You Can't Choose Your Board. You Can Define How You Work Together.
The Bottom Line: You cannot choose who sits on your board, but you can make roles clear, build trust early, and turn your board into a partner instead of a source of friction.
Introduction
A commissioner calls your maintenance supervisor directly with a "quick request." A city official expects a say in a waitlist decision. A board meeting turns into a debate about who gets the final word. If any of that sounds familiar, you are not alone. Board members come from many professional backgrounds, and not all of them know the day-to-day realities of running a housing authority. Yet they oversee decisions that shape your funding, staffing, and program direction. One of the most common sources of tension is unclear roles: board members, city officials, and agency leaders who are not aligned on who does what. The good news is that you are in the best position to fix it. A strong board relationship is built, not assumed.
What are the risks?
When roles go unspoken, the cost shows up in three places.
First, power struggles replace progress. When no one has agreed on who decides what, every decision becomes a negotiation. Meetings run long, staff time goes to managing friction, and important work waits.
Second, boundaries blur, and staff get caught in the middle. When board members or city officials direct staff or step into day-to-day operations, the chain of command breaks down. Staff feel pulled between two bosses, and you lose the ability to lead your own team.
Third, good partners become adversaries. Without shared goals and a working relationship, small disagreements harden into distrust. A board that could champion your mission becomes a stumbling block instead.
How can I be proactive?
You do not need to overhaul your governance. You need clear roles, a steady rhythm, and relationships built before they are tested.
Put roles in writing. Create a one-page governance guide that spells out who does what. In a typical arrangement, the board sets policy, approves the budget, and oversees the executive director, while the executive director runs daily operations and leads staff. If you run public housing, HUD requires your board to review and approve the operating budget by resolution. Note where city partners and other stakeholders fit, too. Tie the guide to your bylaws, check it against state law, and revisit it every year.
Onboard every commissioner, every time. Give each new board member an orientation that walks through the governance guide, your programs, and how requests to staff should flow. HUD’s free Lead the Way training, built for board members and open to executive staff, is a ready-made place to start. Then hold a short refresher for the full board once a year. New members learn the rules of the road, and longtime members get a reset.
Create one front door and a steady rhythm. Agree that board and city requests come through the executive director, not straight to staff. Pair that boundary with predictable contact: a regular check-in with your board chair and brief updates between meetings. When people hear from you often, they are less likely to go around you.
Build trust before you need it. Meet one-on-one with commissioners and key city partners outside formal meetings. Learn what each person cares about and why they chose to serve. Then agree together on two or three shared goals for the year. When disagreements come, and they will, you will be working from common ground. Just as clear expectations help staff do their best work, clear roles help your board members do theirs.
Questions for reflection
Have you encountered situations where unclear roles led to tension or inefficiency? How did you handle them?
What approaches have you found most effective in building strong, respectful relationships with your board or municipal partners?
This post was inspired by "12 Truths for Executive Directors," an eBook written by Dakota Vaughn Koontz and Lindsey Reames. Their thoughtful, compassionate work laid the foundation for everything shared here. We are deeply grateful for their insight and for the heart they poured into supporting those who lead.
