How Does an Executive Function?

How does an executive, such as President of an organization, function? How does that person get everything done and keep his sanity?

I think of the president of Sears, Roebuck and Co., for whom I handled customer complaints that got through all the filters (and there were many filters) to his desk. The only thing he did with them was send them to me for handling.* He never asked for a report on what I had done to handle them. It was the best part of my five years at Sears! I had no one standing behind me with a stopwatch and a clipboard.

When I was VP of Membership Services for an 1,100-member chamber of commerce in the Kansas City area, I called on the General Manager of a commercial laundry. His executive assistant said I could see him between 8AM-5PM, Monday-Friday. "Don't come before 8 or after 5."

What was his management style? He told me he worked 40 hours/week, just like his employees. He said that he hired competent people to manage things when he wasn't there; it was a 24/7 operation. They were not to call him at home, no matter what. I asked, "What if there is a fire at night or somebody gets hurt?"

He said that his on-duty manager would handle it and tell him about it at 8AM. "If they can't or won't, I'll replace them and get someone who will."

What does this have to do with The Summit's HOA? The same business-management principles apply.

If any Director receives a complaint, he or she should record it and re-direct it to the office. Or, if it falls under his direct responsibility, then that person handles it or re-directs it; for example, to a committee or to the office.

Do too many board members do too much of the work themselves?

The seven Directors of the HOA are unpaid officials. The elected position should not consume their entire personal lives. They are in charge of making sure that it doesn't.

A pre-board meeting should take up not more than one hour once a month. No decisions are to be made (or agreed to).

A Regular Board Meeting should be no longer than 90 minutes. Chaos should not be tolerated. Meet. Discuss. Decide. Leave.

If a Special Board Meeting is called, it should be announced, Minutes taken and published, and explained at the next Regular Board Meeting. Have the HOA's Boards had too many "secret" Special Board Meetings?

Committee meetings? One hour monthly. Same arrangement: Meet. Discuss. Decide. Leave.

This assumes that every person shows up knowledgeable and prepared.

* I wrote a little e-book about many of the customer-service stories. The title is Unthaw It!. Find it on Amazon Kindle ($1.99, or free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers).

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