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Why Board Goals Matter

Is your board on track to make an impact?

Quick! What are your board's top three priorities? 

Now...do you think each trustee would say the same?

Your board has a very important job to do and very little time to do it.

Without aligning around a clear set of priorities, what are you actually doing?

For most boards, the required legal and compliance work finds a way to get done. But, the more strategic efforts that make the long-term impact can fall off the radar.

The work that truly makes the organization better -- and makes an impact for kids -- gets done only when trustees intentionally engage in setting and meeting goals.

Goals empower your board to focus on priorities and progress, not personalities. 

Goals ensure the time you spend in meetings translates into time spent meeting your charter’s promises.

Goals provide accountability, transparency, and confidence to key stakeholders. Whether renewing your charter, communicating with the public, or making your case to potential funders, you can demonstrate that you’re on track when your goals are on track.

Making progress towards your goals can keep board members engaged.

Keep board members connected to their purpose by reviewing your progress at every meeting.

BoardOnTrack makes this easy. Just pull up the dashboard at each of your board and committee meetings to see the progress you've made and make sure you’re using your board members’ time effectively.

 

Clear, measurable goals can help strengthen your board-CEO partnership. 

Oftentimes, the board-CEO partnership falls down because each side thinks they’re not getting what they need from the other. Measurable goals solve this.

The board should develop annual board-level goals that define how the board is going to add value to the organization each year. And then you should track those goals, throughout the year, and hold individuals accountable to their parts in helping meet those goals.

People come to board meetings, they get really fired up, they’re motivated. And they agree to a lot of tasks. And then they walk out the door. And these well-meaning, busy people who have the skills to execute on their tasks, drop the ball. Nothing happens until they show up to the next meeting. This doesn’t really help the board. And it gets really frustrating for the CEO and the staff.

And that’s what the Goals dashboard in BoardOnTrack helps you do – it's a project management tool for your board.

The same can go for the CEO. Your board is your champion. They’re supporting you. But it’s very hard for them to see what you’re really doing day-to-day; the big-picture things you’re focused on and how that relates to your charter promises.

So you want to get a set of goals that are your overarching goals for the year, that the board approves, and then use a clear and consistent dashboard to track that.

So the board is really clear: these are our big initiatives; here’s the progress we’re making towards those.

Bottom line: the board should get clear about the key decisions that need to be made this year and what their role is in that versus the CEO. The board and the CEO should agree with the board at the beginning of the year about how they’re going to be helping make those decisions. Goals help you do that.

The BoardSavvy™ approach will help get your board’s goals on track, wherever you are in this process.

You could be a founding team establishing your first set of goals.

Perhaps you’ve completed a strategic planning and goal-setting process, even led by a well-regarded consultant, only to find out that all that planning didn’t result in action. 

Or, even as a growing organization with a well-developed five-year vision, your board’s annual planning feels labyrinthine at best.

Wherever your board is in this process, you’re here because you’re trying to get somewhere. You’re doing your best to navigate the daily maze. Still, you’re not sure you’re making progress. And that makes it hard to sustain the excitement and energy you need to govern. 

Our six-step process will help you get your board's goals on track, quickly and easily.

You’ll create clear, measurable, realistic goals. And position your team to achieve them. With these six proven steps, your board can use your goals as your GPS to success. 

  1. Align on your organization’s priorities
  2. Decide your board’s priorities
  3. Structure for success
  4. Build your board’s goals
  5. Discuss & approve your board’s goals
  6. Get to work & stay on track to make an impact

We look forward to hearing what you do with the information. Because knowledge + action = results!


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