We are seeing lots of first-day-of-school photos this week. Most are early elementary, some are first-day-of-college. Some are first-grade to whatever-grade comparisons. All are blessings.

This also the time of year that the dreaded helicopter parents appear. You know them. They are the ones hovering over the teacher or the admissions office, making certain that everything goes exactly according to plan…their plan.

They don’t realize that their hovering is actually working against the best interests of their child. Wise parents want to see their children grow up be fully-functioning independent adults. That cannot happen if the parent makes all the choices and bails them out of every problem.

“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.” — Will Rogers

The same thing can happen to your nonprofit board. Some boards hover over the staff and question every action and make every decision. But your staff must have the ability to handle routine events on their own. If they are new (and most are) they need to have latitude to make decisions, even wrong ones, on their own. That way they will learn and you can spend your time on strategic issues instead of minutia.

Check out my posts on The Corporate Model, Delegate or DIe, and How to Delegate.