Signs of a Bad Executive Director (and When It Is Really a Support Problem)

Most boards start looking for the signs of a bad executive director after a run of bad news: a third staff resignation in a year, a grant report a funder had to chase, a budget that surprised the treasurer. By then the board usually has a list, and the list feels like an answer.

Before deciding what the list means, ask a narrower question: has anyone told this person, in writing, what success looks like this year? A fair reading protects both sides of the table, and it is part of developing nonprofit leaders long before anyone mentions a search.

Which Warning Signs Should Worry a Board?

The warning signs that deserve a board’s attention are behaviors that repeat across more than one part of the job: money and reporting, the board, staff, funders and decisions. One late report is a conversation. The same pattern across several areas, month after month, is a reason to act.

• Money and reporting. Financial statements arrive late, change between meetings or surprise the treasurer. Audit, Form 990 or grant deadlines slip without warning.
• The board. Board members learn bad news from a funder, a staff member or the local paper. Meetings are long reports with nothing to decide.
• Staff. Departures cluster, especially among managers, and exit conversations name the same issue. Staff start going around the executive director to reach board members.
• Funders and partners. Grant reports run late, renewals disappear without explanation and partners stop returning calls.
• Decisions. Hard calls stall or reverse, and every choice, however small, waits for one person.

The list leaves out personality, style and whether the board enjoys the executive director’s company. A quiet leader who meets every deadline is doing the job.

Several of these signs also describe a leader carrying more than one person can. In a three-person organization, the executive director is often the fundraiser, bookkeeper and HR department at once, so compare the list with what an executive director is responsible for at your size.

Wrong Fit, Unsupported or a Board Problem?

Warning signs tend to trace to one of three causes: an executive director who is wrong for the role as it now exists, a capable leader who has never had clear expectations or support, or a board that is not doing its own job. Each cause needs a different fix.

The middle column is easy to miss, because jobs change under people. A board chair at a medium-sized Colorado organization wrote in a coaching application to us that the organization had “quickly outgrown our [executive director’s] entrepreneurial skills.” The board wanted to keep supporting his growth as a leader.

When the executive director is also the founder, look at the pattern before the person. Founder-driven dysfunction is built by a founder and a board together, and it needs a different conversation.

The third column is the one boards skip. A board that rarely meets or cannot agree on priorities will find warning signs in any executive director it hires.

What Should the Board Ask Itself First?

Start with the board’s own record. In BoardSource’s Leading with Intent survey, published in 2021, only 53% of chief executives had a formal, written evaluation in the past 12 months, and 21% had never been formally evaluated. Only 53% were clear on what the board expected of them going forward.

Chief executives in the same survey gave their boards a C+ for evaluating performance against goals.

Our coaches see the same thread in strained partnerships. The executive director assumes the board understands the work, the board assumes support exists that does not, and nobody checks.

Before a board asks whether its executive director is failing, it should ask whether anyone ever said what success looked like.

Questions to ask yourself before the next executive session:

• Has the executive director had a formal, written review in the past 12 months?
• Could each board member name the three things the executive director was asked to achieve this year?
• Does the board chair talk with the executive director between meetings, on a set schedule?
• Is the board doing its own job: approving the budget, reading the financials and helping raise money?

If most answers are no, start with the board. The board and executive director relationship runs both ways, and nonprofit governance best practices give the board its own checklist.

What Comes Before Replacing an Executive Director?

Before replacing an executive director, a board can run a short, fair sequence we call Support Before Separation: put expectations in writing, hold a formal review, offer coaching as an investment and set a review date. It tests whether the problem is support or fit, and it leaves a record if the answer turns out to be fit.

1. Put expectations in writing. Agree on three to five goals for the year with the executive director, tied to the budget and the strategic plan. Goals nobody wrote down cannot be missed fairly.
2. Hold a formal review. BoardSource recommends a formal, written review every year, with input from the executive director’s direct reports. Our guide to executive director evaluation walks through the process, and a board guide to running the review covers who does what.
3. Offer coaching as an investment. Framed as a last chance, coaching carries a stigma that makes capable leaders defensive. Offered as support for the next stage of the job, it gives the executive director a confidential place to work on what the review surfaced. Board-sponsored coaching for the executive director lands best when one trusted board member raises it privately.
4. Set a review date. Put a date about 90 days out on the calendar and write down what better looks like by then, so both sides know the measure.

Coaching has limits. It works on the one thing the executive director controls, their own leadership, and it cannot change the board. Coaching a leader who does not want it is the clearest waste our coaches see: the executive director complies on paper and nothing moves. Six sessions will not turn a wrong fit into a right one.

A review date turns a vague worry into a question the board can answer.

When Is It Time to Part Ways?

It is time to part ways when the review date arrives and the agreed goals are still unmet, or when conduct makes the support steps inappropriate. Financial misconduct, harassment and safety concerns skip the sequence: the board acts promptly with legal advice and protects the people involved.

The decision belongs to the board. BoardSource lists selecting, supporting and evaluating the chief executive among a board’s basic responsibilities, and your bylaws say how the board decides. BoardSource also notes that ending an employment contract without cause, including for poor performance, typically obligates severance, while termination for cause does not. Have a nonprofit attorney review the plan before anyone speaks to the executive director.

Plan the gap as carefully as the exit: who leads the next morning, what staff and key funders hear, and whether an interim executive director should cover the search. The next candidate will hear how the departure was handled.

What Can a Board Chair Do This Month?

This month, a board chair can start the sequence with one private conversation with the executive director: what success looks like this year, what support is missing and when the two of you will review progress. Write the answers down. Those notes become the written expectations and the review date that the rest of the sequence needs.

When the gap is support, coaching helps. Center for Nonprofit Coaching volunteer coaches donate their time, which is why six one-to-one sessions cost $300, $400 or $600 depending on your operating budget, 85%+ below market rate. Board chairs sometimes apply on behalf of their executive director: see how one-to-one coaching for executive directors works, then start an application together.

Frequently Asked Questions