Boards

I have just been on the phone to another manager of a small charity. She is pulling her hair out because of her Board. Her charity is run for the benefit of black and minority ethnic communities, and has managed to become an organisation that has a lot of influence with organisations such as the City Council.

Unfortunately her Board are fighting amongst themselves about what the staff should be arguing for. In particular there is fighting between different ethnicities who want the charity to be pushing for external funding to come mainly to the organisations that serve their community e.g. that available money should go to Pakistani voluntary groups instead of African Caribbean voluntary groups.

On top of that as a woman she is having a hard time from some Asian Board members who don't think a woman should be in that position of leadership. Unfortunately she is having to constantly manage all this conflict and this is taking her away from actually doing her job.