You Are Not Supposed to Run This Alone: The ED's Real Job

If you are an Executive Director, you have probably felt it: the quiet weight of everyone assuming that whatever happens, good or bad, lands on you. Board members go home after the meeting. Staff clock out. Funders send their questions to your inbox. And somehow, no matter how the organization is structured on paper, you are the one at the center of it all.

That feeling has a name, and it is not a personal failing. It is simply the nature of the role. The question is not whether you carry that centrality. You do. The question is what you do with it.

The centrality trap (and the way out)

Research on especially effective nonprofit chief executives found something surprising. The best EDs are not the ones who dominate their boards or run everything themselves. They are the ones who provide more leadership to their boards, not less.

That is the shift. You sit at the center of the organization's information and responsibility whether you like it or not. You can respond by hoarding control, or you can respond by using your position to strengthen the very board that supervises you. The effective leaders choose the second path. They accept their centrality without abusing it.

This matters most as you grow past your early milestones. When you are building toward 50, 75, and 100 supporters, you cannot personally hold every relationship and decision. The leaders who scale are the ones who develop the people around them, starting with their board.

Governance is theirs. Management is yours.

One of the clearest ways to protect your sanity is to get crisp about who owns what.

The board owns governance: the mission, the policies, the fiduciary oversight, and the hiring, evaluating, and (if it ever comes to it) releasing of you. As a body, they set direction and approve the budget. Notice that word: approve. You do not have final say over the budget. They do.

You own management: running the programs, leading the staff, stewarding the money within the approved budget, and executing the strategy the board sets. And here is a crucial line that many EDs blur when they are stretched thin: the board hires and evaluates you, but they cannot hire, evaluate, or fire any other staff member. That authority is yours alone.

One more thing worth remembering. The board acts only as a body. No single board member, not even the chair, has authority on their own. So when a well-meaning board member starts directing your staff or making promises in the community, you are not being difficult by gently redirecting them. You are protecting the structure that keeps everyone healthy.

The five jobs you are actually holding

The ED role can feel like a hundred small fires, but it clusters into five functions. Seeing them named can help you notice which ones you are neglecting.

1. Leader. You advise the board, advocate for the organization in public, and motivate your staff.
2. Visionary and information bearer. You keep staff and board informed and current, scan the horizon for change and opportunity, and act as the bridge between board and staff, organization and community, funders and mission.
3. Decision maker. You shape the policy and planning recommendations that go to the board, and you guide the day-to-day work of staff.
4. Manager. You oversee program quality, manage people according to policy, keep finances within budget, and handle risk, emergencies, and facilities.
5. Board developer. You support board orientation, help members find their footing, and enable the board to govern well.

That last one surprises a lot of leaders. Developing your own supervisors feels backwards. But it is exactly the board-centered leadership that separates effective EDs from exhausted ones.

Leadership and management are two different muscles

It helps to know these are separate skills, and you need both.

Leadership is vision and influence. It is holding a picture of where you are going, adapting to a changing environment, and moving people to follow. The real test of leadership is simple: are people willing to follow your direction?

Management is systems and execution. It is budgets, supervision, and getting defined work done well.

Some of us are natural visionaries who struggle to build systems. Others are gifted managers who forget to lift their eyes to the horizon. Neither is wrong. But if you only know your strong side, name your weak one and build support around it.

Supervision does not require a tall hierarchy

If you lead a small staff, you might think real performance management is for bigger organizations. It is not. Supervising a person means managing the relationship between that person and the organization through three ongoing activities: setting clear expectations, communicating regularly, and reviewing performance.

Notice that performance management is a cycle, not a once-a-year event. It is the steady rhythm of planning, supporting, and reviewing that helps your people grow. Even with two staff members, you can do this. In fact, when you are small, doing it well is what makes you ready to grow.

What to do next

Start by getting honest about which of your five functions you have been avoiding. Most overwhelmed EDs are strong on management and thin on board development, or strong on vision and thin on systems. Name your gap.

Then resist the urge to fix everything by doing more yourself. The leaders who last are the ones who use their central position to build up the people around them: their board, their staff, their community. If you want a clear read on where your leadership is strong and where it is stretched, our assessment is a good place to begin, and the milestones can show you what growing well actually looks like from here.

Your challenge this week

Pick the one board member with the most relevant expertise, and invite them into a real thought-partnership on a decision you are facing. Not a task. A conversation. Ask for their thinking, and practice using your centrality to develop your board rather than carry everything alone.