Do boards need ongoing professional development?

Windsor Recruitment recently attended an information exchange forum between not-for-profit (NFP) board chairs and was surprised to find that very few endorsed the idea of an ongoing professional development schedule for board members. It seemed so out of line with contemporary commercial thinking that it required deeper examination and discussion.

Training requests can cause offense

The traditional ‘tap on the shoulder’ process of recruiting a new board member has been regaining popularity lately due to financial restraints. The consensus regarding mandatory ongoing training of board members that are recruited in this way is that it undermined the hard work that goes into recruiting them.

“By the time you’ve wooed and won your executive recruit by praising him to the skies, convincing him to invest a big, time-consuming unpaid effort that may well put him out of pocket and snaffle a sizeable slice of his life, it’s hardly cricket to suggest that he signs up for a return to formal study,” said one director.

Board members are educating themselves

NFP boards no longer resemble the well meaning but often badly informed and inept governors of NFP boards in the past. In fact, the highly motivated, success-driven individuals who willingly undertake heavy workloads to help govern prominent NFP organisations may well be among the most driven self-educators in business today.

Therefore, while many NFP board members love to hate one-size-fits-all training courses, the overwhelming personal commitment to the pursuit of knowledge may render these structured classes useless.

One chairperson said that generic training courses often wasted time by covering information he had picked up on the job. When asked how he went about learning what he did need to know, the chairperson said that he found an expert, asked questions and listened well to the answers.

Although asking experts for help forms a solid foundation for skills gathering, leaders at the information exchange forum acknowledged that it’s only a start and that staying current though incessant reading and research; information gathering and analysis; adding new skills; and sharing ideas between staff, boards and other organisations is equally important.