staffs the committee (e.g., the chief development officer staffs the Fund Development Committee) and keeps the CEO informed.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

4.  The Executive Committee does the performance appraisal of the CEO.

You don’t need an executive committee to do that. You need an ad hoc task force that

includes the right people. For example, someone with experience in personnel / human resources.

Perhaps a couple of board members who chair committees that have worked closely with the CEO recently. The current board chair. Perhaps the immediate past board chair or the incoming board chair.

Put together a task force that lasts for the few months of the appraisal process. Then terminate the task force.

5.   Processing information over and over till you lose the edge

So a committee discusses an issue. Then refers it to the executive committee. Then the executive committee takes it to the board.

It would be great if the issue deserved lots of discussion. And sometimes, issues do, indeed.

But beware. Repeat discussion may not add value. And by the time the issue gets to the board, some people have already talked themselves out. They’re kinda bored. They’re kinda impatient. They act like that. So the full board – some of whom were not on the previous committees – feel like the discussion is getting short shrift. There’s nothing quite like trying to have a discussion when others say, “Oh yes, we already talked about that and . . . ” Exclusionary!

Executive committees are just too dangerous.To me, their danger far outweighs any particular benefit. There’s nothing an executive committee does or might do that cannot be done by another existing committee or an ad hoc task force.

(And by the way, an executive committee by any other name… If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck! I worked for an organization that used its Finance Committee as an executive committee. I know an organization right now that is using it’s Governance Committee as an executive committee.)

Most of what an executive committee does should be done by the board itself. Quit disempowering the board! Quit creating a shadow board. Join my worldwide mission to destroy all executive committees. And start with your own.

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Simone Joyaux

Simone P. Joyaux, ACFRE is recognized internationally as an expert in fund development, board and organizational development, strategic planning, and management. She is the founder and director of Joyaux Associates.

More about: Board GovernanceOpinionUnraveling Development

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Are Your Organization and Its Board “Access Able”?
Katherine Schneider
Navigating Succession: Four Exiting CEO Mindsets
Aparna Anand Joshi, Donald C. Hambrick and Jiyeon Kang
Survey Finds Vast Shortfall in Diversity Efforts of Leading Boston Nonprofits
Steve Dubb
Network Governance as an Empowerment Tool
Blythe Butler and Sami Berger
Otto Bremer’s 3 Paid Trustees Face State Charges of Violating Their Trustee Role
Marian Conway
“Diversify Your Board or Else!” Nonprofits Need a Standard, Too
Martin Levine

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
Are Your Organization and Its Board “Access Able”?
Katherine Schneider
Navigating Succession: Four Exiting CEO Mindsets
Aparna Anand Joshi, Donald C. Hambrick and Jiyeon Kang
Survey Finds Vast Shortfall in Diversity Efforts of Leading...
Steve Dubb

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.