Great post! Nice to have this out in the open; I too have observed numerous non-profit boards with the properties you describe (>5?) and agree with your recommendations for what the board should prioritize, including specialization, protecting the Board’s authority and the CEO role (for future CEOs), and mainly focussing on evaluating the CEO.
To add to the content a bit: I haven’t liked it when I’ve seen Boards totally unwilling to replace the CEO, e.g., due to a promise of loyalty to never replace them, or feeling socially outranked by the CEO. A board that feels that way should, in my opinion, focus on gracefully replacing itself with new members who would not feel too socially-or-morally-outranked-by-the-CEO to replace the CEO; otherwise there is basically nothing holding the CEO accountable for currently held resources (only future reputation).
Great post! Nice to have this out in the open; I too have observed numerous non-profit boards with the properties you describe (>5?) and agree with your recommendations for what the board should prioritize, including specialization, protecting the Board’s authority and the CEO role (for future CEOs), and mainly focussing on evaluating the CEO.
To add to the content a bit: I haven’t liked it when I’ve seen Boards totally unwilling to replace the CEO, e.g., due to a promise of loyalty to never replace them, or feeling socially outranked by the CEO. A board that feels that way should, in my opinion, focus on gracefully replacing itself with new members who would not feel too socially-or-morally-outranked-by-the-CEO to replace the CEO; otherwise there is basically nothing holding the CEO accountable for currently held resources (only future reputation).