Difficult board

[BoneyMaroney]

I’ve had to change some details, as will probably be too outing otherwise.

I manage a small non-profit. The staffing of the organisation consists of myself and a couple of administrators. There is no Director or CEO. I was hired because I had expertise the organisation needed.

I am having a lot of issues with our board. I fully accept the point of a board is to be a critical friend but there have been several instances recently where it’s overstepped in meetings and veered into bullying. The conduct of a few of our Board have been so awful in recent meetings I’ve been in floods of tears afterwards. Members of our Board have also actively tried to micro-manage my work or even undermine me outside of meetings.

I previously had a good relationship with our Board Chair, but their behaviour towards me has also changed for reasons I am not sure of as they have always praised my work. I have been in several meetings recently where they purposefully excluded me from the discussion and / or directed questions to my reports. I no seem to longer have any autonomy in my role and it is almost at a point where our board chair is managing my day to day work. I’m at the point where I feel gaslighted and don’t really know what to do. I half wonder if they want to get rid of me but not sure if that's the agenda. I’ve worked with boards before but never encountered this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Are the board members volunteers with little to no experience or knowledge in the areas you are the professional?

This does sound like the case where they are less about overseeing and governing and actually trying to take on accountability of management. Feels like a 1:1 with the Chair - leveraging that historic trust you have with one another is needed - to revisit accountabilities and remind/ refresh shared view of how the board and management function .

Yes they are

The whole thing sounds a bit weird. Are you like the Chief Operating Officer ? Are you paid ? Are they paid ? There are really strict rules about Trustee Boards for a Charity. It sounds like they are ignoring them. In the absence of more info, I would move on. If you are concerned about the conduct of the organisation, I would raise concerns with the Charities Commission as a starting point - if it is just a clash of personalities, then move on to a place that appreciates you more.

This sounds awful. Yes, the Board is supposed to be a critical friend but they definitely aren't supposed to bully you! And they shouldn't be micromanaging you either. If they have concerns about your performance, they need to approach it in an appropriate manner.

If I were you, I would have a really open and honest conversation with the Chair about how you are feeling. You might have to walk away if you don't get anywhere, but it definitely sounds like the problem is them, not you.

Do you have any Board members that are supportive, and if so, could you enlist their help?

Sounds very similar to a previous job i had advising schools Board of Governors.

I realised they didn’t want my advice, they wanted to hear their own advice but in my voice !

Needless to say, I wasn’t there long, it was very stressful, and I left them to get on with it and never looked back.