Board Capacity Building
Overcoming the Inevitable Resistance to Change: the IEDC Story
“But we’ve always put our annual budget together in the board’s finance committee, and it’s worked well. Why in heaven’s name would we want to fold budgeting into the strategic and operational planning committee you’ve recommended?” This was only one …
What Makes Women Such Effective Board Members
“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 and women …
Creating Board Development Champions
It’s a fact of nonprofit organizational life that many, if not most, board members are not passionately committed to developing the capacity of their board to govern. In my experience, sad to say, many are not even particularly interested in …
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 …
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