Gregg Patterson: The Big Five—A Survivor’s Guide
Wanting to Survive
Every GM/ COO wants a GREAT working relationship with the Board of Directors, every Board wants a GREAT working relationship with the GM/ COO and the membership wants the GM and the Board to be in alignment, doing what needs doing to ensure a successful club culture.
Every manager who’s survived and thrived at a given club has distilled their manager-board success into a few pithy principles. These “templates of success”, born of experience, are hugely valuable nuggets of managerial gold filled with insights and behaviors worth pondering and pursuing.
Consider the following BIG FIVE as a “Survivor’s Guide” to successful manager-board relationships.
- “In Your Lane” Two-Way Mentoring
In club governance there are three lanes— ADVISORY which are the committees, POLICY which is the Board and ADMINISTRATION which is the GM.
The roll of each is clearly defined. Committees Advise, the Board Decides and the GM Executes the policies adopted by the Board.
The Demon in this governance model is The Evil One—Lane “creep”. Committee Creep occurs when a committee think they decide policy and dictate execution. Board Creep occurs when the board micro-manages the GM and dictates the procedures that need doing to execute the policies they’ve adopted. And GM Creep can occur when the GM/COO discounts and denigrates committee insights and advice and acts in a way inconsistent with board policy.
Lane Creep is diminished when two-way mentoring occurs—that is, when advice and insight are given and ACCEPTED while leaving the decision about “what’s done” to the person being mentored. Each branch of governance gives and accepts advice from the others. The Manager mentors and accepts mentoring from the board and the Committees. The Board mentors and accepts mentoring from the GM and both the Board and the GM mentor and accept mentoring from the committees.
Avoiding “Lane Creep” and accepting the need for mentoring are behaviors needed to ensure managerial longevity and good governance.
- Conscious Cultivation
Good governance doesn’t “just happen.” Good governance needs to be consciously cultivated and guided by the GM / COO. Talented members need to be targeted and developed LONG BEFORE arrival on the Board of Directors. A process is needed to ensure that educated, experienced and balanced members are chosen for board service.
First, managers need to work with the board to enlarge the talent pool, to educate the general membership about The Big Issues and the little issues impacting the club culture. Transparency is needed and constant communication—in writing, with podcasts and videos and in member forums—is a must-do.
Secondly, the Board / Manager team need to template The Good Committee Member—talent, experience, collegiality, interest, commitment and a collaborative mindset.
Thirdly—experienced past board members—The Scouts—should work with the manager to identify members with a “upside potential” for governance.
Fourth—members with “upside potential” should be selected for committee service, receive a basic start-of-the-year governance orientation, be given assignments, their in-committee performance observed and their strengths, weaknesses and “suitability” for service recorded for future reference.
Fifth—Those “targeted” members who’ve performed well on their first committee should be assigned to other committees in future years—ideally, participating in at least two other committees to capture a complete understanding of club issues and governance—continuing their cultivation with the annual governance orientation and assignments, all the while observing and recording their strengths and weaknesses in the “committee service” data base.
Sixth—After service for several years on several different committees, those who have been cultivated and tested, who have the talents needed by the board at that time, are selected. These freshman board members are then given their first COMPREHENSIVE Board Governance Orientation, are assigned a committee and their performance observed to determine if they have potential for service as Board President in the future.
Seventh, and Lastly—Board “graduates” become Scouts identifying talent within the member talent pool for the future.
Members well cultivated contribute to a successful manager-board relationship.
- Cultural Alignment
Every club is a culture with a distinctive set of values requiring manager-board alignment to be long-term, big-time successful.
Every club culture can be broken down into analyze-able pieces each of which required manager-board alignment. “Vision Agreement” is needed as to the club’s WHY, it’s very reason for being; it’s governance structure (role of the board, committees and the GM); the goods, services and programs appropriate to that culture; the type of facilities needed to deliver those goods, services and programs; the aesthetics of those facilities; the finances needed to fund the present AND the future; the symbols of the culture used to market the culture; the type of communications used and the level of transparency provided when communicating; the staff who were selected and retained; and lastly the type of members appropriate to that culture.
Values alignment and “Vision Agreement” will help manager / board relationships flourish.
- Political Fluency
The Board and the GM need to appreciate and master the art of politics—that is, the art of decision making when there are conflicting opinions about the decisions to be made.
The “politically knowing” have a clarity of goals; appreciate the “spectrum of the acceptable” in pursuit of those goals; know who the influencers and the deciders are amongst the members and the staff; prepare for “encounters” with the unknowing and the unconvinced by doing their homework; know and have mastered the people skills necessary for doing The Encounter correctly; follow-up The Encounter with soothing and affirming communications; and debrief those encounters and decisions, identify the facts, the ideas and behaviors of note and inventory those insights into an Idea Bank for future retrieval and use.
Long-serving Managers must be politically astute when dealing with the board and the membership—and the board must be politically astute when dealing with the manager.
- Followership
Managers and the Board need to master—and appreciate the power of—FOLLOWERSHIP before they can lead staff or members to The Promised Land. Managers who succeed know how to follow the Board and boards who succeed know how to “follow” the needs, wants and expectations of the membership.
Managers who do followership right—who are beloved because they “follow well”—have a global understanding of clubs and clubdom; are “deep generalists”, familiar with and interested in all the bits and pieces of club operations; are deep specialists in an operational something; are Networkers within and outside the club; are stimulators of those they follow; are the “do’ers of choice” when things need doing; are the trumpet of the board’s vision to members and staff; are the ears for the board, the committees, the staff and the members, hearing what’s being said and letting others know what got said; and are the “loyal opposition”, the “breakers of the mirror”, who’ll tell the truth—graciously—to those who are the leaders.
Managers who are good followers of the board survive and thrive.
Template The BIGGIES
Managers who have survived and THRIVED have a list of “must-do’s” to ensure successful manager-board relations. All are worth knowing, all are worth considering.
Talk to The Successful. Write down their principles. Ponder their practices. Compare and contrast theirs to this survivor’s Big Five.
Create your own template of principles and practices for a successful manager-board relationship.
Do what’s needed to survive and thrive.
And enjoy the journey…………………
Gregg Patterson -Founder and President
“Tribal Magic!!!”
