Boards of directors are by law required to satisfy a variety of essential duties (hiring executive owners, holding fiduciary responsibility, establishing strategic course to get community organizations and so on). But your most well-intentioned boards at times have a hard member or two that can bring throughout the tone of meetings and create true conflict.
You understand the one — the person just who shows up nevertheless is obviously not engaged in the board’s chats, who is a constant disruptor or will not support decisions that almost all the panel has https://theboardmeeting.blog/dealing-with-board-director-misconduct/ voted upon. These types of behaviors can damage the table and its capacity to fulfill the responsibilities and should be sorted out immediately.
It really is tempting for a chair or executive director to just “wait out” the problem table member, in hopes that they will both change all their ways or leave once their term is up. Yet , if unmonitored, the difficulties can unfold to additional members and ultimately endanger the effectiveness of the board.
When you are struggling with a difficult board member, start by ensuring they come to feel valued. This can be done by being in regular contact and letting them know how much you appreciate their do the job and their benefits to the aboard. If this does not help, you can always approach these people directly for a frank conversation about their behavior. Ideally, this will happen in person, rather than by email, since this makes it not as likely for the problem to turn.