By Carlo Cuesta
What’s your greatest value as a board member? Maybe it’s your ability steer your organization away from pitfalls with thoughtful advice gained from years of experience. Or your financial expertise in mitigating organizational risk. Perhaps it’s your loyalty as you actively work to promote the wellbeing of your organization.
As someone who sits on a board, I’ve experienced that instinct to give advice, to speak out, to intervene, especially in moments of critical decision-making. It’s a natural response for a responsible, engaged board member to voice concerns about potential risks. But this reflexive caution leads me to wonder: Is this my most powerful role — holding myself and others to account?
As nonprofit board members, we have a tendency to focus on what’s missing. It’s a common practice to seek out gaps and offer advice on how to fill them. Although this is well intentioned, it can undervalue the expertise of the professionals leading the charge. It’s akin to second-guessing the very people we’ve entrusted to steer the ship. There’s a misconception that all feedback is beneficial. In many cases, feedback can do more harm than good, especially when it’s rooted in a scarcity mindset.
What if we took a broader view of what it means to be a great board member? Traditional board duties often overshadow an equally important role: nurturing your organization’s growth and evolution with a mindset of abundance and possibility.
Imagine if we, as board members, shifted our focus to recognizing progress and fostering learning. By acknowledging the strides we’ve made together and helping leaders to identify and build upon their connections and successes, boards can provide proactive support that cultivates further growth.
When we offer insights that recognize and build upon the strengths and accomplishments of the team, we can bolster morale and open doors to innovative thinking and collaborative problem-solving. It’s about moving away from a deficit-focused mindset to one that sees promise and potential. By redefining our role as board members to encompass a broader, more nurturing form of governance, we can profoundly impact the success of our organizations.
Let’s try an experiment. At our next board meetings, let’s focus on progress, learning, and constructive, strength-based feedback. Let’s make the shift from merely overseeing to actively contributing to our organizations’ growth and success. In doing so, we can level up from good, responsible governance to transformative leadership.