It’s been four-plus tumultuous years for the Jewish nonprofit sector. Just as the Jewish communal workforce was beginning to adjust to the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, we now face an escalating war in Israel, a global rise in antisemitism and bitter political divisions as the 2024 election looms. Over and over, I have heard professional leaders and board leaders tell me that the most significant problems they’re facing aren’t the problems they would have predicted in the past. In a column last week in eJewishPhilanthropy, Barry Finestone summarized this state as VUCA: “volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.” Leaders are struggling in ways they never imagined — sometimes girded by a strong partnership between board members and executive staff, and other times facing the crisis while also managing the needs or shortcomings of their counterparts.

At Leading Edge, we work to improve leadership, talent and culture across the Jewish nonprofit sector. In these last four years, we have seen countless shifts in how leaders responded to tumultuous times, but one leadership truth that I saw during the pandemic and am seeing again post-Oct. 7 is this: In organizations where shared leadership was strong before the crisis, organizations fare better during a crisis. When shared leadership wasn’t firmly grounded before the crisis, organizations struggled to weather the change and find their leadership posture. 

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Shared leadership is about fostering a culture of trust and respect where executives and board members work together as true partners. Here are four ideas to help executive and board leaders strengthen their shared leadership:

1. Improve communication between your board and your executives. Great shared board-executive leadership means actively working on improving your partnership. Through our ongoing work with boards, we consistently see that understanding the interpersonal nature of this partnership is as critical to success as establishing processes for the structural elements of the partnership.

When an organization’s board members and its executives learn more about one another — their collaboration and communication preferences, motivations, quirks, foibles and lives — it strengthens the foundation from which they work together, both in everyday challenges and significant crises.

Furthermore, while we often strive to keep feelings out of work, the reality is that everyone views and works through crises differently, professionally and personally. Conversations that produce a deeper understanding of our partners’ feelings and approaches in these situations not only deepen our level of human connection but also enable us to work more effectively.

Finally, when we communicate fully and honestly we learn each other’s strengths and limitations. We can only know when and how to stand by or step up for each other as needed in crises if we have a mutual understanding of these personal characteristics.

This kind of relationship building is particularly important for executives with limited board experience who find it stressful working with the board. When board members show their humanity, it facilitates attunement and fosters understanding.

2. Get explicit about who holds what responsibility. According to BoardSource, “[t]he chief executive’s role is focused on management and working with staff to implement programs and initiatives in support of the organization’s purpose. The board chair is responsible for governance and oversight, leading the board in evaluating the organization’s work from a macro-perspective and ensuring that the work advances the mission in an ethical and legal manner.”

Leading Edge data shows that not all boards and CEOs are aligned on the division of responsibility. If you don’t know your job, how can you stay focused when challenges pull you to unexpected and conflicting priorities?

There is great truth to the adage: “If you’ve met one board, then you’ve met one board.” Each organization needs something different from its board, and board history and culture varies significantly between organizations. Adding to the potential for confusion is the requirement of the board to act as the “boss” of the CEO while also serving as an advocate, mentor, assistant and so much more. These factors blur the lines between board and staff and underscore the importance of taking time to delineate roles and responsibilities to set up the partners for success.

The importance of shared leadership and the need for clear lines of responsibility was exemplified in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis. Boards and executive teams were forced to work in very different ways. Some were thrust into near-daily contact to make urgent decisions about financial management, physical safety, mental health — even ensuring the organization’s continued relevance. Others stopped speaking to one another as board business became too difficult for the otherwise overburdened professionals. In some cases, the board became a kind of emergency staff, while in other cases board members resigned from their positions. Every aspect of leadership was tested, and those who felt clear on what was required of them leaned into the immediate needs with strength (and, when the time was right, quickly returned to their own lanes). Those who didn’t have that clarity stumbled and in some cases still haven’t recovered.

Regularly reviewing roles and responsibilities, even at the risk of seeming repetitive or unnecessary, is key to ensuring great board-professional partnerships.

3. Stay focused on high-level strategy. It’s easy to get lost in the trees, but leaders need to keep their eyes on the forest. It is essential to put high-level strategy on board meeting agendas — and to keep it there! Use consent agendas to get minutiae out of the way and make space for meaningful discussion of the organization’s work and priorities. Tools like scenario planning enable you to check in regularly and return to them repeatedly to test their ongoing alignment with the organizational mission. 

During a crisis, strategy may be upended by how an organization is called upon to respond to the moment. The more fluent the board is in the organization’s work and priorities, the more quickly and efficiently they will come to a mutual understanding with executives of the necessary modifications to the strategy (and related funding).

4. Utilize Leading Edge’s new board guides and workshops. Building a great board-executive partnership is hard, so we’re trying to provide some resources to help at Leading Edge.

For example, we recently released Board Service Essentials: A Guide For Board Members and Board Leadership Essentials: A Guide For Board Chairs. These free guides are what they say on the tin — comprehensive outlines of how to be effective as a board member or a board chair, respectively. 

We are also offering a series of workshops for board members and board chairs in September. Any board member at a Jewish nonprofit is welcome. Finally, for professional leaders who work with boards, we are accepting applications through Aug. 27 for a new program for this winter and spring called The Leadership Lab: Collaborating with Your Board.

When I joined the Leading Edge team in 2020, just days before the COVID-19 shutdown began, I never could have imagined the major challenges that would affect our field over the subsequent years. In reflecting on that time — which we are still living through — I have seen and experienced that professional and board leaders who have stood together with relationships of trust, communication, and commitment to strategic thinking are best prepared to navigate challenges. Those leaders are at the helm of organizations that have come through the past half-decade with resilience, even more fortified and braced for whatever crisis collides with our field next.

Dena Farber Schoenfeld is the chief program officer at Leading Edge, an organization working to improve leadership, talent and culture in the Jewish nonprofit sector.