Letter to the Board of Directors

...from your best staff's next employerGreetings;We want to thank you for taking the time to identify and initially hire our new employee. We understand that you recognized their innate leadership potential and caring heart, and brought them into the nonprofit field. We are grateful.We also understand that you benefited from the staff person's high levels of commitment and energy while they lasted. Your decision to frequently undermine their efforts with board level interference took time to entirely drain their joy in working with you but ultimately it was successful.Our organization has a strong commitment to working with our staff to develop their skills and self-awareness. We invest time, energy, and resources in doing so. We have also worked hard to clearly delineate reporting structures and what issues are appropriate for board involvement. Your former staff member has told us that these are new experiences for her and she has never received the kind of accountability and encouragement in the past that we provide. Years ago that would have surprised us, but nearly everyone we hire has similar stories from other organizations much like yours.We are at a loss to understand why you would hire someone, invest in their salary and expenses, and entrust them with the work you consider so critical, but make essentially no effort to ensure that your investment is growing through intentional development of your staff. It seems extremely foolish. Perhaps that is why you have high staff turnover and lack a sense of vision and momentum. In any case, your weakness has allowed us to find another bright, gifted leader for our organization who is thriving in our environment.In fact, she recently told me that, although she does miss the work and clientele she had with you, she can not imagine ever again working in a setting where more dollars are invested in revising the website than in developing the team. (We couldn't have said it better). She has shown us enthusiasm she admits she wondered if she could ever regain after the time spent in your "unhealthy and toxic" systems. She has also told us that her spirituality has been renewed beyond her hopes and her personal life is much more balanced and enjoyable.In closing; please accept our appreciation for inadvertently providing us with such an outstanding addition to our team. We are certain that we won't be reciprocating because you now have a sour reputation in the circles of promising leaders.Sincerely;Proactive Wisdom Boardp.s. We are expecting to have some additional vacancies in the coming months; could you forward your staff directory?