The health of a business is affected by many factors and one of the most important is the effectiveness of the company’s key management. Why does a successful organization need an executive director? Here is more about it.
The place of an executive director in corporate structure
The director and executive director (CEO) play an important role in the organization and are the face of the company or nonprofit organization in business matters. These two important positions belong to the upper level of the organizational structure, in particular at the top management level. A director is a broad term, mainly a member of the board of directors, management, and supervisory body of a company or organization. Unlike his colleague, the CEO is involved in the day-to-day management of the company.
As the chairman of the board of directors, the executive director is fully responsible for the entire company as its leader. It is also his responsibility to implement the views of the board of directors and to convene the board (for example, to advise).
He is the top manager of the company. This provision entails specific management responsibilities, as well as the final say in operational and tactical tasks. To cope with these many responsibilities, the CEO must have extensive skills, knowledge, and experience working with the company, address organizational issues and various issues from day to day. CEOs of nonprofit companies are usually involved in raising funds as well as promoting the organization to raise public awareness and increase membership. It also should be mentioned, that a nonprofit organization is a business that has been granted tax-exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) because it promotes social affairs and provides public benefit.
Along with management, CEOs are also seen as motivators and leaders in their organizations. This name is also applicable to specific directors of various departments, such as the marketing, advertising, finance, human resources departments of the company.
Basic responsibilities of CEO
First of all, the CEO is not necessarily the direct owner of the business. He can be both the owner and the hired manager, but this does not diminish the degree of his responsibility (at least legally).
The executive director carries out his activity under the terms of the contract concluded with him by the board of the cooperative, and performs functions following the statute. The executive director is responsible for the current management of the cooperative. He implements the decisions of the board and manages the cooperative by the guidelines and directives set by the board.
8 Key nonprofit executive director responsibilities include the following:
- Organization of development of the strategic plan, the fundraising plan, annual operational plans of activity, annual budgets.
- Organization of work to achieve them and preparation of reports for the governing bodies of the organization, risk control in the organization.
- Formation and approval of internal policies of the organization, control over compliance with the policies of the organization by all departments and employees of the organization.
- Optimization of organizational structure, coordination of work of all departments, and directions of the organization.
- Admission, transfer to another job, removal from it and dismissal of employees of the organization, application of incentives and penalties, approval of job responsibilities of employees of the organization.
- Distribution of responsibilities among the staff of the organization and the definition of their powers.
- Establishing the forms, systems, amounts of remuneration, and motivation of employees of the organization.
- Implementation of policy in the field of ethics of relations, consideration, and arbitration of conflict situations.