Tips for onboarding a new nonprofit executive Director

Within the next six months, several Sonoma Valley nonprofits, including the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau, Mentoring Alliance, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Museum of Art, will have new executive directors. In a 2014 survey of nonprofit executive directors conducted by The Bridgespan Group, 46 percent responded that they got little or no help from their boards of directors when first taking on the position. To increase the likelihood that a new executive director becomes a high-performing successful leader as soon as possible, it is critical for an organization’s board to work with the new executive director to collaboratively design an onboarding process that can take up to a year to implement.

One of the first things that should be decided when the new executive director comes onboard is clarity regarding roles. Simple questions regarding who establishes the board meetings agendas; which decisions are made by the board and which are made by the executive director; and the methods and timing for the executive director’s performance evaluation should be answered right away. In addition, the board should clearly communicate with the executive director regarding the type of relationship it wants to have with the executive director, the organization’s priorities, and critical issues facing the organization. In the beginning, it is important for the board to encourage the executive director to spend the time necessary to get to know the organization’s staff, board, programs, and key community stakeholders.

During the first month on the job, it is ultimately the executive director’s responsibility to take the lead in creating a one-year, month-by-month onboarding plan in collaboration with the board. The plan can include specific goals for the competencies the executive director needs to gain regarding the following aspects of the organization: management and leadership; board management; program management; fundraising; volunteer management; fiscal management; and community engagement. Individuals from the staff, board and community who can provide coaching on specific aspects of the organization’s programming and history should be included in the plan. After the plan is approved by the board, the executive director and board leaders should meet frequently to discuss progress being made on the plan. During these check-in meetings, the board should identify any obstacles the executive director is having in implementing the plan and work with the executive director to craft strategies for overcoming these obstacles.

Tjiska Van Wyk, Executive Director of Jack London State Historic Park, said this about her onboarding as an executive director, “In my particular case, an orientation team of three people was organized. They provided me with what the board felt were the six top priorities and the background for why this was determined important. They were clear about my role and responsibility for day-to day operations and allowed me to develop the best path for meeting these priorities…and were available as coaches as I got up to speed. For the first couple of months we met every other week for about an hour until the frequency of meetings was no longer necessary.”

Another element of the onboarding plan is to include key meetings and events that the new executive director should attend. These meetings and events may include internal program and operations meetings, meetings with important constituents and community partnering events.

Cristin Felso, Executive Director of Teen Services Sonoma, provided this advice for what it takes for new Sonoma Valley nonprofit executive directors to be successful, “Set performance goals. Have a contract and a job description. Get introduced to groups such as the Sonoma Leadership Systems training opportunity called Social Profit Leaders Roundtable and the Executive Directors Roundtable. Have a board member or advisory committee member serve as a mentor to orient them to the organization, the board, and the community. Have a list of facility service providers and a service calendar. Get the list of press contacts. Be sure to have a list of passwords to the organization’s accounts. Have an electronic file containing all the grants the organization has received in the past. And have an orientation to the organization’s budget.”

Continuous communication between the board and the executive director regarding performance expectations and regular feedback on performance is essential for a healthy relationship between the board and the executive director. Sadly, in that 2014 Bridgespan survey, 66% of the executive directors surveyed reported that they did not work effectively with their board “to establish concrete measures and milestones for the board to use to assess my performance in my first year.” During that critical first year, the board and executive director should be honesty assessing the executive director’s skills and the board should provide the resources for the executive director to get the skills he or she needs to be successful.

It’s important for board leaders to remember that it is far more expensive to have to replace the newly hired executive director than it is to provide adequate onboarding and targeted professional development to help the new executive director have the essential tools to be able to succeed as the organization’s new leader.

Dr. B.J. Bischoff owns Bischoff Performance Improvement Consulting, a Sonoma firm specializing in building the capacity of nonprofit organizations and public sector agencies to better serve their stakeholders. She assists clients with strategic planning, training resulting in performance improvement, fund development, and community relations. She is Past President of Impact100 Sonoma and serves as a Sonoma County Board of Supervisors’ appointee to the Sonoma County Portfolio of Model Upstream Programs Review Committee. Contact her at [email protected].