A friend and colleague once asked an arts consultant what qualities he found in demand by most CEO search committees. Here’s the gist of his response:
- Can you create and read a budget and then manage by it?
- Can you raise money?
- Can you make everyone act like they should?
Financial dexterity, community connection, and managing people (board, staff, creative colleagues). Clearly missing a few expected pieces, but not a bad trilogy to build a search on.
[ Thanks Eric. ]
Could do much worse.
As a consultant to non-profits, I would say that these questions are not the ones that boards seem to be asking based on the hires.
Not that the candidate is not well qualified in other ways, but these three form the bread and butter of the organization and are the three areas that I am most often asked to work on with them.
Good for consultants, but….
A further issue boards face, though, is that funding, especially for really small non-profits, is really difficult to obtain for what are called “operations” – those activities that ensure the doors can stay open. So while it is unreasonable to expect that one person can be as skilled as necessary in these three points, it is almost impossible to put together the funding to create the support positions (Managers of Finance, Human Resources, etc.) necessary to assure success in these areas.
And more and more funders are jumping on to various bandwagons which further limit the development of strong administrative foundations for the projects they prefer to fund.
How about three questions a CEO candidate should ask his potential organization’s search committee? Here’s a start…
1) Can I get a copy of your current balance sheet and last completed year actual vs. projected budget…
2) What are the greatest needs of your staff, and how does the organization meet them…
3) I was looking at your 990’s on Guidestar, and I noticed that (insert most curious aspect of the 990 here, or a particular program detail, or observation about their funding trends)…
Anybody else want to add a few more?
I’m the managing director of a theatre – and part of a bifurcated executive common to theatre (managing director plus artistic director = CEO). The answer to question three is “no” – because I can’t make the artistic director do anything, and it’s not always clear if I can make employees that report to the AD do anything, especially of they are in non-compliance with a management imperative while pursuing an artistic imperative (hint: this usually has to do with spending money…)
Any thoughts?