As back-to-school anticipation permeates the August air, students of all ages gear up for another cycle of learning. Pencils, notebooks, laptops, and iPads fly off shelves and summer fades into study season. So culturally conditioned are we to schooling that those not enrolling might experience pangs of education envy.
Your chief executive is leaving. No, not hypothetically. At some point, the CEO, executive director, or maybe even founder of your organization will move on to something new. In fact, according to BoardSource, 50% of nonprofit leaders expect to leave their positions within the next five years, yet only one-third of organizations have a succession…
All heads typically turn toward executive directors when talk of “succession” reaches the board room, but they’re not the only nonprofit leaders who warrant transition attention. All of them do, in fact, yet organizations often lack preparedness for turnover at any level. Still, board of director succession planning is essential to good governance, as it…
Board meetings get all the attention, but the magic of good governance doesn’t really begin or end at the board table. Just as it’s not the pomp and circumstance of graduation that will matter most in any young adult’s life, but rather what happens before and after the actual event. The same is true regarding…
Some boards get a bad rap. Whether by staff, executive leadership, or even board leadership, they are assessed unfairly in their use of organizational information. At far ends of the continuum are two seemingly conflicting approaches: “they won’t read it,…
“Don’t worry, we’ll create an advisory board so you can stay involved,” says an incoming board chair to his predecessor. The not uncommon gesture is extended, of course, with enthusiasm, sincerity and best intentions. And the statement is posed as much as a question (to me) as a promise (to her). Then someone else on…
From scheduling events to approving consent agendas to completing board self-assessment surveys, technology makes it increasingly easier for board members to do their jobs. While access to timely information absolutely helps, it’s not everything. The key to ensuring optimal job performance by nonprofit board members is recognizing that board service is, in fact, a job.
When the executive director of a sizeable nonprofit organization mentioned his board chair had stopped speaking to him, I was speechless. For the third time in as many years, I had heard the same confession from a nonprofit executive and was reminded how personal board leadership is. And how precarious the board chair/chief executive relationship…
To pay or not to pay? That is the question…which heated up a surprisingly emphatic conversation between two longtime colleagues and consultants in nonprofit leadership. On the topic of severance pay for nonprofit executives, each of us was unwaveringly correct, confidently justified, and temporarily naïve. Now, having compared actual experiences that challenged our philosophical approaches,…
Technology changes faster than boards do. (Well, technology changes faster than most things do. And boards tend to change slowly, so it stands to reason.) But today’s boards of directors have more reason than ever to keep pace. New tools,…
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