Today's missive comes via a small Facebook group started by my dear friend Jen. It's a bit silly but it's been a great space for a few dozen nonprofiteers to gather and share funny pictures, offer support and work through sticky situations. One of our group members shared a recent situation and with their permission, I've turned it into this week's column because it's just so ... typical.
Dear Julie: Last month, I met with the Board's Personnel Committee because a a former employee has their ear and they believed the rumor that the current staff had issues with me. (Guess who started THAT rumor?) We did organizational surveys and the staff said nothing of the sort but the Personnel Committee pointed out that surveys can be biased and asked me to bring in a third party consultant. Guess what? The consultant privately interviewed everyone and reported out that there are no such problems and everything is actually fine. He met with the Personnel Committee last Monday to tell them so and I've heard crickets from them since. What should I do?
_______________________________________________________
Well. Your board's Personnel Committee is chock full of assholes, now isn't it? If former employee has their ear and they willingly believed those false rumors instead of the surveys that were completed, the odds of them accepting the report of the third party consultant are probably somewhat lower than you might hope. Here's what I would do:
1. Obtain a copy of the third party consultant's report ASAP. Make sure that a copy of that report is put into your personnel file AND that you submit a copy of the report to the full board as part of your report. It should be in the board packets.
2. Schedule a face-to-face with the Board Chair and go over the report line by line. Make sure that they understand that the Personnel Committee was on fishing expedition and that they have wasted organizational resources and undermined your authority and experience with this wasteful and unnecessary expenditure. (If your Board Chair is on the personnel committee, have the meeting with the Executive Committee instead.)
3. Host a staff meeting and fill your entire team in on what's happening. A survey followed by interviews with a third party consultant is going to cause some uneasiness (at best) and outright freakouts (at worst) so if you can be fully transparent with the team, they'll appreciate your leadership even more. Tell them that *someone* outside the organization seems to be trying to cause problems internally and that doesn't do anything to advance your important mission work or your obligation to the cause you serve. This meddling also reflects poorly on your staff because the personnel committee seems to think that your staff is LYING and that's probably a bad thing. So pull the team together and if needed, have that third party consultant come and review the document with them. (You're the best judge of this.)
4. Send an email to the entire personnel committee saying something like:
Dear Percival, Murgatroyd, Bathsheba, Beauregard and Dorcas,
On DATE, you received a report from CONSULTANT (attached) outlining their review of ORG's culture and an assessment of some rumored issues that the committee identified as being of potential concern. As you can see from the attached report, these rumors have been fully debunked and in fact, ORG is working effectively and professionally to advance our mission of DOING SOMETHING IMPORTANT. The report supports the outcome of the surveys that I had staff complete on DATE and were provided to this group on DATE (summary attached). It certainly is gratifying to learn that staff believes that my leadership is effective and that our outside consultant arrived at the same assessment.
While I'm still concerned that there may be rumors reaching committee members about the operations of ORG, I think we can all agree that this experience upholds the strategic direction that the Board has set for ORG and my leadership of the ORG. I hope that we can move forward collaboratively and work together to DO THE WHAT YOUR MISSION SAYS YOU DO.
I've included the employee summary and the consultant's report in this month's board packet for the full board to review.
Warm Regards,
Totally Tee'd Off ED
______________________________________________________
And that's it until Friday ... send your questions to dearmurgatroyd@gmail.com and I'll try and get it posted within a week!
Cheers!
Dear Julie: Last month, I met with the Board's Personnel Committee because a a former employee has their ear and they believed the rumor that the current staff had issues with me. (Guess who started THAT rumor?) We did organizational surveys and the staff said nothing of the sort but the Personnel Committee pointed out that surveys can be biased and asked me to bring in a third party consultant. Guess what? The consultant privately interviewed everyone and reported out that there are no such problems and everything is actually fine. He met with the Personnel Committee last Monday to tell them so and I've heard crickets from them since. What should I do?
_______________________________________________________
Well. Your board's Personnel Committee is chock full of assholes, now isn't it? If former employee has their ear and they willingly believed those false rumors instead of the surveys that were completed, the odds of them accepting the report of the third party consultant are probably somewhat lower than you might hope. Here's what I would do:
1. Obtain a copy of the third party consultant's report ASAP. Make sure that a copy of that report is put into your personnel file AND that you submit a copy of the report to the full board as part of your report. It should be in the board packets.
2. Schedule a face-to-face with the Board Chair and go over the report line by line. Make sure that they understand that the Personnel Committee was on fishing expedition and that they have wasted organizational resources and undermined your authority and experience with this wasteful and unnecessary expenditure. (If your Board Chair is on the personnel committee, have the meeting with the Executive Committee instead.)
3. Host a staff meeting and fill your entire team in on what's happening. A survey followed by interviews with a third party consultant is going to cause some uneasiness (at best) and outright freakouts (at worst) so if you can be fully transparent with the team, they'll appreciate your leadership even more. Tell them that *someone* outside the organization seems to be trying to cause problems internally and that doesn't do anything to advance your important mission work or your obligation to the cause you serve. This meddling also reflects poorly on your staff because the personnel committee seems to think that your staff is LYING and that's probably a bad thing. So pull the team together and if needed, have that third party consultant come and review the document with them. (You're the best judge of this.)
4. Send an email to the entire personnel committee saying something like:
Dear Percival, Murgatroyd, Bathsheba, Beauregard and Dorcas,
On DATE, you received a report from CONSULTANT (attached) outlining their review of ORG's culture and an assessment of some rumored issues that the committee identified as being of potential concern. As you can see from the attached report, these rumors have been fully debunked and in fact, ORG is working effectively and professionally to advance our mission of DOING SOMETHING IMPORTANT. The report supports the outcome of the surveys that I had staff complete on DATE and were provided to this group on DATE (summary attached). It certainly is gratifying to learn that staff believes that my leadership is effective and that our outside consultant arrived at the same assessment.
While I'm still concerned that there may be rumors reaching committee members about the operations of ORG, I think we can all agree that this experience upholds the strategic direction that the Board has set for ORG and my leadership of the ORG. I hope that we can move forward collaboratively and work together to DO THE WHAT YOUR MISSION SAYS YOU DO.
I've included the employee summary and the consultant's report in this month's board packet for the full board to review.
Warm Regards,
Totally Tee'd Off ED
______________________________________________________
And that's it until Friday ... send your questions to dearmurgatroyd@gmail.com and I'll try and get it posted within a week!
Cheers!
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