A New Contract Between Staff and Boards
Our last blog – the first in this series focusing on a purpose-led approach to leadership – set out that leadership today needs to be focused on developing leaders as conduits for change, centred around a clear and distinct organisational purpose. This blog will explore what this approach means at a governance level and sets out the need for a new contract to be developed between Boards and Executive teams to shift overall organisational decision-making to a purpose-led approach, thereby ensuring resilience with integrity.
At Achates we have the privilege of working with a number of organisations across the sector and act as a critical friend to stakeholders working at all levels, including Executive teams, and the non-Executive of Chairs and Trustees. A key theme we have noticed, particularly in recent years in the context of immense economic pressure, is a shift in the relationship between Boards and wider staff into one which for many is focused almost entirely on reporting and that reporting is largely focused on financial and risk management.
Whilst the role of a Trustee does of course need to incorporate oversight of the financial position and risk levels of the organisation, the role must also incorporate the full breadth of an organisation’s purpose in order to fulfil their legal role of representatives of the stakeholders of the charity and guardians of its public benefit. It is therefore vital that the Executive provide Trustees with the information needed to consider all aspects of its triple-bottom line of value.
As we know, during the Pandemic, many Trustees were required to take a more hands-on, almost day-to-day, role in the management of their organisations. Whilst this was essential during that period, what has remained in many cases is a blurring of the line between Board members and Executive teams. Many Boards remain in a position whereby the information they are engaging with is focused on the current state of play, often through a solely financial lens and the time given to focus on bigger picture thinking is severely reduced. This has resulted in the conversation between Executive and Boards becoming one-sided and imbalanced, which in turn creates imbalance in the charity and actually undermines financial resilience as a result.
This dynamic of a focus on finances creates many challenges for those involved in both governance and executive leadership. Firstly, it prevents Boards from fulfilling the true extent of their role as custodians of our organisation’s future by reducing the work of an organisation to a single viewpoint – financial health. Secondly, it provides only a single perspective against which complex or difficult conversations can take place. For example, if a conversation is required by the Board exploring potential funding decisions or regarding allocation of resources a sole financial decision-making lens will fail to take into account wider considerations that are incorporated within the organisation’s purpose meaning the viewpoints and best interests of key organisational stakeholders may be left out and decisions will be made based on who has the most power – or the loudest voice.
Ironically, the point which often goes unnoted is that a single lens of financial value doesn’t actually support resilience as a charity, as money is linked to brand and impact, and both of these are undermined by this approach. The key is to create a virtuous circle of purpose-led decision making which reinforces impact, brand and trust, optimising impact with and for audiences and earned and contributed income as a result.
As we tackle the current realities of our situation as a sector, it is therefore vital that a new contract is established between Boards and Executive teams. One which centres organisational purpose and which places partnership and collaboration at its core. This means ensuring the relationship between Executives and Boards is centred first and foremost on everyone pulling towards a shared understanding of what the organisation is trying to achieve and the change it is bringing about with and for those priority audiences, that is to say centring all decision-making around your organisational purpose.
Achates Community provides tools to support organisations in moving towards a purpose-led approach. In January 2026, we will be launching new modules specifically focusing on these issues and laying out a step-by-step approach towards developing a purpose-led approach to governance within your organisation. Membership for cultural sector charity employees is just £50 p/m (for a minimum 12 months), or £500 annually when paid up front.
Join our community today to get full access to all of these modules plus over 60 further Masterclasses and the Purposeful Leadership Programme to provide all of the tools needed to adopt a purpose-led approach to leadership and governance.
