What to do about a badly behaved charity trustee?
Julian Lomas
Over the years we’ve been engaged to conduct a governance review or health check of countless charities. Often this is because the client knows that there are weaknesses to be addressed but they need an expert to help them find the right solutions. In many cases the client is following best practice in getting an external review of their governance every few years. Sometimes it’s because there is a crisis that needs to be resolved quickly.
Whatever the motivation, all too often as the review unfolds, we hear that the root of many of the governance issues the charity is facing lies in the bad behaviour of one trustee or a small group of trustees.
We suspect you’ve met the types of characters we’re talking about here. Have you ever come across a trustee (or sometimes senior member of staff) who exhibits one or more of the following behaviours
Always needing to get their own way, in effect trying to control all decision making.
Delving into far too much detail in board meetings and other discussions.
Frequently interfering in the operation/management of the charity’s day to day work.
Dominating meetings, interrupting others and not letting them have their say.
Bullying other trustees and/or senior staff to get their own way, often by belittling them or dismissing their perspective on the issue at hand
Claiming to be expert in matters that they, in reality, don’t know enough about to be able to give a definitive view. (They will often use their claimed expertise to dismiss any suggestion of the charity getting an external review or advice.)
Behaving aggressively or rudely towards others, even shouting in meetings or using abusive language.
What troubles us is how often this person is treated as the “elephant in the room”; everyone knows they are a problem, they talk about it amongst themselves, but no-one does anything about it.
These behavioural governance challenges can be very destructive in any organisation, time consuming and emotionally draining to sort out and, in the worst cases, it can start to feel like almost all the efforts of the other trustees and senior staff are being taken up trying to deal with it. When the difficult individual is the founder it can be even worse.
Bringing in an external expert can often be a valuable way of naming the big grey animal and giving others the confidence to address the problem. Sometimes the difficult trustee will listen to an independent expert when they won’t listen to their colleagues. But not all charities can afford to buy in help from people like us, and sometimes they simply can’t get the funds approved because of the behaviours of the problem trustee.
What can charities do themselves when these situations arise (or to help avoid them happening in the first place)? Here are a few tips from our experience:
Make sure the Chair of Trustees is someone who is willing and able to address conflict and poor behaviour when it arises. Their response is often the key to resolving matters and if they are more inclined to avoid conflict, you’re in for a difficult ride.
Everyone needs the courage to name the elephant; state that there is a problem and describe it. Avoid personalising matters where you can, but in these situations that may not be possible. Talk about the impact the poor behaviour is having on yourself (and others, with their permission), rather than making accusations or assertions about the perpetrator’s motives.
Where appropriate, try to make reference to authoritative sources such as Charity Commission guidance on Trustee duties or the Charity Governance Code and give real (and recent) examples of how the challenging behaviours don’t align with those.
If your charity has a Trustees’ Code of Conduct (and it should), use that in the same way; point out constructively how behaviours don’t align with the code of conduct all trustees should have signed up to.
Try to involve the difficult trustee in creating the solution; iit may be they simply aren’t aware of then impact of their behaviour and some constructive and friendly feedback might be enough, together with appropriate support, for them to change the way they do things.
Recognise the power dynamics involved and how that can create fear in yourself and/or others. Some courage is usually needed, but if you can build a coalition of colleagues who, together, have the confidence to speak up, that can help.
Seek (free) external support if you can find it. That could come from a partner organisation, funder, local infrastructure charity (such as a Council for Voluntary Service) or even a regulator such as the Charity Commission.
In the end, you may need to take action to remove the trustee in question against their will. You will need to make sure that your governing document includes powers and process for that to happen and if it doesn’t you may need to report the matter as a serious incident to the Charity Commission. In the final analysis, no-one is indispensable.
You’ll notice that the majority of our advice boils down to behavioural solutions for behavioural problems. There are structural things you can do, including a code of conduct, power to remove trustees, regular reviews and robust recruitment practices for trustees to minimise the chances of appointing someone who is not a good fit for your charity and its board. But in the end, culture/behaviour will eat structure/process for breakfast.
To find out more about behavioural governance or any of the other governance support and training we offer, please contact us at julian@almondtreeconsulting.co.uk to arrange free initial telephone discussion.