How to Evaluate your New Executive Director’s Performance

Last month we published a resource on executive onboarding for nonprofits that aimed to help boards set their Executive Directors (EDs) up for success. Our team of nonprofit consultants worked together, leveraging their many years of experience, to create a clear roadmap for onboarding an ED with activities that spanned from day one to the end of their first year. And while we got feedback from many of you that it was highly informative and helpful, we also got a lot of follow-up questions about performance reviews.

We heard from Board Presidents who asked things like, “How can we tell how well our ED is doing?” and “What exactly should we be looking at in an Executive Director’s performance review?”

It was clear that this is an area where boards sometimes need additional guidance, which is why we decided to create a follow-up resource. This article is meant to pick up where the first one left off to answer your questions about what should be included in an Executive Director’s performance review to set your leadership (and the organization as a whole) up for lasting success. 

---

Obviously, using the right cadence and format from the beginning is ideal, but even if your ED isn’t new, you can still benefit from pausing to think through what your performance review process entails. Remember, it’s never too late to fix a process that’s broken, has gone off course, or isn’t being done regularly.

When doing a monthly, semiannual, or annual performance review for an Executive Director, the board should:

Compare Performance Against Deliverables
Going back to the Executive Director onboarding roadmap, part of your 6-month and 12-month performance review process should include measuring their performance objectively against the Q1 and Y1 plan that you made initially. This will include both individual and broader organization-wide deliverables such as:

• Completing their 90-day work plan
• Forging new internal relationships
• Connecting with key external stakeholders

Ensure that your new ED is not only executing on hard deliverables related to things like programming, outreach, fundraising, financial stewardship, and reporting, but also softer deliverables too like getting to know staff and forming connections with key donors.
​
Where they are lagging behind on the plan, aim to understand what’s slowing down hitting milestones and accomplishing deliverables and decide what kinds of resources they’ll need to get back on track. When it comes to forming new connections, they may benefit significantly from a board member’s introduction because as our team has articulated previously, 

Many relationships can be facilitated by staff, but key relationships, especially with donors, community members, or organizational partners can often get off on a stronger foot with a board member introduction. A board-facilitated introduction conveys the board’s faith in its new leader and provides an opportunity to share your excitement about the new ED and where the organization is headed.

​Measure Progress Towards Goals
Regardless of how long your ED has been in the role they should be incrementally moving towards achieving organizational goals. Compare your organization against other organizations in the same space to analyze directional trends. Is your organization marching forward or staying stagnant?

Look at their efforts and initiatives to analyze your ED’s progress towards organization-wide goals. Ensure they are giving the bulk of their attention to furthering the organization’s key initiatives instead of getting caught in the weeds and reaching out for support from the board or a leadership coach or mentor when they need it.

Encourage Open Communication
A performance review should not be a one-on-one conversation, nor should it be a one-way conversation.

Don’t rely solely on the Board President for their perspective on the ED’s effectiveness in the role. Encourage ongoing discussion among board members to gauge their perspectives on how well they think the ED is doing so that you can consider a variety of perspectives. But don’t stop there! Get a broader sense of how other managers and staff feel that the ED is performing and where there are opportunities for improvement as well. Make a point to specifically talk to the staff that are working most closely with the ED and are directly affected by the ED’s tactics, approaches, policies, leadership style, and so forth. If you formed a Leadership Transition Committee when your new ED was hired, learn heavily on them to get and give performance-based feedback.

Lastly, remember that a performance review isn’t meant to be a one-way conversation – ask your ED how they think things are going too! If the purpose was just to inform your ED how well they are hitting milestones, that could be done via email. But when you sit down to review their performance, you should be prepared to have a conversation – offering feedback and listening to your ED’s thoughts, ideas, frustrations, and concerns. As Liz Swanson explains when discussing nonprofit leadership transition, “We are all real, fallible, talented, busy, dedicated people. Treat this relationship like a marriage. It won’t always be sunshine and unicorns, but it must always be based on trust and genuine respect and concern for each other.” Aim to listen as much as you talk to encourage healthy communication and be open to the feedback you receive.

When you need help overseeing and evaluating your Executive Director, please reach out to us! We offer nonprofit board advisory services to help organizations navigate transitions and set their leadership up for success. Every day we come alongside organizations to help them deliver on their missions and give them the tools needed to equip them for long-term success!