Board Coaching Program

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The Board Coaching Program is designed for boards of directors that are committed to excellence in organizational governance and want customized help that meets their own needs. It is often better than a board development workshop or course because:

1. It can be provided anywhere. You can remain in your own community and be coached in person, at a distance or using a combination of communication methods.
2. It can be provided almost anytime. Coaching can start whenever you are ready and end when you want it to.
3. If provides individualized attention. A coaching relationship can be tailored to the needs of your organization. It will start where you are at and help you move to where you want to be.
4. Coaching can accentuate your strengths. As there are many paths to excellence; a coaching relationship involves building on your strengths at least as much as it does working on areas that need to be improved in order for you to reach your goals.
5. A coaching approach can save time and money by avoiding areas that you already know or are not interested in.
6. It involves a board that wants to excel, to think and to act, to push themselves, to try some new things. It requires a board that believes they have potential to be even better than it already is in providing organizational and community leadership.

In this program, coaching is about helping your board determine what it wants to achieve or be better at doing. It relies less on the coach as expert and more on coach as guide and catalyst for improvement. Clear goals, areas of governance to work on and timelines are essential components and are set collaboratively.

The Coaching program requires the participation of a board whose members feel passion for what the organization is about and is interested in improving its performance. It requires the acceptance of a challenge. The program will benefit boards that understand the basics of good governance but feel unable to get to higher level. Coaching is not oriented to problem-solving although it may be necessary to fix a few things enroute to your objectives.

The Coaching program requires "buy in" from the leaders of your organization – the board and the Executive Director (assuming you have a CEO-type position). Once you have gone through the steps below, the Board will need to sign a coaching 'contract' effectively a statement of goals, timetable, roles and responsibilities. Most likely the coach will work closely with a "committee" of one or two board members and the Executive Director.

Step 1. Board self-assessment: You will want to think about the kind of organization you are and want to become and the board's role in helping make this happen. We can provide a questionnaire that helps you with this conversation.

Step 2. Inquiry: If self-assessment sparks your board's interest, the next step is to contact us by telephone or e-mail. There will be an initial conversation to share information, find out more about costs and other administrative matters, and if everyone agrees to go to the next step, an initial "interview" meeting with the board, or with the Chair and Executive Director.

Step 3. Interview: An interview will take place to assess your current governance practices, current strengths, challenges and knowledge. This will also provide you an opportunity to become familiar with your prospective coach.

Step 4. Goal Setting: Based on this meeting we will work with you in a goal setting exercise. This will require you to put your minds to your governance objectives and help to identify the skill areas you most want to work on. This step may involve several more conversations.

Step 5. Coaching Contract: This involves putting in writing the specific objectives and target dates for accomplishing them, agreed to by the organization and the coach in the previous step, as well as a statement of roles and responsibilities, practice time commitment, coaching session schedule and evaluation point.

Step 6. Coaching Begins

Step 7. Coaching Evaluation (at a pre-determined point)

The program will assist voluntary organizations develop in a number of governance areas that will enable their organization to have greater impact in developing their community.

The coaches are individuals associated with the Non-Profit Sector Leadership Program. All have experience as board members or staff members of voluntary organizations and all have facilitated board development efforts as a consultant or educator with numerous other boards. As the program develops we hope to be able to provide organizations with some coaching choices.

Entering into coaching arrangement for most organizations will cost between $1200 and $2400 over a period of three to six months. Typically coaching sessions will be short, involving a meeting of an hour or less. Some of these will take place over the telephone. There may be a greater commitment of coaching time at the "front end" than later on. You will only be charged for contact hours and, if the coaching involves some face-to-face contact, travel expenses. Various billing arrangements are possible.

Coaching begins only after the "contract" has been signed. The steps before, as outlined above, are critical to the success of the relationship but represent an investment of time by us as well as by you. The total costs (up to a certain amount) and time frame of the coaching relationship will be negotiated in every case and put in writing. There can be an initial agreement (we want to be able to do A by January of next year), to be followed by second agreement, (to accomplish B & C by the following fall).

Either party may end the coaching relationship at any time as long as the coaching time to that point is paid.

Boards typically meet only once a month and it is in those meetings and the time that goes in to planning them, that you, with your coach close at hand, will get to reflect, analyze, strategize and practice. A coaching relationship that achieves sustained results is therefore likely to involve anywhere from a six-month to a two-year relationship. The length of the relationship is not directly related to the cost, some improvements will take more time not necessarily more coaching.

What does coaching and being coached involve?