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My Top Five Leadership & Governance Books of 2010

January 15, 2011 in Governance, Leadership, Organization with 0 Comments

Of all of the books I read in 2010 on Governance and Leadership, here are my top five:

The Truth about What Nonprofit Boards Want by June Bradham. The author identifies nine myths about boards and then responds with the truth. My favorite myth/truth was Myth#4: CEO and Board members are colleagues. Nothing more. Truth #4: Engaged boards have an inspired CEO who forms a partnership with board members and demonstrates a passion for the mission while keeping ego in check.
Clear Leadership: Sustaining real collaboration and partnership at work by Gervase Bushe. There were two concepts in the book that helped me develop additional insight — the interpersonal mush that occurs in organizations and how leaders can use the skills of clear leadership to develop clarity; and the nature of successful partnerships in organizations.
Artistry Unleashed: A guide to pursuing great performance in work and life by Hilary Austen. The author builds on the Knowledge System developed by Roger Martin and develops the parameters of qualitative intelligence (QI). She demonstrates how qualitative intelligence will help leaders address those enigmatic organizational problems that defy quantitative solutions.
The Practice of Adaptive Leadership by Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, Marty Linsky. I found this book to be very helpful in addressing difficult problems in organizations. While we know how to resolve technical problems, adaptive problems can be challenging because they require changes in the way people think and organizations act. The authors offer new insight on how to successfully manage those adaptive challenges.
Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk. This little book introduced me to the role of social media and its impact on business. The author reminded me of the power of passion and commitment as we continue to re-think and re-frame how we will do business in the future.

Dan C Johnson — World Class Leader and Mentor

January 7, 2011 in Leadership, Mission with 0 Comments

Dan was my first boss as a newly minted college graduate. He invited me to work with him in a nonprofit organization that he and a group of friends started several years earlier. Dan was the Executive Director of Society’s Assets, Inc. While I only worked with Dan for two years, his influence made a life long impact. Thirty years later I can attribute what I learned during those two years as key influences in how I serve as a CEO in a nonprofit organization. Now that is what I call being an effective mentor!

Here are some of things I learned from Dan:

Lead from the heart — be passionate about the mission
Lead by example – role model the mission
Be persistent/patient — change happens, sometimes it takes time
Be creative — sometimes you just have to come through the kitchen
Be consistent — your approach matters
Be kind — in fact, be kinder than necessary
Be generous – include people in your life
Be optimistic — how difficult can things be anyway?

Of all the things I learned from Dan during that time, the most important was a his view of people….especially children and adults with disabilities. He was one of the pioneers in the development of the Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement for people with disabilities in the 1970′s. Even though he faced tremendous personal challenges having incurred a spinal cord injury at the age of 14, his optimistic and positive worldview enabled him to make a difference in the lives of thousands of people.

Today, Dan serves as the State of Wisconsin as the Physical Disabilities Coordinator providing oversight of eight independent living centers.

Thanks for everything Dan. You are a World Class Mentor!

The Polarity of Mission and Performance in Nonprofit Organizations

October 26, 2010 in Leadership, Mission, Nonprofit Board of Directors with 0 Comments

The core question that faces the leaders of all nonprofit organizations is this:

What is more important — Mission or Performance?

This seems like a simple question. However, when you begin to seek the answer, you realize that this is a complex question. No matter choice you pick — mission or performance — you realize that you cannot have one without the other.

The tension is present because this either/or question is really a polarity or a paradox. As such, the answer to the question does not lead to a solution. The question as it is currently worded cannot be solved.

Some leaders have approached this question by suggesting that both mission and performance are important, but one is more important than the other. A widely known example of this is expressed in the following statement: No money no mission. Another longer example; We’re not in the business to make money, but we need to make money to stay in business.

The better way to approach this issue is to replace the either/or character of the question with and. Rather than trying to choose what is more important, leaders need to recognize that both mission and performance are important.

