Who Does What? A Guide to Defining Roles to Fix Friction in Your Boardroom

A recurring theme has been surfacing in my recent discussions with clients: the desperate need for role clarity.

We've all been there. You’re in a meeting, and a critical task comes up—maybe it’s updating the safety policy or finalizing the tournament schedule. The room goes silent. Everyone looks around, assuming someone else owns that piece of the puzzle. Or worse, three different people assume they own it, leading to a collision of good intentions and wasted effort.

For one reason or another, many organizations are experiencing a lack of clarity, and it is causing significant friction in how they operate.

There are valid reasons for this. Perhaps writing role descriptions in the first place felt like a "busywork" exercise that didn’t seem necessary when you were just trying to survive the season. Or perhaps the descriptions were written years ago, but your organization has evolved while the documents gathered dust.

Regardless of how we got here, I’ve found that revisiting these descriptions is rarely a waste of time. In fact, defining clear roles is the foundation of trust.

Why Role Clarity is Your Best Strategy

When we are stuck in the "messy middle"—that overwhelming space where urgent operational details crowd out strategic thinking—it’s easy to think that written job descriptions are bureaucratic overkill. But without them, we rely on assumptions. And assumptions are where balls get dropped.

Clear role descriptions help us understand not just our individual work, but how that work relates to others—between Officers and Directors, between the Board and Staff, and between the Board and the Membership.

Here is why clarifying nonprofit sport organization roles is a game-changer:

• It Builds Trust: Clarity creates boundaries. It allows us to know exactly where we operate. More importantly, it allows us to trust that the places where we don't operate are being taken care of by someone else.
• It Separates Governance from Operations: This is the golden rule of healthy nonprofits. Written roles help "Valerie" (the Board Director) stay focused on strategy and "David" (the Executive Director) manage the day-to-day, reducing micromanagement.
• It Boosts Recruitment: It is much easier to recruit a volunteer when you can hand them a sheet of paper that says, "Here is exactly what we need you to do, and here is what you don't have to worry about."
• It Promotes Equity: Unwritten rules favor those who have been around the longest ("The Old Guard"). Written roles level the playing field, ensuring new voices understand how to contribute immediately.

The "We're Too Small" Myth

I often hear leaders of smaller community clubs say, "We don't need formal roles; we're small and we need to be flexible."

While flexibility is a virtue, ambiguity is a liability.

Even in the smallest volunteer-run clubs, the "everyone does everything" approach is a fast track to burnout. When roles are fluid, the most conscientious volunteers inevitably end up doing everything because they feel responsible for the gaps. Defining roles doesn't mean you can't help each other out; it means you know who is ultimately accountable so that no one person carries the weight of the world.

3 Practical Exercises to Update Your Roles

If you suspect your roles are outdated—or if they don't exist at all—you don't need a corporate HR consultant to fix it. You just need to have the right conversation.

Here are three practical ways to reset the board and staff dynamic:

1. The Column Chart Comparison Sometimes we need to see it to believe it. Create a simple document with side-by-side columns.

• Column A: What the Bylaws/Job Description says the role does.
• Column B: What the person currently actually does.
• Column C: What the organization needs this role to do moving forward. This visual gap analysis highlights where "scope creep" has happened and helps you realign responsibilities with reality.    

2. The Sticky Note Wall Audit This is great for in-person discussions. Write down every major task the organization handles on individual sticky notes (e.g., "Hiring coaches," "Approving budget," "Buying medals"). Draw columns on a wall for "Board," "Staff," "Committees," and "Volunteers." Have the group collectively place the tasks where they belong. You will likely find several sticky notes that land on the line between two groups—that is where your friction lives. Discussing those specific notes solves the problem. 

3. "My Role Is / Your Role Is" This exercise builds empathy and clears up misconceptions. Have each board member and senior staff member complete these sentences:

• "I believe my primary role is to..."
• "I believe my role is NOT to..."
• "I need you (the other group) to..." Compare the answers. You might be surprised to find that the Board thinks they are supporting the Staff, while the Staff feels the Board is micromanaging. Getting these perceptions out in the open is the first step to fixing them.

Start the Conversation Today

You don't need to overhaul your entire governance manual overnight. Start with a single conversation at your next meeting. Ask your team: "Are we clear on who owns what, or are we relying on assumptions?"

The clarity you gain will do more than just organize your work; it will give you the peace of mind to stop worrying about the details and start dreaming about the future.

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