In his December 2, 2019 post, “Deep Connection,” blogger Seth Godin (sethgodin.com) writes that when “someone tells you what you need to hear, instead of what you’re hoping to hear, you’ve found something priceless.” Seth’s post reminded me of the
The Board-Savvy CEO: De Facto Captain of the Strategic Governing Team
Governing is a team sport if there ever was one. I’ve never in my 30-plus years of working with nonprofit organizations come across a board that has successfully – on its own – transformed itself into a really high-impact governing …
Energizer-in-Chief Redux: Stakeholder Relationship Management
“Incredible. We must be talking about 40 or more stakeholders.” This was one of the responses to the question I asked in the daylong governance work session I was facilitating, after the breakout group dealing with stakeholder relations had completed …
Crises Demand Energizers-in-Chief at All Levels
“The fog of despair hung over the land. One out of every four American workers lacked a job. Factories that had once darkened the skies with smoke stood ghostly and silent, like extinct volcanoes. In October the New York City …
Using the CEO Evaluation Process to Help Cement Your Partnership With the Board
As always, I learned as much as I taught from the economic development chief executives participating in the workshop I presented on February 10 at the Leadership Summit of the International Economic Development Council – “Cementing the Board-CEO Partnership in …
High-Level Volunteering at the Tampa Hillsborough EDC Isn’t Confined to Governing
As our readers well know, serving on a governing board is only one type of volunteering in a nonprofit organization. High-level non-governing work that requires highly knowledgeable, skilled – and often, well-connected – volunteers includes providing technical advice in program …
Beware of the Emperor’s New Clothes Syndrome
Disney’s Innovator-in-Chief Robert Iger: CEO Visionary Par Excellence
“What can I do to get my board meaningfully engaged in leading innovation and change in my organization?” I hear variations of this very important question quite often from CEOs in my one-on-one governance coaching sessions and educational workshops. There’s …
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 …
Recent Comments