Not So Unspoken

I’ve received several requests from folks seeking an easier way to view and print all of the little asides from last fall I called “unspoken truths for association leaders.” So here they all are, again, in one post. (Many thanks to those who have said nice things about them. If I’d known they were going to get this reaction, I’d have put more thought into them!)

1. Learn to tell the difference between “We have a problem! Can you help us with it?” and “We have a problem! Can we blame it on you?”

2. At an association where I used to work, one of our volunteer leaders, a committee chairman, once said to me, “Each and every one of our members is important, in the aggregate.”

3. The strongest leaders in your line of succession are often those who didn’t actively lobby to be there.

4. People who can’t afford what you offer are not your target market.

5. Preservation of the status quo is always a losing proposition.

6. Reaching the right decision is more important than reaching consensus.

7. A committee should not exist solely because it existed last year.

8. Count the votes before the vote is taken.

9. Sometimes it really has been tried before, and sometimes it really didn’t work.

10. How a chairman handles herself after her term has more to do with her long-term reputation than anything she did during.

11. Most typical association members do not know how your governance structure works; in fact, most of them don’t even know the name of your current chairman. That’s because neither is really important to them.

12. “Making information available” and “communicating” are two completely different things.

13. Having opinions, and voicing them, does not disqualify one from being a leader, but it doesn’t qualify one, either.

14. If someone reacts to something they don’t like by threatening to leave, you should first ensure that it was the right decision, and if it was, and they can’t be convinced of it, then allow them to do so. If someone habitually threatens to leave whenever they don’t get their way, you will be better off making the decision for them.

15. Don’t cling to things that should work, but don’t. Move on.

16. A chairmanship should not be a reward for past efforts. It should be a request for service from someone who brings wisdom and talent to the task.

17. In an ideal world, confidential things would be kept … confidential. We do not live in an ideal world.

18. Staff can’t guarantee success, but they can guarantee failure.

19. Be wary of people who value being “right” above all. They make good actuaries, perhaps even good attorneys, but they make lousy association leaders. (Even if you are an association of actuaries or attorneys.)