Search America ^®
Private Club Executive Search & Consulting:
Trusted Advisors Since 1974

Club directors, however diligent in their chosen professions, seldom dedicate the time to step back and evaluate their own performance as a board. Quick to judge management we are often slow in addressing our own shortcomings. When acknowledged and internalized by the directors, a club’s brand , its culture, mission, bylaws, strategic plan and core values drive the board’s decision-making. Effective professional staff, once they understand what motivates their board to make the decisions they do, will reflect those values in the approach they use in overseeing the day-to-day management of the club. Absent that mutual understanding, a disconnect between management and board invariably leads to confusion, frustration, dysfunction and ultimately, management turnover.

The board decides what is right and management determines how to do it right . A board must integrate often disparate considerations into their deliberations with results reflecting their individual and collective core values. When all of those involved in leading the club can say, "this is just the way this club does things" then the club’s values and practices have been internalized. Attempting to change the very core culture of the club and its ingrained governance is a challenge requiring significant outside input and an extraordinarily open-minded and agile board of directors or governors. Questioning why something is to be done is the board’s job. How the board’s decisions are implemented is up to management.

Leadership is expected to lead. Instituting values-based norms, as the foundation for decision-making and action, will run up against resistance borne of decades of entrenched behaviors. Influencing change requires credible leadership, an abundance of patience, sensitivity to the feelings of others, empathy, tenacity, superb human relations and communications skills, respect for the foundation on which the club’s culture and traditions rely and lots of time. The ability to leap tall buildings will help too. Ultimately though, success depends upon the club’s members accepting responsibility for their club and trusting their elected leaders. Momentous change, without member support, is fraught with peril.

Implementing values-based best practices is an evolutionary process, perhaps taking several years, and is usually more disruptive than anticipated, particularly if the club’s present governance is dysfunctional. A club’s culture can adapt only when board members are willing to accommodate collective aspirations over personal, parochial interests. The difficulty is getting individual directors and committee members to become aware of the disruptive influence of single-minded agendas.

The board is most effective when acting and speaking as one. The best directors understand that they can disagree without being disagreeable. They will debate the merits of an issue during the meeting but leave the room united behind collective decisions. They squelch rumors and do not foment discord by revealing confidential, board debate outside the boardroom. Attrition should be expected among those directors who feel threatened by initiatives to evolve to a healthier system of governance. Rankled even by the discussion of change some inflexible members and employees may seek happiness elsewhere. Change is painful, exciting, frustrating, challenging, frightening, but when properly managed, inevitably cleansing.  

Expect opposition. Club directors, with whom we have counseled on these issues for over three decades, report that they know the process is succeeding when it resurrects issues some would rather had remained buried. So, be prepared: not every member or employee will embrace the plan; some won’t even wait for the results before condemning it. If everyone’s happy the project was either unnecessary in the first place or insufficiently planned. Birth hurts, we’ve been told.