28 Habits of Highly-Effective Board Leaders

What Successful Presidents Do to Accomplish Their Missions

Leading a volunteer board of directors can be a tremendous hassle, or a meaningful, often enjoyable experience. But the latter doesn't happen by accident. Like any other business, you need a strategy, a plan, a great team and a lot of passion.

We conducted detailed interviews with two successful alumni board presidents to discover some of the secrets of effective organizational leadership. We've condensed them into bite-sized chunks for easy digestion. In addition to the interviews, we've drawn on Affinity Connection's 34 years of experience with alumni groups, as well as the advice of experts in organizational development. The list below contains ideas for recruiting board members, running effective meetings, working with undergraduates, structuring finances and more. All of the concepts result in mission accomplishment.

Affinity Connection's work with hundreds of alumni organizations has revealed that while each group has its own distinct style, they share much in common. Ironically, one of the common traits among board presidents is the idea that "my group is different than those successful ones." Many think their groups can't succeed because their alumni are apathetic, stingy or poor. The truth is that the success of an alumni organization can usually be traced to the efforts of a single person, or small group, who decided to win and then put in place a plan to make it happen.

While it may sound like a lot of work to incorporate these ideas into your organization, it's no harder than trying to do it without a plan, and it's a lot more fun.

The two successful board presidents we interviewed were Greg Sinise, of Alpha Sigma Phi at Purdue University, and Kevin Murray, of Theta Chi at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Among their achievements, Sinise's group has a five-year plan, a $200,000 reserve fund and a $300,000 credit line, allowing them to easily make major repairs, survive dips in recruiting and be prepared for a capital campaign in the future. Sinise has served on the board since 1974 _ all but two of those years as president.

Kevin Murray, a board member for six years and president for the past four, recently led a successful capital campaign to build a new $2 million chapter house, which opened September 6, 2003.

With your personality, your ideas and creativity, plus diligent work, you can lead your board to accomplish great things. (Note: Although Affinity Connection works with alumni groups that want to grow, you'll notice that this list is not about us. It's about you and your group.)

Transition to a Business Board: Many alumni boards are casual groups which deal with mundane operational issues and the occasional crisis. Don't let inertia and urgency run your board. Develop a five-year business plan which includes projections of income, expenses and expecially reserves. Focus on strategic, rather than operational issues.

Be Organized, or Recruit Someone Who Is: Crisp, well-run meetings inspire confidence, and that attracts commitment and money. Concise, informative letters and emails do the same.

Assume Ignorance: Kevin Murray suggests you communicate with members as if they have been "living in Alaska for 15 years and know nothing." When you write newsletters and other communication pieces, "pretend you're writing to your mother." Too many leaders assume their members know what life is like on campus, or at the house... but most of them have mental images clouded by nostalgia and sporadic, often inaccurate, information.

Keep Alumni Involved with Undergrads: Assign areas of responsibility to each board member connected with specific undergraduates - physical plant, rush, leadership coaching, etc. This not only ensures someone is responsible, but it keeps board members connected with the people and place about which they're making strategic decisions.

Project-based Board Members: You don't need an alumni board primarily to discuss and vote. You need action. Recruit new board members to take responsibility for projects within their areas of expertise or passion. Find out what existing board members like to do, and 're-recruit' them for projects. Give each board member responsibility with a measure of autonomy, and accountability for performance. Let them recruit their own project teams.

Recruit Through Board Members: If you personally do all the recruiting, you'll likely end up with board members who are roughly your age. Successful leaders strive to bring diversity in age and expertise to the board. Work through your current board and other involved alumni to recruit new project leaders from all eras who could become board members.

Term Limits Prevent Burnout: The kind of leaders you want to recruit don't want to make commitments they can't keep. They would rather turn you down now than fail you later. Use short-term commitments to build long-term loyalty, and keep the board fresh by cycling directors out every three-to-four years for one-year breaks.

Don't Hold the Past Against Them: Successful leaders are often surprised at the effectiveness of board recruits who were not already gung-ho group members. The key is finding projects that excite them. Kevin Murray, who oversaw construction of a new chapter house for his fraternity, was not previously an active alumnus. However, he got tired of hearing others say that 'someone should do something' about the condition of the old house.

Recruit Graduating Seniors: Ask the undergrads to nominate candidates, then use them as advisors to the chapter and board members in training.

Don't Recruit People Who Can't Commit: Make your expectations clear. If the prospect has doubts about fulfilling them, the time is not right. If you have to drag him into it, you'll be dragging him until the day he quits (or you kick him off the board). Look elsewhere for a board member.You can still use that person as a short-term project chief, advisor or volunteer.

Election Losers Make Great Volunteers: If you have competitive elections for your board, you don't want anyone to feel like a loser. Make sure you're ready with project opportunities for those who don't get elected. This is part of your overall strategy to continually groom leaders.

