Idiots on Your Board?

DocFields
3 min readJan 21, 2020

Idiocy thrives in the non-profit world just like the rest of life

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

It’s one of the most common topics of discussion in my informal CEO support group.

At least once a month, somebody asks what they’ve done to deserve their current “Board of Idiots.”

The saddest thing is that most of the idiots are well-intentioned. They probably have no idea of the grief they are causing their CEO or the staff of the organization they claim to love.

I might even have had a few idiot tendencies when I was on the board myself.

Could you be an idiot board member?

  • Do you either fillibuster nonstop or never speak up during meetings?
  • Do you feel the need to crap on every idea, even if you were the one who brought it up two months before?
  • Do you have to respond to every perceived slight?
  • Do you badmouth other board members, especially to junior staff?
  • Do you want to get involved in every decision the organization makes, right down to the type of paper in the photocopiers?
  • Do you think a non-profit should run like a corporation?
  • Have you ever reminded the CEO, in the middle of a board meeting, that they are “just an employee”?

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DocFields

Nonprofit CEO, innovator, internationalist, feminist, creative, hopeful romantic. Student of power. Not that kind of doctor. Smokescreen for the guilty.