With the Super Bowl taking place this week, it reminds me of when, a decade ago, Coach Bill Cowher took his Pittsburgh Steelers to a fifth Super Bowl victory. At the time, he was the longest-tenured coach in the National Football League. For 14 years, through periods of feast as well as playoff famine, team owner Dan Rooney stood by Cowher, allowing him to finish the job he started. (The Steelers have similarly stood by current coach Mike Tomlin.)
In the past 25 years, there were an eye-popping 168 coaching changes in the NFL. No, not all good coaches win the Super Bowl, but too few are even given the opportunity.
A similar dysfunction exists in the day-school and nonprofit world. As an example, per most studies, the average tenure of a head of school has shrunk to three to four years. How many of these heads, flush with talent and idealism, have seen their vision bite the dust after a mere three years on the job? How many of these leaders have left the day-school world, never to return?
When I speak before nonprofit leaders, I ask the following question: How many bosses do you have? Almost without exception, the response is the same: “Well, the unwritten reality is that every single board member is my boss.” What logically follows is this: If you have 15 board members, you have 15 bosses. Now, would anyone in their right mind accept a job where they have 15 people to whom they directly report? Of course not. So why do we perpetuate this ridiculous construct?
Clearly, this state of affairs has contributed to the incredible shrinking tenure of all nonprofit leaders. A case in point: a major $140 million-dollar nonprofit, a standard-bearer in the social services world, is working on their fifth CEO in just seven years. The previous CEO left abruptly, following a press release citing “a different vision” with her 40-person board.
Every stakeholder in the day-school and nonprofit community must ask the question: How long would you stay on the job if you had more than one boss, let alone 40? Then why expect your head or executive director to do the same?
The solution to this conundrum is the third principle of the six principles of board/CEO partnerships, which states: “The CEO has only one employer: the board as a whole.” This means that a board that ethically governs makes it known that the executive is responsible only to the unified board.
“Unified” does not mean everyone wears the same logo yarmulke or color skirt. It means that whatever policy or mandate decided upon in the boardroom is the one and only “boss” of the head. Thus, the head is not faced with the political pressure of fielding the special interests of individual trustees. Likewise, board members understand that their collective responsibility takes precedence over their individual relationship with the executive.
Under this model, good CEOs with potential have the opportunity to succeed on their own merits. Though most day-school and nonprofit leaders won’t “win the Super Bowl” in their first few years, many can when ownership stands by them and lets them coach.
By Jonathan (Yoni) Schick
Jonathan (Yoni) Schick is a dynamic leadership consultant and nationally known speaker who has founded two successful Jewish high schools and consulted for hundreds of organizations. As president of GOAL Consulting Group, Jonathan’s clients include the American Red Cross, United Way and the University of North Texas. He is the author of The Nonprofit Secret: Six Principles of Successful Board/CEO Partnerships. You can reach Jonathan at [email protected].
