323. Habits of an Impactful Board Member - Sabrina Walker Hernandez

Habits SeriesBoard ManagamentStrategy

Sep 16

Written By Andie Murphy

Habits of an Impactful Board Member, Sabrina Walker Hernandez, We Are For Good Podcast

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Overview

Welcome back to our new Friday Series called The Habits of an Impactful Fundraiser. We're kicking off the discussion by bringing in one of our experts, Sabrina Walker Hernandez with Supporting World Hope who's talking about Habits of an Impactful Board Member. We're bringing tips and examples of who's doing it well👊

Special Guest

Sabrina Walker Hernandez, President and CEO, Supporting World Hope

“A lot of people have served on a board and they want to do good, but they just need to be told what to do. ”

— Sabrina Walker Hernandez, President and CEO, Supporting World Hope

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

Tone setting (2:30)
What is the bigger, better question that we should be asking with our boards (5:20)
3 habits of a CEO to support an impactful board (7:45)
3 habits of an impactful board chair (9:20)
How CEOs can communicate with the board chair and with the board as a whole (11:45)
Habits of a good board member (17:45)
KPI’s that matter and don’t matter to a board member (20:25)
A piece of advice for how to be a good board member and also take care of yourself (25:45)
A board member in Sabrina’s life who embodied these habits and principles (26:50)

Powerful quotes

“A lot of people have served on a board and they want to do good, but they just need to be told what to do. I think a lot of times CEOs don't do that because they don't want to feel like they're being bossy.” -Sabrina

“To be a good board member, we want to know what it is that we need to do. So you need to tell me, I'm not writing the day to day operations of your organization. I don't know what you need. I have my full time job. I have my family. I know I'm here. I know, I want to help so you have to tell me what I need to do.” -Sabrina

“If you are the CEO, and you're doing most of the talking, is that really a board meeting? As a board member, you have to participate in the meeting. You need to be leading the discussions.” -Sabrina

“People don’t want to talk with board members during the recruitment process about fundraising.” -Sabrina

“When micromanaging happens, it is usually a lack of trust in that partnership. you need to put efforts in place where you gain that trust.” -Sabrina

“Your agenda should really be dictated by your strategic planning goals.” -Sabrina

The right questions a board member should be asking (and that an organization should be providing:

What are the expectations of board members?
What makes a good board member?
What are the standards for your board?
How much time is spent on fundraising?
How much time is spent on planning?
How much time is spent on meetings?

3 habits of a CEO to support an impactful board:

Start each week knowing what your game plan is for the board
Communicate the plan to board members in their language in their channel
Share a wrap up of activity at the end of the week with the board

3 habits of an impactful board chair:

Check in on your CEO regularly and proactively
Don’t just check in when there is a crisis (if you're doing number one, this should be totally fine)
Check in with the entire board

Dive in Deeper with our Boards Playlist 👇