25. HOW’S YOUR DRIVING?

I get in a car accident 2-3 times a week.

Sort of.

I drive a Volvo—known for safety, and I live on a fast-driving road.  My house sits back a bit, and my driveway is rather long.  Every time I leave my house, I back my car down that long driveway toward traffic. 

Trust me, I know what I’m doing.  I’ve lived here 11 years and I’ve been driving for 30+ years.  I am an expert in stopping my reversing car to check for traffic long before I enter the roadway.  But my car (I call her Jean) gets worried. 

Whenever a car happens to be barreling down the road as I reverse down my drive at a whopping 4 miles an hour, Jean screams this horrific, “impending doom!” beep and slams on the break hard enough that I fly forward into my locked seatbelt—borderline whiplash style, upsetting everyone in the car. 

If my darling husband is there, he’ll say something like, “what the hell?!” as though I’ve made this choice to slam on the breaks just to get his attention.  Suddenly, I’m a drama queen after 26 years of being relatively low maintenance.

I didn’t slam on the breaks. It’s Jean.

No matter how many times I’ve backed down the drive with a 100% success rate, my car gets scared and tries to protect me.  It comes from a place of love and concern.  It comes from calculations and data about the speed of cross traffic and the likelihood I’m a distracted driver.  But it’s still wrong.

Sometimes nonprofit Boards are like Volvos.  They’re really good at playing it safe.  They’re well-intended and caring.  They’re looking out for the best interest of all and often, that’s helpful and exactly right.

But sometimes, they’re just wrong.  Sometimes they need to get out of the way and let the experts do their thing.

Board members and nonprofit executives can parter to drive each other’s performance or they can drive each other crazy.  That’s why I offer CEO + Board President dual coaching.  Getting this relationship just right sets everyone up for success and drives performance for the entire organization.

Whether you’re a nonprofit executive or a Board member, let’s connect to talk about how you’re driving and make sure no one suffers whiplash.