Should a Board Member Serve as Interim Director?
Executive Director and CEO vacancies happen for a variety of reasons. It can be because of a sabbatical. It can be a next step during the passing of the baton to transition an executive into retirement. It can be a temporary role to keep things steady while the company re-hires after the termination or death of a company leader.
At the heart of all of these scenarios, the result is that someone will fill the role on a temporary basis, and this person must serve as a leader in that role while maintaining the organization’s day to day operations as smoothly as possible.
Here’s the kicker: It should not be a sitting board member who fills this position.
A board member who feels very connected to the mission, purpose, and operations of the organization may seem like the perfect candidate for an interim role while your nonprofit finds its new hire (especially when that board member also has some experience in an executive leadership role). But I disagree. I think it is actively harmful to the organization to have a sitting board member step in as an interim leader.
The Role of the Board of Directors
A Board of Directors functions in a governance role. This means they oversee the financial stability of the organization, make sure that the organization is acting in a legal manner, that the bylaws are held in high standards, and the organization remains in compliance with those bylaws.
What most board of directors duties do not include is the operations of an organization, the day to day decisions and nuance of managing staff and delivering programming.
An organization needs to take specific actions in that interim space to ensure that funding and financials are in order, that any grant agreements and current fundraising efforts are not left to fall through the cracks.
Someone needs to step in and hold it together–and it shouldn’t be assumed that a board member has the daily operational know-how that this interim role requires.
Healthy Board Relationships with Staff
The relationship between staff and board members has a delicate balance, and putting a board member onto the staff of an organization can disrupt that relationship.
Really healthy organizations have access points between staff and board members. Board members can reach out to staff to offer support and resources, and staff can reach out to the Board to request their expertise and advice.
When that board member comes into a CEO or executive role, that disrupts the relationship both when the board member comes into the active leadership role and begins to manage daily operations, and again when they leave the role and go back to the board. The lines and access points have been blurred, and the relationship no longer has clearly defined boundaries.
If a board member is leaving or has recently left the board, they may be a good candidate for the interim role–but only if they are not going back to their board position afterward.
Alternatives to a Board Member as Interim Executive
If not a board member, then who? There are two excellent options available to organizations when filling an interim role that can provide the stability needed to navigate the transitional period: an internal candidate from existing staff, or a professional interim.
1. Promote a Current Staff Member
An interim period for an organization is a time to consider the team’s responsibilities and reassign people and projects, if it makes sense. There may be internal team members who can take on a little more responsibility in the interim space to oversee important projects. This helps smooth out operations or keep a sense of continuity among a smaller team.
In those instances where you're asking a current staff member to step into more senior duties and roles, consider whether a bonus structure might be appropriate to acknowledge and compensate them for that additional set of duties.
I recommend a bonus structure instead of a title adjustment and/or a salary increase because the idea of interim is that it is short and time limited. A bonus to compensate for their work above and beyond their normal duties maintains the boundaries between their regular role and the interim one.
If your budget can’t support a bonus, consider a fundraising campaign to help support compensation in the form of a bonus for those staff members that step up.
It’s not always possible to find an interim leader among existing staff, and in this case I highly recommend hiring a professional interim executive to step in and manage the transition.
2. Hire a Professional Interim
There are candidates who have made a career of exceptionally stepping into situations like these. A pro interim has experience handling these transitional roles to make sure they can maintain the stability that an organization requires.
Because that’s the top priority: stability.
In my work as an interim, one of the first things I do is an assessment and nonprofit snapshot. I hold brief interviews with staff and sitting board members, and these conversations give me a quick download of what’s going on in the organization, and where there may be potential risks facing the organization during this transition.
After establishing this initial snapshot, I can begin to build out a structure to address the vulnerabilities and risks. This framework is something I work on as I step into the day to day management and operations within the organization.
One of the really powerful things that can happen when you bring in a professional executive interim for that leadership gap is the opportunity to innovate. Perhaps there's some innovation or new approach that you've been wanting to do for a very long time, but you've never had the ability to do it.
This interim space is a beautiful time to look at innovation and shake up the organizational status quo.
Managing Emotional Transitions
Supporting the emotional aspects of the transition is huge, especially if there's been a termination or a death. Even if the executive leader has left on their own accord, but it's sudden, the remaining team members may have conflicting emotions and grief over the change.
Asking an employee to manage everyone’s emotional needs in the workplace when they are going through the same experience may be overwhelming. Be sure to ask internal candidates in their interview how they are coping and whether the emotional aspects of the interim role may be too much.
When you're thinking about bringing in a professional interim, make sure that as you're interviewing them, you ask how they help the team navigate through the emotional part of the transitions and build trust.
It's crucial to keep operations going, but it's also important to consider how you can be a human centered workplace in the time of this change in transition. That internal candidate may already have built trust and community within the organization, whereas an executive interim may need to work hard to build that level of trust.
So, which option is better? It really depends on the organization, the team, and the scope of the work that needs to be covered in the interim. What I can tell you is that you should not wait until the need arises to make a plan. If your organization does not yet have a succession plan, there’s no better time than now.
Ready to cross this organizational health to-do item off of your list?
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Listen to Episode 51 of the Leaving Well Podcast: Interim Executive Leadership and Leaving Well.