An executive director is a top management employee and plays an integral role in improving an organization’s overall bottom line. Unlike chief executive officers running businesses, executive directors usually work in non-profit organizations.
According to Francisco Antonio Convit Guruceaga, an executive director provides strategic direction and strategy to the organization and makes substantial efforts to achieve goals. In addition, these individuals guide employees to align their actions with the organization’s goals.
Francisco Antonio Convit Guruceaga says a non-profit organization can’t achieve its goals if the executive director is not a team player. The reason is that the executive director creates a company culture and oversees organizational policies to streamline operations.
Today’s article will discuss the critical responsibilities of an executive director based on Francisco Antonio Convit Guruceaga’s insights. Read on!
Manages a Team of Board of Directors
Managing a team of board of directors is daunting and time-consuming because each member has different thoughts, inputs, and insights. So, organizations hire executive directors to lead a group of leaders and stay on the same page.
An executive director with years of experience listens to everyone on the board of directors and uses their conflict resolution skills to avoid problems and ensure everyone understands the organization’s vision, mission, strategy, and value proposition.
Defines Goals and Align Employees with them
Goals are an integral part of running an organization and streamlining its operations. S.M.A.R.T goals give you a clear focus and motivate departments/employees. In addition, defining goals helps you set targets for the organization or criteria for specific projects.
However, even if you have defined goals, you can’t achieve them until everyone in the organization clearly understands those goals. So, as an executive director, your responsibility is to align employees with the organization’s goals via effective communication and interpersonal relationships.
Performs the Organization’s Financial Management
Financial management enables businesses to plan expenses, reach company goals, and forecast operational challenges or changes. The purpose is to reduce costs, increase profits, streamline projects, and achieve goals.
Although an executive director is not an accountant to focus on the nitty-gritty of budgets, income statements, and balance sheets, they can collaborate with the financial team and develop a strategy to optimize monetary or budgetary tasks.
Francisco Antonio Convit Guruceaga says an experienced executive director has good knowledge of basic accounting concepts and practices, such as data entry, budget development, data analysis tools, and financial management.
Builds the Company Culture
Organizational culture is a set of shared goals, values, commitments, attitudes, and behaviors of everyone working in the company. Culture creates a sophisticated environment within the organization and gets everyone on the same page on how to carry out specific tasks and improve the business’s bottom line.
However, it is the executive director’s responsibility to listen to everyone, collect feedback, analyze it to generate insights, and use the valuable information to make informed decisions and achieve the desired culture. Values are an integral part of organizational culture.
Therefore, an executive director applies those values to all departments and ensures everyone from top to bottom follows them. Remember, an optimal organizational culture is directly proportional to increased productivity, a secure and respectful workplace environment for employees, and peak performance.
Makes Informed Decisions
Decision-making is one of the best skills executive directors leverage during harsh circumstances. An executive director oversees different operations within the organization and is responsible for resolving various issues.
For instance, Francisco Antonio Convit Guruceaga says one minute, the executive director discusses marketing plans, while in the minute, they deal with employee management issues.
So this means an executive director deals with various aspects of an organization. Although you may not have expertise in all domains, you have the ultimate authority to plan and implement a strategy.
However, it would help if you made evidence-based and informed decisions to positively impact all departments and employees without affecting the company’s productivity. Getting top leadership on board is an excellent way to streamline the entire process and make valuable decisions that favor the organization.
Final Words
An executive director is an organization’s top-level employee/leader who oversees all operations and aims to increase employee productivity, create a positive organizational culture, streamline financial management, etc.
