Principled Innovation LLC

Suffering in silence

July 31st, 2006

Within the last few weeks, I had a confidential conversation with an association CEO I will call George. George gave me permission to post his story, however, hoping that he will be able to access some much-needed advice from the wise and thoughtful leaders who read this blog. You see, George is suffering in silence because his association has a chief elected officer who just doesn’t get it at all, and who is making life truly miserable for him, the staff and even other board members. It is an intolerable situation, with no apparent solution, and George would very much like to quit his job because he’s tired of fighting and pretty much at his wit’s end with this toxic personality.

What exactly is the chief elected officer doing that is creating such havoc? For one thing, he is unilaterally announcing new strategic initiatives of his own creation that are beyond the scope of the organization’s existing strategic direction, and without discussing the new ideas with the rest of the board. He is meddling in staff management issues, insisting on receiving regular reports on staff activities that are well beyond the scope of both his authority and responsibility, not to mention a complete waste of George’s time. What’s more, he is running roughshod over other organizational contributors who are tired of putting up with his abrasive and domineering style. There is talk that some members are going to bolt the current association and create a new group just to get away from his imperial rule.

In addition to his unwelcome disruption of the association’s activities, this volunteer leader does not appear to be at all interested in learning how he can perform his role well and make the organization more successful in the process. He is totally closed off to the input of others, and his approach is not challenged one bit by an excessively deferential board of directors that effectively functions as a rubber stamp for his highly questionable judgments.

Short of quitting, which is certainly a desirable but unavailable option at this point, what would you do if you were George? Any and all suggestions will be gratefully accepted!

I am certain George is not the only CEO who is struggling with a volunteer leader of this kind. If you’re one of them, we hope you’ll share some of your experiences and solutions as comments to this post. (Feel free to disguise your identity if necessary.) It is imperative we recognize that volunteer myopia, intransigence and, as in this case, the willful and self-centered disregard of others, costs our organizations a great deal. We can’t just chalk it up to the members owning the association or hope these situations will spontaneously improve anymore. The former is outdated thinking, and the latter is wishful thinking. Deep volunteer engagement at all levels of our organizations is a critical element of any strategy for association success, but it must be a productive form of engagement. And from the Board and its officers in particular, associations need engagement that energizes others, not demoralizes them. We need inspiration and foresight, not desperation and a misplaced obsession with minutiae. We need stewardship and leadership, not micro-management or, worse still, dictatorship.

I don’t believe that the circumstances George faces in his organization are the norm in the association community. Of course, if people aren’t talking about what they’re going through, I suppose I don’t really know if I am justified in that belief. At the moment, however, my big worry is not that our organizations will be overrun by despotic volunteers, but that we don’t pay sufficient attention to those organizations in which they emerge. It should not be necessary for capable and dedicated association CEOs to give up their jobs (some by “choice” and others by “invitation”) simply because a bad volunteer leader gets in their way. We should have other remedies available and, as far as I can tell, we don’t. And that is why George and others like him continue to suffer in silence.

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