The problem of domineering leaders, who are making all decisions within charities and preventing trustees from acting collectively, is growing, a charity regulator is warning.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) says an increasing number of trustees, staff and members of the public are raising concerns about dominant charity leaders, who can be one person or a small group of people.

Its report on the issue cites the example of one anonymous charity that was dominated by its founder, who ran the organisation “will little or no input from the other two trustees”.

This resulted in the charity not holding trustee meetings, AGMs and having appropriate policies in place. It was also failing to meet its legal obligations to submit its financial records to the regulator.

Trustees are being urged by the regulator to challenge dominant leaders “raise it with them, explain hot it is making others feel, the issues and risks it is potentially causing for the charity and seek to understand why the individual is behaving in that way”.

Trustees also need to be clear that domineering behaviour “needs to stop”.

If a dominant leader does not change trustees need to “be prepared to take formal action such as removing the person as a charity trustee” while “ensuring that any action taken is in line with the governing document”.

The OSCR has issued a ten-point place of action for trustees to help them take action to prevent and tackle leaders looking to dominate decision making. This urges charities to:

• Have clear plan to delegate decisions, that are reported back at regular trustee meetings.

• Ensure trustees actively seek regular reports on performance and finance so they understand the organisation better.

• Review meetings “to ensure everyone is contributing and feels valued”.

• Have policies on whistleblowing and staff grievance procedures in place.

• Ensure trustees regularly review the charity's governance

• Regular evaluate robust staff performance, with clear objectives set.

• Provide regular refresher training for all charity trustees on their legal duties and what these mean in practice.

• Have a strong induction process for new charity trustees to ensure they understand their role and responsibilities.

• Ensure the charity's constitution is fit for purpose and regularly reviewed and updated where necessary.

• Have an effective board that can oust those who are not contributing and recruit trustees “who will bring challenge and authority”.

The OSCR’s report says that such dominant behaviour can arise through charity leaders “passion and dedication to the cause”.

“Charities need this in order to thrive, but it needs to be channelled in the right way and used constructively so that the charity can benefit from it,” the regulator adds.

“It can sometimes result in those with that passion and dedication behaving in a way that others find difficult to work with, stops them doing the job they’re supposed to do and results in them walking away, leaving the dominant person (or persons) in the charity.”

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