Chair issues

Chairman's corner: Recognising when it's time to move on

Governance | 18 Dec 2009

A troubled chief executive struggling with whether to stay or go asks The Chairman for some sound advice...

Dear Chairman, 

I've been chief executive of my charity for 15 years and I’m now 61. It might sound immodest but over the last 15 years the charity has grown and prospered under my leadership. I would love to retire but I need to plough on for another four years for personal financial reasons. I had a serious gambling problem in my 40s and have only recently finished paying off my debts. Six years ago I bought a tiny flat and still have a large mortgage which I could not afford on my pension. The recession hasn’t helped as the value of my flat has slumped by 20 per cent.

I know the charity needs to go off in a new direction but I do not feel I’m the right person to take it where it needs to go. I don’t feel as though I’m burnt out but neither do I have the energy and enthusiasm that I used to have. My trustees have always been very supportive but low key. They seem to be content with leaving me ‘to get on with it’ and have complete faith in my ability to deliver necessary change.

I know your column is meant for chairs’, not chief executives’ queries, but if you publish this letter (my trustees are avid readers of Governance) I hope the penny will drop with my trustees and they will address the issue.

Yours sincerely,

ACE

Dear ACE

I think this is a ‘no-brainer’; and I suspect that you do too. You express the hope that your letter will be published so that ‘the penny will drop’ with your trustees and they will take action. Essentially you want them, or me, to tell you what you already know; a not unusual human trait when there are tough decisions to be made. But rather than the trustees taking action and making your decisions for you, how much better if you seize the initiative yourself.

You have clearly contributed a huge amount to the charity’s success over the last 15 years and you could not have achieved that over such a long period without recognising what is in the best interests of the charity. And you now recognise that it is in the charity’s best interests for you to move on and for a fresh approach and direction to be introduced. In that case, how much better will your memories be, not to mention the legacy you leave with the charity, if you take the initiative now and work with the trustees to plan your departure, find your successor and draw up a transition plan. Such an approach might also act as a catalyst to transform your passive trustees into a board that leads, directs and oversees in an active and engaged manner.

Neither is your departure from this charity incompatible with your personal need to continue in paid employment for a further four years. You have a great deal of experience and expertise to contribute to another charity that could benefit hugely from your input and leadership and the fresh approach that you would bring to it.

Four years is a quite sufficient period of time for you to make a substantive contribution and lasting impression; and today, attitudes towards employing senior and experienced citizens are a little more enlightened than perhaps they once were. Further, you might find the new challenge so invigorating that after four years you will not want to retire.

There is a real prospect of a ‘double whammy’ here. If you work with your current trustees to plan your own exit in a timeframe that suits you and enables you to find your next position, at the same time identifying your successor and putting together the basis of a transition plan, you will be able to leave your current position on a high and then repeat the process in four years time as a prelude to a well-earned and fulfilling retirement.

Unless, of course, by then you have been energised to carry on.

Yours etc,

The Chairman

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