Leaders should instead be concerned with how the challenges of mission and performance are balanced and aligned with each other. You need a strong mission and strong performance for an nonprofit organization to be healthy and sustainable.

Nonprofit Board of Directors & Organizational Reality

October 11, 2010 in Leadership, Mission, Nonprofit Board of Directors, Strategy with 0 Comments

It is the responsibility of the leader to define reality.

— Max De Pree

When I first came across this statement in Max De Pree’s book Leadership as an Art, I thought he was speaking to the CEO and reminding him or her that to lead is think about the future of the organization. In fact, much of the literature on leadership today points to the importance of the leader, the CEO, being inspirational and rallying the troops to achieve his or her vision for the company.

Recently, however, I was reminded that it is the chief responsibility of the board of directors to define reality. The board of directors, as the trustees and stewards of the organization must be looking to the future. The Board must ensure that the organization knows the reality of its situation and that it is guided and informed by a shared sense of what is true. That shared sense of organizational truth is speaks about reality today and in the future. The board of directors expresses this organizational truth in three key statements:

The mission statement is the board’s description of the current reality of the organization. The board has the responsibility to ensure the mission statement continues to reflect the organization’s essential purpose in the community.
The vision statement describes the board’s view of the organization’s future reality. The vision is a shared expression of what the board believes to be true for the organization in three to five years.
The strategic plan is a statement of organizational priorities and strategies that the board believes are necessary to make the future reality true. The strategic plan is the road map that guides the collective work of the board and the chief executive as they seek to achieve the vision and the mission.

It is the responsibility of the Board of Directors to regularly review and update these three statements of organizational truth to ensure that the organization continues to define its reality.

Leading nonprofits into the future: An interview

October 6, 2010 in Governance, Leadership, Nonprofit Board of Directors, Organization with 0 Comments

Jeff Hannah of Touchstone Executive Development interviewed me on his internet radio/video show called Leadership Cocktail. Over the course of the hour we explored topics in nonprofit leadership, the evolving role of the board of directors, creating a partnership between the board and the CEO, and developing the next generation of leaders. If you want to listen to the conversation you can check here.

The Board Chair as the Leader of the Nonprofit Board of Directors

July 5, 2010 in Governance, Leadership with 0 Comments

The Board Chair is the leader of the Nonprofit Board of Directors.

In a Nonprofit Board Forum discussion on LinkedIn, the above statement was more of a question than a description of best practice in governance. The discussion reflected the ambivalence in the nonprofit sector on the role of the board chair beyond being a facilitator of meetings. Many of the participants recognized that if you have a weak board chair and a strong chief executive you may create a rubber stamp board. On the other hand, a strong board chair might negatively affect the collective nature of the board where all members are leaders.

In the middle of the discussion Nathan Garber had this to say:

For boards to be effective, someone must be charged with the responsibility for ensuring that the board is able to do whatever work is necessary for the organization to fulfill its mission and achieve its vision. Most organizations expect this person to be the chair of the board but this is never made clear in the chair’s job description, policies or bylaws. As a result, many board chairs think their job is simply to chair meetings. They don’t know that good governance requires good leadership just as the CEO must provide good leadership for the organization’s programs and services to be effective. Too often, it falls to the CEO to provide leadership to the board, a role that inevitably leads to board members feeling accountable to the CEO and ultimately to deeper problems of accountability and authority.

Mike Burns, in a recent post on his blog Nonprofit Board Crisis, stated it much more directly:

…I believe that the nonprofit board chair is THE most important person in a nonprofit organization. Let me say this again… I believe that the nonprofit board chair is THE most important person in a nonprofit organization. Why? The Chair is responsible for keeping the board members together, making sure the board is results-focused….

Comments by Nathan and Mike help us move from a question: Is the board chair the leader of the board? to a statement: The board chair is the leader of the board!

