You are right.  It will take time and thought to do this evaluation with your executive.  You will have to make space in an already full organizational schedule where little space seems to exist.  But in terms of importance and impact the executive evaluation experience ranks up there with keeping faith with the mission, making good strategic plans and securing the necessary resources to make it all work.

We presume to advocate for executive evaluation because we believe the various studies that show that two-thirds of our executive directors have no regular evaluation at all.  We are emboldened to push on this because fewer than one-third of our executive directors feel that their boards challenge them to be more effective (that from a 2006 CompassPoint study).

Think of it as a gift to your executive that like most good gifts benefits the giver and everyone else around as well.  When evaluation is done with care and thoughtfulness your executive is encouraged in their professional development, the partnership between your board and your executive is strengthened and the organization becomes a more focused and reflective kind of place.  Our hope is that this small volume will help you get all those benefits and more from your experience with executive evaluation. 

In these pages our editorial committee has the last word (see “Afterwords” on p. 51); they also had the first words with us as we initially sat down to think through what most needed to be said.  Their own rich and varied experiences as board presidents and executives informed and inspired much of what is here and we are grateful to them for it.

We also feel fortunate to have a Board of Governors whose attitudes and insights are so hospitable to this kind of work.  They are cherished colleagues and co-creators in all that we do. 

Once again this effort is supported by Elfi DiBella and all the good people at the Huntington Bank.  Their special brand of loyalty and generosity mean the world to us.  Yet another example of dependable generosity is Dan Morris and Grange Insurance, who stepped in at the end to do the printing.  And these pages are touched with an unusual combination of clarity and artistry because of our friend and editor Laura Bidwa who in fact, among many other things, is a fine artist.

Our last and strongest appreciation is reserved for you board members who month by month do so much to shepherd and strengthen our not-for-profit organizations.  It is to you that we dedicate this small book

Donn F. Vickers

Kelly Stevelt Kaser

July 2006