Board decisions are not always black and white. But what happens when you’re the lone dissenting vote? It doesn’t mean the rest of the board is careless. Often, it means momentum is strong.
Everyone else voted yes.
The Executive Director is moving forward.
The Board Chair sounds confident.
And you’re sitting there thinking: Am I missing something — or is everyone else?
This happened to me two years into my board service. We were voting on a major program expansion.
The need was great.
The financials looked shaky.
The timeline felt rushed.
The risk seemed significant.
When I raised concerns, I heard:
“We’ve already committed to this.”
“The need justifies moving forward.”
“The ED has been working on this for months.”
“We need to move forward with confidence.”
I had a choice:
Vote yes and ignore my gut.
Or vote no and be the lone dissenting voice.
I voted no.
And I explained why—calmly, specifically, without attacking anyone—then got behind the decision.
Here’s what happened.
The program launched.
Six months later, it was underwater financially — exactly as I had feared.
The board had to make emergency budget cuts and eventually sunset the program.
During the debrief, three board members confided:
“I had concerns too, but I didn’t want to be the only one.”
That moment stuck with me.
Here’s what that experience taught me:
If something doesn’t sit right with you, don’t silence yourself.
You might be wrong. That’s okay. Boards are collective bodies, and one dissenting vote doesn’t derail good decisions.
But you also might be seeing something others missed.
Silence — voting yes when you mean no — protects no one. Healthy boards make room for dissent.