5.2 Recruiting on your own terms

Contracting conversations can have such different flavors depending on the personalities involved. But there are underlying principles that are common to the best ones. Let’s zip through some of these.

1. Personal not presentational.
The very first thing Blaise said gave Srita the chance to turn the conversation in the personal direction and she jumped on it. And when Blaise was talking personally about his high school days, she and Mindy saw the deep, personal connection he had with their mission.

If a candidate wants to keep the conversation more formal, there’s no problem with honoring that. Not everyone wants to open up like Blaise did. But it’s more revealing when they do and that can help you be more certain about your decision.

2. Research puts you in a strong position.
Did this conversation seem too sweet and easy? It was sweet because Mindy and Srita had done their research. They knew a lot about Blaise. They knew he might be able to give them the very thing they wanted with regard to fundraising. They knew the red flag they needed to check out.

When you know, going into the conversation, that you’re at least in the right ballpark, then it doesn’t have to be a struggle.

3. The warning that’s also a gift.
Highly-effective people want to know that you’ve got a highly-effective Board culture. Otherwise it won’t be a match for them.

Notice Srita said, “Our Board is challenging to be on.” That didn’t scare Blaise off. It helped draw him in.

And when Srita talked about the Board culture she didn’t use pretty or abstract talk. She was passionate. She nailed it. She demonstrated not just with words, but with her emotional energy that the Board was super serious about its culture.

Again, that didn’t scare Blaise off, it drew him in closer.

It’s a gift to be able to say to a candidate…

If you join this Board it will be a place where you can make a significant difference without any kind of crazy or distressing stuff getting in the way.

And Srita presented her Board culture with pride, like…

We’re so happy to offer this kind of experience to our Board members.

But this discussion of Board culture, presented as a gift, also serves as a warning. Lots of people know that a nonprofit Board is a great place to run their acting out games because it’s so easy to get away with almost anything on many nonprofit Boards because so few of them ever discipline any of their members.

When you take an unhesitating, almost militant stand for your Board culture, anyone who’s eyeing your organization as a venue for uproar and emotional drama will know that they can’t do their thing at your expense. You won’t tolerate it for a moment.

So, fortunately, they’ll likely go away and leave you alone. But unfortunately, they’ll likely go find a Board that is vulnerable to acting out.

4. The one thing.
What are you asking your Board members for?

Basic governance duties, that’s for sure. That’s true for any Board. But I recommend that you…

Ask only for the governance you need and not one bit more.

I’ve seen lists of Board duties that go on forever. Really elaborate lists.

And it’s just not believable that any Board could do all those things. And if they did all that governance they wouldn’t have time to do anything else for the organization.

If you show a list like that to a highly effective person, you might lose her because all she’ll think is you don’t really know what you’re doing.

And if governance is all you want from your Board then ask for that and be prepared to settle for that. And be prepared to end up with a Board that’s more bureaucratic in spirit. Or slips into becoming watchdogs.

But if you want a Board of activists and champions, then I recommend not doing a global ask. Don’t ask for everything including the kitchen sink.

Ask for the basic governance duties you really, really need.

And then ask for the one special thing that this particular Board member can give you and wants to give you.

If he wants to give more, cool. But start with the one most important thing. Because otherwise how will a Board member ever feel like they’ve done enough? You know how it is with EDs. They feel their work is never done. That’s not good for them.

And it’s not good for Board members either. Let’s ask them to sign up for something doable so they can feel fulfilled. So they can feel like, Okay, I’ve really done it. I’ve made an important difference.

Let’s not ask them to chase infinity. That’s part of the sacrificial operating system.

If Blaise takes the TAP Board to the next level in terms of their fundraising, how great would that be? And wouldn’t that be enough from him for his first year of Board service?

He’s a guy who likes challenges. It’s likely he’s naturally going to want to do more and build on his success. So let’s not bury someone like that in shoulds. Let’s let him be a success and enjoy that and let him be inspired by himself instead of keeping him trapped in the mindset that says no matter how much you give it’s never enough.

And please don’t be cheap. Don’t give up a Board seat for a maybe. You’re worth more than that. You deserve to have Board members who make a deal with you about what they’re going to do and then follow through. That’s what makes them a true Board member, not the title.

And if they ever stop being a true Board member then you get to take the title away. Our missions really matter. We’re not playing a game of pretend here. Real people are in real pain in the real world and the point of a nonprofit is to do something about that.

So please think deeply about what you need and what you want. And then go shopping for Board members who can give you that…

We’d want Joe to get us a leadership grant from his company’s foundation.

We’d want Josie to donate $5,000 personally.

We’d want Roberto to bring 30 contacts to our point of entry events.

We’d want Tilda to become chair in the Fall and turn this into a fundraising Board.

We’d want Davy to go out with our ED on a dozen major asks.

We’d want Oscar to lead the Board in strategic thinking for thirty minutes at every meeting.

We’d want Charlotte to be a thought partner with our program director.

And there are so many more possibilities. That’s why it’s great to get personal in a conversation with a candidate and do serious brainstorming with them. The candidate may come up with a counteroffer you never would have imagined…

Stella:  Hi, Dennie. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me about joining the Board of Arts for All. I’d really like to see if there’s a match here, both for you and for us.

Dennie:  Sure, thing. I love what you do. My daughter took one of your workshops and discovered talents she didn’t know she had. I can’t tell you how grateful I am. There’s a new light in her eyes.

So, yes, I’m really interested in helping out. What did you have in mind?

Stella:  Well, we were thinking since you’re one of the top professional artists in town that you might help us with our fundraising. You know, connect us to people with money who care about the arts.

