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

Failure to Launch: An Executive Transition Reconsidered

Ruth McCambridge
August 31, 2016
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
Come-Back-Soon
Six Flags NOLA Come Back Soon Floodlines / Infrogmation of New Orleans

August 25, 2016; Sonoma Index-Tribune

Readers may remember yesterday’s newswire I wrote on the founder who was informed by his board that he was to share leadership with two other co-directors. The decision appears to have since been rescinded, but here is another story of a transition gone a bit sideways.

At the Sonoma Valley Community Health Center, CEO Cheryl Johnson tendered her resignation three months ago, effective at year’s end. The board chair, Richard Gantenbein, said at the time that she had “one of the toughest jobs in the Valley. It is grueling, grinding work in a constantly changing marketplace.” In fact, Johnson expressed her longing for work-life balance as a major reason for leaving. But when the search for her replacement began, the board found that no one wanted the job as it was currently structured.

Gantenbein said, “I went back to the board and said, ‘We should really figure out if there is a way to keep her.’ We had accepted her resignation on face value, and we went back to her for a long conversation about what we could do to convince her to change her mind.” Of course, the recent impressive Clinical and Financial Performance Measures ratings from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) would make any board think again.

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.

Johnson doesn’t place responsibility for the intensity of her job entirely at the board’s feet, since she is a “bit of an overachiever.” (The self-built trap.) The board has decided that rather than go forward with the search, it will instead make sure Johnson’s job is sustainable.

“I love what I do,” said Johnson, “and I think we have now figured out a way for me to do it and still have a life.”

“There are a handful of really hard jobs like this in the Valley,” said Gantenbein. “How can we make this job viable over a long period of time?” The current line of thought entails hiring additional staff—in particular, a chief operating officer—an increase in pay and a scaling back of plans.

The beginning of this story is a scenario most of us have seen happen. It is all too common for a board to realize after an executive leaves, completely spent, that the job really required two or three individuals and that they really should have been paying more attention to the growing realm of responsibility and complexity that comes with some leadership positions. The fact that this board realized that they had what they really needed in reach and that new wouldn’t necessarily be better and the fact that the relationships here were still so intact to allow a rethinking of the situation, speaks well of all involved.—Ruth McCambridge

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

More about: executive transitionsBoard GovernanceExecutive LeadershipExecutive TransitionLeadershipLeadership Transition/Succession PlanningManagement and LeadershipNonprofit News

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

NPQ_Winter_2022Subscribe Today
You might also like
Making Mothers Out Front a Liberatory Space
Beth Shipp
Capacity Building as a Tool for Transformation
Tiloma Jayasinghe
We All Have Value: Changing Relationships Through Radical Empathy
Dr. Akilah Watkins
The Vital Connection: BIPOC-Led Narrative Change and Pluralist Democracy
Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke
Community-Driven Philanthropy: Giving Away Assets, Not Grants
Crystal Echo Hawk and Favianna Rodriguez
Trusting Youth to Lead
Janay Eustace and Isabel Sousa

Upcoming Webinars

Remaking the Economy

Black Food Sovereignty, Community Stories

Register Now
You might also like
Making Mothers Out Front a Liberatory Space
Beth Shipp
Capacity Building as a Tool for Transformation
Tiloma Jayasinghe
We All Have Value: Changing Relationships Through Radical...
Dr. Akilah Watkins

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.

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.