Driving Impact: The Board's Role in Executive Director Performance Success-Presentation

Presentation - Driving Impact

Pdf Summary

This National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) presentation, "Driving Impact: The Board’s Role in Executive Director Performance Success," focuses on guiding boards in effectively managing and evaluating the performance of their CEOs or Executive Directors to improve outcomes in housing authorities.<br /><br />Key learning objectives include understanding the board’s governance role in CEO performance management, developing structured evaluation processes aligned with strategic goals, utilizing tools such as dashboards and stakeholder feedback, and conducting fair evidence-based reviews.<br /><br />The session highlights the high failure rate of new CEOs (estimated between 38% to 70%) often due to poor relationships with stakeholders and boards. Boards are reminded of their critical fiduciary duties, including compliance with the U.S. Housing Act, ethical stewardship of federal funds, and ensuring decent housing through oversight and guidance of the CEO.<br /><br />A step-by-step process to manage CEO performance includes clarifying roles (board sets strategic direction; CEO manages daily operations), establishing clear expectations through job descriptions, employment agreements, and performance documents, setting SMART goals aligned with HUD compliance, creating evaluation tools and timelines, collecting data and feedback, and delivering formal performance feedback. Boards are encouraged to use objective, mission-focused metrics across areas like strategic alignment, regulatory compliance, financial health, leadership, community relations, and operational effectiveness.<br /><br />The presentation underscores the importance of confidentiality, avoidance of bias, using verified data, and incorporating the CEO's self-evaluation. It advises boards to prepare feedback collaboratively in closed sessions and to involve HR and legal counsel when necessary.<br /><br />Additional resources include evaluation templates, monthly dashboards, and a 30-day board action checklist to guide the annual performance cycle. The presentation concludes that effective CEO performance management builds trust, ensures compliance, boosts organizational performance, and supports ongoing executive development.

Keywords

NAHRO

Executive Director Performance

Board Governance

CEO Evaluation

Housing Authorities

Strategic Goals

HUD Compliance

Performance Metrics

Stakeholder Feedback

Fiduciary Duties