“To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.” ~ Confucius

Volunteers and staff have all experienced a wayward member who is considered the loose cannon in the organization, known for wreaking havoc on boards and committees. These are the people who, while convinced they are right-minded and well intentioned, enjoy the unenviable and universal labels of being seen as consistently unreasonable, illogical and destructive.

To be clear, honest dissent and passionate debate are necessary and healthy. From Galileo to Gandhi, there are many examples where change is not easily embraced. Organization leaders must welcome members who bring new ideas by listening patiently and being open to change. Directors who bring a different opinion than the majority should be heard.

It is the difficult, dysfunctional and often destructive member who poses a great risk. Many will recognize these examples: the director who sits quietly through the strategic planning workshop, perhaps openly votes in favor of it, but then does everything possible in the following weeks and months to sabotage its success. Or the director who trusts no one, questions everything, uses every tool available to delay group decisions, and then threatens legal action when told that his behavior is disruptive. Or the board chair who criticizes every action of the executive director, not because what the executive director is doing is wrong, but because the board chair’s friend or family member did not get hired last year for the executive director position.

Having observed organizations very closely for more than 30 years, I’ve found two major problems with the individual who sets about resisting, arguing, complaining, bullying and generally making even the most basic decisions a painful process for all involved.

The first problem is that, left unchallenged, the troublemakers can and often do cause real harm to organizations. People, staff and volunteers, quit in frustration. The real work of the organization, the outcomes supporters expect, take a backseat as boards, committees, and staff become mired in distracting activities and off-topic discussions that add zero value to accomplishing the mission. Often unjustified terminations of good staff are the direct result of campaigns by these oppositional fanatics.

The second problem is the more serious one because it authorizes the damage resulting from the first problem: the action of the silent majority, the experienced, committed, trained volunteers who become mute and shy away from confronting irresponsible behavior by their peers. Indeed, they perpetuate the dysfunction and give it safe haven without repercussion. The people who can and should lead instead become enablers by failing to correct the problem.

The behaviors of the disruptive member certainly can carry a high cost in staff firings, program malaise, volunteer turnover, organizational reputation, and members who won’t renew because of their disappointment that the organization has lost its way.

What can the leader do when faced with behavior that over time will harm the organization?

Boards must, and with the encouragement of staff leaders, develop codes of conduct and value statements for all who work with an organization, paid or unpaid. Here are a few examples from nonprofit organizations:

• Represent the organization with professionalism, dignity and pride, and be responsible for conducting myself with courtesy and appropriate behavior.
• Follow through and complete accepted tasks.
• Display respect and courtesy for members, employees, other volunteers, program participants, visitors, clients and property.
• Respect the privacy of persons served by the organization and hold in confidence sensitive, private and personal information.
• Members of the board of directors speak with one voice. Respect that positive debate and new ideas are welcome. When the board of directors, or members at the annual general meeting, decide on a particular action, it then becomes the policy of the entire organization.
• Do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, marital status or disability, and/or sexual orientation.

Boards must, with support from qualified people identified by staff, ensure the conduct and values of the organization become not just known but entrenched through training, orientation, and reinforcement.

Boards must, backed withy by-laws and policies, empower Nominating Committees to propose the leaders needed by the organization and also to evaluate the performance of current office holders. This is a formal evaluation of performance similar to what an employee experiences. Individuals who fall short of the defined, minimum standard that constitutes what the organization expects of its volunteers are either not asked back or removed outright. The website serviceleader.org has an excellent example of an overarching policy statement to include in a volunteer code: “Our agency accepts the service of all volunteers with the understanding that such service is at the sole discretion of the agency. Volunteers agree that the agency may at any time, for whatever reason, decide to terminate the volunteer’s relationship with the agency.”

Organizations in the nonprofit sector need passion from supporters as they tackle major issues from social justice to economic growth, disease eradication to educating the next generation. However, that passion must always be channeled to advance the mission of the organization. When it is not, and the organization and the people who work for it are harmed by unproductive and unacceptable behavior, there is wisdom in remembering the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Content is © Jack Shand and is reprinted with permission.

Jack Shand, CMC, CAE, is president of Leader Quest, a management consulting firm providing expert advice to not-for-profit organizations since 1997. Leader Quest specializes in executive search/staff recruitment, strategic planning, governance, and organizational reviews. Jack can be reached at 905-842-3845 and 1-877-929-4473, or jack-at-leaderquest-dot-com.