I’d like to talk with you about whether that’s a match for you.

Dennie:  You know what, I’d be glad to host events at my gallery if you want. That’s easy and I love showing it off. Especially since I refurbished it last year.

Stella:  Wow, that would be perfect to do our events in an art space. And your gallery is just beautiful.

Dennie:  Thanks, but here’s the thing. On my way over, I realized something. Not many people know this, but before my art became successful, I was a CPA.

Stella:  No, I didn’t know that. I never would have guessed.

Dennie:  I’m so happy doing what I’m doing now, but I miss the accounting. Does that seem strange?

Stella:  Not if it’s something you love.

Dennie:  It is. I would never again want to do it all day long, but do you need a treasurer on your Board?

Stella:  We absolutely do. Nobody on our Board knows finances, so they take six-month turns handing off the treasurer job. But that’s not a good solution. Tell me more.

Dennie:  I like the idea of showing people that there’s another side to me besides the artist. And I believe in organizations having impeccable financials. I think that helps with the fundraising if you can demonstrate that you do top-notch financial management.

Stella:  Okay, I’m really liking this. Our bookkeeper is excellent but he’s not full-charge. His skills are more basic than advanced. He keeps telling me that we need to increase our internal controls and that he needs someone to check in with when he’s stumped by a posting question.

Dennie:  That sounds good. I’d be glad to come in and go through your systems with him. And I could help him make a plan for developing his skills.

Stella:  Perfect, he’s very open to learning. He was in an assistant position but he’s very bright so we pushed him into bookkeeping. And the bug has bit, he’s discovered that finances are his thing.

Dennie:  That sounds great. And if I were your treasurer, I’d be glad to work with the Board on creating the kind of reports they need. I’m very good at walking folks through financial statements in language that even artistic people can understand.

Stella:  We need that. What a surprise! I wasn’t expecting our conversation to take this turn at all.

Dennie:  Okay, but would that be enough if I did those two things? Treasurer and hosting events at my gallery? I don’t have lots of time, but I could handle those two things really well.

Stella:  Absolutely. We’d feel great about you doing those two things. This is definitely a match. Do you want to walk down the hall with me and meet Alberto and have a look at our books before you make your final decision?

Dennie:  Yes. That works for me. And you know what?

Stella:  What?

Dennie:  It’s going to be such fun to show the community that an arts organization doesn’t have to be ditzy when it comes to the business side of things, that we can really shine.

Stella: I love hearing you say we!

5. Negotiating pays off.
Sometimes people think negotiating is what you do with adversaries.

Jim Camp, a top negotiator who works on billion-dollar deals, says…

The person I negotiate most with is my wife. And then my kids. Because that’s where the most is at stake for me. I want those relationships to be at their best at all times.

Negotiation, in the way I like to use the word, in Jim’s sense of the term, is the key to building strong relationships that will sustain and just keep getting better.

So, yes, when you do a negotiated invitation with a Board candidate, you’re protecting yourself. You’re doing self-defense. You’re screening out people who will not be right for your nonprofit.

But even better, you’re laying the foundation for a working partnership that you hope will thrive for years.

That’s why I urge people not to rush through the Board building process. Take the time to do your research. When you set up an interview with a candidate, make sure you have plenty of time to go deep with that person if they’re open to it. Don’t have yourself so tightly scheduled that you have to rush off before the conversation is really done.

And you might want to have multiple interviews. Sometimes recruiting top flight Board members is a bit like courting…

At my old organization CAP, when we lost our state funding, we decided to recruit high-level corporate executives and community leaders.

I met Jared at a meeting of business owners at his bank. We got to talking afterwards and he seemed sincerely interested in our work. So I researched him. I knew he was a big deal, but I didn’t know how big a deal. He was connected to all the political players in our city. He had served on prestigious Boards.

And best of all, everyone I talked to said he was known for his integrity. That word came up every single time.

So I called him and set a meeting. I told him we were a mature organization and all we needed were fundraisers and ambassadors. Not only did he not choke at that, but he was happy to hear it. That’s the kind of Board he liked to be on.

Over the next three months we had four meetings or lunches with different mixes of our staff involved. Did it bother us that the process took so long? Not at all. This was a serious guy treating us with the same seriousness that he treated those big prestigious Boards he had been on. We knew that if he said yes, he’d be the best Board member ever.

In our final meeting at our office, he said, “I’m very interested in your organization and your challenges, but there’s just one more thing. There are a couple people in town who get on Boards and cause trouble.”

I said, “Stop right there. If you don’t want them, then we don’t want them. So from now on when we get interested in a Board candidate we’ll tell you the name, and if that person is a troublemaker all you need to do is say no. You don’t even have to explain. We’ll toss the name.”

Jared said, “Okay, I’d like to be on your Board.”

We learned so much from him about how to negotiate with Board candidates to make sure there was a solid match, and what we learned was such a contribution to us that if Jared had never done another thing for CAP it would have been okay.

But once he was on our Board he gave us a special kind of credibility and social proofing. The next two VIPs we recruited were impressed to see his name on our Board list. That’s why they agreed to talk with us.

And then the day came when we got a call from a VIP who said…

“I noticed that Jared, Frank, and Marilyn are on your Board and I’m wondering if you’re looking for additional Board members.”

That made recruiting a whole lot easier. But now we had a new problem. We had to exercise due diligence to make sure that people were joining our Board because they sincerely cared about the mission and understood it, in addition to being interested in working with the business and community leaders on our roster.

With Jared we went slow to go fast. Taking the time to create the right relationship with him meant we rebuilt our Board faster than we ever expected.