Human Resources Management for Public and Nonprofit Organizations

Performance Management 249

Exercise 8.2: Why Executive Directors Get Fired

According to Richard L. Meyers, director of the Nonprofi t Sector Fund

at the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation in Washington, a com-

munications breakdown is often the reason that an executive director gets

terminated. “ An important part of an executive director ’ s job is that rela-

tionship with the board. ” One indicator of communications problems is

a lack of honest feedback from board members regarding the executive

director ’ s performance.

According to a survey Meyers conducted in 2006, 25 percent of

executive directors are not getting regular performance reviews from

their boards, and even those who are receiving assessments say they are

not helpful.

Questions

1. Assume you are an executive director of a nonprofi t agency whose
   board of directors has been inconsistent in regard to evaluating your
   job performance. How would you encourage the board of directors to
   become more consistent?


2. Develop a performance evaluation instrument and evaluation procedures
   to share with the board of directors.

Source: Berkshire (2008).