Take Preventive Measures to Address Bad Board Member Behavior

No one goes out of their way to recruit a difficult board member, but sometimes you end up with one.

At one point in her career, Mona Buckley, CAE, now president and CEO at the Government Employees’ Benefit Association, had a board member who wanted to become president-elect. The problem: He wanted to circumvent the process. The organization had a slated nomination process where the nominating committee solicited recommendations from the entire board and then determined the best candidate.

It turned out that the candidate who wanted the president-elect position wasn’t slated. He started calling other board members to complain that the process wasn’t fair, and he wanted them to contest it. He also asked if he could count on them for their vote.

“It was completely upending the process and making people very uncomfortable,” Buckley said.

In a situation like this or others where you’re dealing with bad board behavior, having clear policies and processes in place—including board member job descriptions—and keeping behavioral analysis objective will prove most successful.

Trust the Process

The board wanted Buckley to solve the problem of the disgruntled board member. “You’re in the middle because they don’t want to make that call,” she said.

Buckley relied on her experience. “Basically, you revert to the process,” she said. She reviewed the documented, board-approved operating policies and processes. There was also a board member job description that candidates had to sign on their way in that defined expectations. “It’s one of the best things,” Buckley said. “It just solves a lot of things that can happen later.”

Once Buckley confirmed there was not a problem with the process, she went to the board chair and told him he was going to have to make the call to the unhappy board member.

“The other golden rule is, always keep a volunteer between yourself and the problem when the problem is another volunteer,” Buckley said.

Board leadership had the difficult conversation with the board member, and he stopped attending meetings. Since the board had requirements for meeting attendance, the chair was able to give the board member the option to resign or to be removed at the next meeting. The member ultimately resigned.

“Every board member felt good about how we handled it,” Buckley said. “If the process is clean, all problems can be solved. Governance problems are because stuff is untidy.”