Board Capacity Building
Turning Your Board Members Into a Cohesive Governing Team: Part 2
As I noted in the July 25 post at this blog, turning nonprofit boards into really cohesive governing teams is no piece of cake, primarily because of the diverse agendas and differing levels of governing knowledge and experience board members …
Turning Your Board Members Into a Cohesive Governing Team: Part 1
Teamwork in the abstract is neither here nor there for nonprofit and public boards. The only serious reason for developing your board’s teamwork is to help it function as a more effective governing body that gets its governing work done …
Really Board-Savvy CEOs Avoid the Trap of Letterhead Board Members
Several posts at this blog have dealt with what I call “insidious foes” of a solid board-CEO working relationship. These are erroneous assumptions about the nature of the governing function that can cause real damage. What makes them insidious is …
Board-Savvy CEOs Avoid Falling Into the Board Self-Assessment Trap
I received an email promo last week from a national nonprofit ballyhooing its board self-assessment “tool,” which reminded me of a true story that goes back around four years. The president & CEO of a large nonprofit development corporation called …
Questions to Anticipate From Prospective Board Members
Veronica Dagher’s article in the December 11 issue of the Wall Street Journal, “What to Consider Before Joining a Nonprofit Board,” is useful reading for board-savvy CEOs who are interested in strengthening their boards’ composition. Dagher discusses five questions …
Board-Savvy CEOs Don’t Bury Their Board in Paper
I recently sat in on a fascinating work session involving a nonprofit board’s performance oversight and monitoring committee, the CEO, CFO and three other senior executives. They spent around two hours thinking through the kinds of information that the committee …
Association Forum CEO Michelle Mason on Developing Her Board’s Composition
Extraordinary nonprofit chief executives are extraordinarily board-savvy, meaning that among other things they take accountability for playing the leading role in building their boards’ governing capacity. As extremely busy volunteers, board members can’t realistically be expected to take the lead …
What Makes Women Such Effective Board Members?
Karen Philbrick
“What makes women such effective board members?” That question came up over a glass of wine at the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) reception held at the Transportation Research Board conference this past January. Apparently, boards comprised of men …
What, Me Worry About a Big Board?
“Why in heaven’s name would I even consider it?” This how my colleague Jeff Finkle, President & CEO of the International Economic Development Council, responded over dinner a few weeks ago when I asked him whether he’d ever thought about …
A Small, Un-diverse Board Is a Distinct Disadvantage In Today’s World
I chatted with the CEO of a large nonprofit corporation a week ago, who was pleased to inform me that she had succeeded in getting her board to downsize itself to a governing body of, if I recall correctly, only …
Recent Comments