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March 30, 2006
The Board's About To Do Something Stupid, and...
......you're the manager. What are you going to do about it? Well, you could:
- Keep quiet while grinding your teeth down to the gums
- Pass a note to the President "What the *&^%$# are you thinking of?"
- Say out loud "What the *&^%$# are you thinking of?"
- Distract them with an X-rated story about one of their neighbors and hope they forget to vote on it
- Delete it from the minutes before sending out the next board package (if its not in the minutes, it never happened)
- Go back to your office, bang your head against the wall a few times, and update your resume
- Smile, because you know that you've got a good chance of winning the office pool for "Worst Board Motions"
- Realize you're now going to be over budget because of the legal costs straightening this out, and the board won't remember why six months from now
- "Accidentally" spill something on whoever raised the issue, preferrably hot coffee, so that maybe they'll go home to change
- Clear your throat, mumble "You might want to re-think that" and insert it in the minutes before the next board package goes out (if its in the minutes, it must have happened and you've CYA)
- Pass the buck by recomending the board get an opinion from ______ (insert attorney, engineer, architect, CPA, Magic 8-ball you carry in your briefcase*, etc)
or, do you go head-to-head with them trying to straighten it out before the problems occur?
Now and then, every board will do something that's "just around the bend" and you know it is. The first question to ask yourself is why? They may be tired of looking at the same issue time and again, or the problem is so off-the-wall that they really don't know what to do, or there's a personal agenda working underneath, or, maybe you just can't figure it out. The key is to not let it come to a vote. Keep the discussion going by raising any issue you can, while you try and identify the cause and the votes. Work the "NO's" and undecideds by planting potential problems in their mind. Change the direction from an "Action Item" to a "Study and Report". If all fails, simply tell the Board that you feel there may be some potential liability or risk isues and ask that it be tabled. That will buy you a month to convince the individual board members to re-think the issue. If you can't convince them by then, you may have to bring in some outside help (outside experts always carry more weight, even if they say the exact same things you did).
Even if its not in the contract or job description, a major part of your job is to keep the board from doing something that will have a negative on the community. I used to tell board President's that if they saw me give a negative shake of my head, then the issue needed to be dropped or tabled, and they would usually say something like "I'm not comfortable that we have all the facts" and ask that it be carried over. It helps to have that kind of working relationship and understanding with your President. You're the advisor on management - get in there and save them!
*By the way, if you can't carry around a manager's best friend, the Magic 8 Ball, here's an on-line version----but really, if you don't have one on your desk, how do you get through the day?
Posted by joewest at March 30, 2006 11:46 AM