In the Board Source publication titled The Board Chair Handbook, author Mindy Wertheimer described the role of the Board Chair:

as the senior volunteer leader of the organization
is responsible for leading the board in the responsibilities that are critical to good governance
empowers the board to move forward and build organizational capacity
cultivates a working partnership with the chief executive

We, as governance and organizational development practitioners, have the opportunity to significantly improve boards of directors by clarifying and enabling the board chair as the leader of the Board. According to Alice Korngold, a Fast Company blogger, building a better board is all about the board chair.

Let’s move from ambivalence to confidence. Let’s commit to putting the following governance partnership premises into action:

Every nonprofit organization has two key leaders
The board chair is a volunteer and is the elected leader of the board of directors
The chief executive is employed by the board of directors to be the leader of the organization
The board chair and the chief executive must work in partnership to lead the entire organization

Governance Partnership & ChildServe

June 29, 2010 in Governance, Leadership with 0 Comments

The Des Moines Register published a great article on ChildServe and the relationship between the Board of Directors and the Chief Executive in the Sunday Des Moines Register (6/27/10). Lynn Hicks, the Executive Business Editor and author of the article entitled Partnership produces Superpower, did a great job of pointing out how this governance partnership enabled ChildServe to expand its mission to serve children with special health care needs and engage the staff by translating the mission and values into reality.

The fact that was a great article is not just my opinion… even though the article was about my role as the CEO of ChildServe. Numerous board members, staff, supporters and friends of ChildServe have contacted me via email, written notes, telephone calls and comments in the hallways expressing how great the article was and what a wonderful job Lynn Hicks did in talking about ChildServe. I trust their opinions…they have all been part of the team of people who have the growth and development of ChildServe possible.

I encourage you to check out the online version of the article by clicking here. If you get a chance, let me know what you think about the article.

The Four Dimensions of a Governance Partnership Relationship

June 15, 2010 in Architecture, Governance, Leadership with 1 Comment

The relationship between the chair of the nonprofit board of directors and the chief executive of the organization is, according to the theory on governance partnership, foundational to the new leadership model for nonprofit organizations.

The new leadership model for nonprofit organizations, according to the theory of governance partnership, is based on the following premises about the board chair and the chief executive:

Every nonprofit organization has two key leaders.
The board chair is a volunteer and is the elected leader of the board of directors.
The chief executive is employed by the board of directors to be the leader of the organization.
The board chair and the chief executive must work in partnership to lead the entire organization.

If the board chair and the chief executive want to develop an effective governance partnership, they must address the following dimensions of the governance partnership relationship:

The Structure of the Relationship. The roles and responsibilities of the board chair and chief executive describe the structure of the relationship. If job descriptions are not in place for one or both of these leadership positions, the board chair and the chief executive must begin the process of establishing a clear and a mutual understanding of their respective roles and responsibilities. If the structure of the relationship lacks clarity, the relationship will not develop into an effective partnership.
The Culture of the Relationship: The relationship between board chair and the chief executive must be based on mutual respect for each other and the organization. A commitment to mutuality creates a culture that enables the relationship to develop into an effective partnership. A culture committed to mutuality builds trust which leads to increased levels of openness and transparency between the board chair and the chief executive. The development of trust between the board chair and the chief executive fuels the expansion of organizational trust which can have a dramatic impact on the culture of the board and the organization.
The Process of the Relationship: There are a number of processes in the governance partnership relationship that must be managed. The processes include: the patterns of communication and interaction, decision-making and consensus building, and conflict management and resolution. It is the responsibility of the Chief Executive to ensure that these processes meet the needs of the partnership. In many regards it is the chief executive’s responsibility to nurture, encourage and equip the relationship to become a governance partnership. The chief executive must be a faithful presence.
The Outcome of the Relationship: The outcome of an effective governance partnership, according to the theory of governance partnership, impacts the culture of the board and the organization. It creates an alignment between the work of the board and the organization enabling the organization to achieve shared mission outcomes and improve organizational performance.

An effective governance partnership relationship between the board chair and the chief executive will enable the nonprofit organization to significantly improve its mission impact and organizational performance. The theory of governance partnership is a new leadership model for nonprofit organizations!

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