I hope you have found some time to watch the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. It’s awesome to see some of the greatest athletes in the world assembled in one place to compete for space on the platform and in the hearts of viewers and fans around the world. 

The Games generate lots of emotions and often vividly portray the historic opening lines from ABC’s Wide World of Sports - “the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition”. While I have certainly enjoyed watching the competition, the Games started my mind spinning in lots of directions. I will spare you many of those random thoughts and draw a few Olympic lessons for nonprofit boards. 

Lesson One: Only winners get to the games. 

While the competition to stand on the platform and receive the gold, silver, or bronze medals is unbelievably intense and only 3 athletes share that part of Olympic glory, in one sense, every olympic athlete is a winner. They have overcome numerous personal challenges and have won local, regional, and national competitions to earn the right to compete in the Games. 

In a similar sense, most board members are people who have chosen to get in the game and make significant contributions to the community. [Note: we are excluding the board members who are members in name only and not pulling their weight or contributing their fair share.] If you are serving on a board, you could have continued as a spectator in your community or remained only concerned with your personal issues Instead you are investing your personal time, energy, efforts, and yes - even your money to build a better, brighter future for at risk persons and populations. In that sense, board members are community champions. If your board members are not in the game, you may want to read last month’s article, The Board: Part of the Solution or the Problem?

Lesson Two: Doing your personal best.

Admittedly I have not mastered understanding Olympic scoring, but some elements I do understand and appreciate. In this year’s Games, there’s lots of talk about personal best and it is noted that the particular performance of a given athlete is their personal best, that is, the highest score they have received in their career. An athlete’s personal best may not be good enough to merit a medal, but there is something very gratifying about seeing athletes relishing the absolute best performance of their career and basking in that moment of glory and personal satisfaction.

Board members have the opportunity to give their personal best to the organizations they serve on a regular basis. Your personal best may be required to:

• help the organization strategize the best use of limited resources to further its mission and meet community needs
• show up to board meetings on time, ready to tackle the current challenges
• connect others you know who are interested in the mission and vision of the organization and willing to support 

Your personal best may never win you a place on the platform, but you should be able to feel good about your contributions to the organization when the lives of individual clients or collective communities are bettered. Just as athletes train rigorously for months and years, in a similar fashion boards should be continually raising the bar for their performance and committing themselves to continuous learning and development. Good, or better yet, great governance doesn’t just magically occur, it comes from consistent effort and focus. See Does Good Governance Just Happen?.

Lesson Three: Going for the season’s best.

The season’s best is the best performance of an athlete in the current season. It might not rival their personal best due to injuries or other personal and professional challenges, but this is the best they’ve performed in the current season.

For boards, you can’t rest on the laurels of your past performance, but must rise to the challenges of the current season for the organization. The challenges change as the organization progresses through various life cycles and great governance is needed at every season and stage.

Admittedly, these are tough times, while your organization may not be setting any fundraising records, the season’s best is only obtained when all board members are fully engaged and personally involved. It is imperative that you have the best and brightest minds you can gather to brainstorm options to ensure your organization survives and thrives in these tough times. A previous article on Extreme Leadership Challenges gives other suggestions for board involvement.

Lesson Four: Technical elements are required, but not enough.

Numerous sports have compulsory elements to the competition. In these sports, the athletes must successfully complete each required element of the competition, but it’s not enough to do the minimum. They must add their personal creativity and flair to distance themselves from the other competitors.

In board governance there are basic duties and responsibilities the board must provide for the organization. While these are necessary to ensure good governance occurs, in, and of themselves, they don’t just doing the minimum, does not result in high performing boards and will rarely rate either the rating of season or personal best. BoardSource provides great resources related to board governance. Here’s their take on the basic responsibilities of boards. 

Boards must address the basic governance needs, but gold medal boards raise the bar for their personal and collective performance and add flair and creativity to their work as a board and obtain outstanding results for the organization. Recently I’ve encountered boards who have risen to the fundraising challenge in a variety of ways. Some have hosted small group house parties which have raised significant amounts of money with very little effort. Others have engaged in personally making appeals to their friends and business associates on behalf of the organization.

Lesson Five: Being good is not enough, you must be great at the right time.

As stated earlier, every Olympic athlete is a champion in their own right. They are all good or they would not be competing at this level. But in addition to being good, they must be great at just the right times. They must qualify to make it to the finals and then when the gold is on the line and the pressure is at its peak, they must clear their minds and deliver the performance of their lifetime. As much as is humanly possible, they need to deliver a flawless performance at just the right time. It’s amazing how little time or how few points separate the finalists from the rest of the pack.

The same principles apply to governance as well. Sadly, being good isn’t good enough when the pressure is on. And the pressure is definitely on for nonprofits. Now, more than ever, every human service organization in our country needs their boards to step up to the plate and provide great leadership. Mediocre performance just won’t cut it, your organization may not survive these current challenges.

Here’s a quote from The Leadership Challenge, I find myself using over and over in the last year, “Leadership is needed more during times of uncertainty than in times of stability” (Kouzes and Posner). Indeed, there is a great need for leadership from your board.

Let’s draw our inspiration from the thousands of Olympic athletes from around the world who have trained for several years, in some cases, most of their lives to compete to be recognized as the very best in their sport. I encourage you to aspire to deliver your personal best to the organization on whose board you serve. While you will most likely not stand on the platform and receive a medal, some very deserving individuals may have their lives transformed or saved by the work your board makes possible.

Kevin Monroe is the Founder and Managing Partner of X Factor Consulting, a consulting firm that makes the world a better place by equipping leaders and strengthening organizations. Through active partnerships with businesses, foundations, government agencies, nonprofits, and others that share this commitment, X Factor is strengthening individuals, families, neighborhoods, and communities around the world. 

Kevin has a wealth of experience and a passion for nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, as evident in the results he has achieved working with organizations around the country. He is available to consult or speak on this topic and many more. Contact us today or click here to learn more.

© 2010. Text may not be printed or reproduced without written permission from X Factor Consulting. Contact us at impact@xfactorllc.com to obtain approval.