Meaningful Meetings, More Communication: The sharpest people are almost always the most active, with little calendar slack to devote to poorly-structured, rubber-stamp board meetings about minor operational issues. Use email, phone, Internet listservs and ordinary snailmail to keep your board members and key associates connected. Avoid swamping the board in details. Don't use meetings for information sharing. Meet to make decisions based on information previously shared, and to build unity behind the strategy.

Hold Board Meetings by Conference Call: If you have several meetings each year, use the phone for at least one of them. This reduces travel expenses and time away from family, lightens the burden of board membership and may provide that extra meeting you need. This can't replace all face-to-face meetings, but it's a good supplement. Conference calls are also great for 'emergency' meetings.

Focus on the Big Stuff: Make sure you're maximizing the effectiveness of your board by working together to create a long-term plan, then assigning individual board members to oversee execution of the elements of that plan. The winners you recruit don't want to spend three hours discussing whether to replace the sofas.

Have Fun: Use meetings as reunion opportunities for team building and strategic planning. Your board members should look forward to these meetings as fun and meaningful times.

Balance Business and Family: Alumni groups and their undergraduate chapters are odd combinations of business and family. A fraternity, for example, owns property, collects funds and makes purchases like a business. But it's also a brotherhood, which means that relationships are the key to growth. The challenge is in the balance. In other words, even brothers have to pay the rent on time. There is no either/or...it's both.

Structure Clarifies Expectations: As part of that balance between business and family mentioned above, you should have a written set of expectations for board members. Also, provide your undergraduates with written expectations of their role in the ongoing tradition of the group and in caring for the property. Everyone should sign on and be held accountable.

Educate Board Members: Your primary job is to continually teach and inspire. Never assume that someone knows how to be a good board member, even if they've served on other boards (or on your own board) previously. Continually answer the existential question 'Why are we here?' Put it in writing. Talk about it at each board meeting, and in private conversation with board members.

Stay Positive: You've heard it said 'Nothing succeeds like success.' Board members won't stick around a loser. Tell them you're recruiting winners. Help them develop a winning plan. Inspire them to believe that they will accomplish their goals. Despite the reserved manner of many adults, they crave enthusiasm and respond to honest positive messages.

Always Encourge: Even the most polished and professional businessperson needs encouragement to stay engaged. Make sure your board members understand their value to the organization and to you personally. Don't leave this to chance. Have a regular plan for recognizing and honestly praising your team publicly and privately.

Clear Consistent Messages: Boil down your mission to a few clear talking points, and review them repeatedly with your board and any member with whom you come in contact.

Educate Undergraduates: Part of your job as a leader is to teach undergraduates about the real world. Open the financial books and explain the operation of a not-for-profit corporation. Teach them about debt ratios, and set the rent payment at an appropriate percentage of topline revenue. This will not only clarify expectations and reduce tension with the undergraduates, but it will prepare them to be good alumni board members.

Use Scholarship to Build Recruiting: While scholarship contests are great, they're usually limited to a few top achievers. At Purdue, Alpha Sigma Phi developed a scholarship program in which brothers compete against themselves each semester. Anyone who meets the criteria wins. Here's how it works: If you beat your last semester GPA by .5, you get a 5 percent rent rebate. If you beat the all-men's average by .5, you get a 10 percent rent rebate. If you do both, you get a 15 percent rent rebate. Greg Sinise said 50-60 percent of the brothers usually earn checks.

Hire Accountant to Work with Students: The accountant should not just create a P&L each month, but work with the students and teach them how to do it. It gives the students a regular dose of reality that will benefit them in the real world, and it keeps the organization on an even keel. The accountant can also play 'good cop' to your 'bad cop' when necessary.

Don't Bail Them Out, Make a Loan: If the undergrads fail to recruit enough to meet their financial responsibilities, don't cover their rent deficit. Carry it on the books as a loan that must be repaid when they increase their numbers. It teaches them that there's no free lunch and breaks the cycle of alumni bailouts. Greg Sinise's board actually shows the undergrads what their house bill will look like if they don't recruit, for example, 10 more brothers.

Require Parent to Guarantee Rent: To avoid ugly collections situations, require parents to guarantee their undergrad's contract with an active credit card. If a student fails to pay a bill for 45 days, the parents will see it on their next credit card statement.

Invite President of Parents Group: Open your meetings to representatives of the undergrads parents, and the students themselves. This reduces miscommunication and allows everyone to get the unvarnished truth about your organization.

Communicate Often with Parents: Alpha Sigma Phi sends a brochure celebrating the positive aspects of Greek Life* along with a letter thanking parents for supporting their son in the fraternity. Use such notes to explain how the organization works, what your mission is, and to solicit feedback from parents.

* Greek Life brochure available from Affinity Connection: 800-598-4050