The Leadership Blog

The post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. As appealing as it is to think that there are hard and fast rules, the line between nonprofit governance and management is not fixed. Beyond the board of directors’ legal requirements and responsibilities, the roles of the board and staff often vary with the organization’s life stage and the conditions within the organization at a given time. At one time or another, most boards have struggled with disagreements among members about... Read More →

This post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. I’m not going to suggest that your board should resolve to eat healthier, exercise more or cut back on its drinking this year, although all are laudable goals. I am going to suggest, however, that your organization tap into January’s zeitgeist and develop some plans to increase its board’s effectiveness and engagement in 2015. Here are three suggestions to make that happen. Resolve to provide board members with the tools they need... Read More →

This post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. We’d never expect our public works departments to routinely repair our streets using shovels and wheelbarrows or our businesses to use manual credit card machines and typewriters to process customer payments. Yet, in many ways (although maybe not to these extremes), we expect our non-profit organizations to do their work with similarly outmoded technology and equipment. Investment in organizational infrastructure — technology and... Read More →

This post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. The themes of planning and change are frequent topics at this time of year. Whether it’s the start of your organization’s fiscal year or not, these early days of January are a great time for reviewing the past year, developing plans and doing a little housekeeping to lay the groundwork for success in the calendar year ahead. Planning Planning is one of the functional responsibilities of a board, but many boards struggle to make this... Read More →

This post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. Running and managing a nonprofit is a challenging proposition because it’s a business model reliant, to a greater or lesser degree, upon human generosity. And there’s no time of year when this is more apparent than it is now. Our mailboxes, real and virtual, fill up with donation appeals. In many cases, the organizations and their appeals blend together with the other markers of December — like snow, sales flyers and reruns of “A... Read More →

This post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. I’m a proud native Iowan. I appreciate our state’s topography, our first-in-the-nation caucus status and the friendliness with which we generally treat one another. However, our natural politeness and discomfort with conflict or uncomfortable situations often limit our ability to have difficult conversations with other board members. Constructive conflict can promote new ideas, spur innovative solutions and motivate members to... Read More →

This post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. This is the time of year when many nonprofit boards develop their annual budgets. Managing an organization’s financial resources is a fundamental board responsibility and creating a budget is a part of this work. Unfortunately, many boards spend little time on this task, often relegating the bulk of the work to the finance committee or to staff. This approach can create a disconnect in board members’ minds between the budget and the... Read More →

This post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. Nonprofit organizations often struggle with meeting attendance, complaints about the length of board meetings and dysfunctional member behavior and participation during meetings. And yet, much of the work of the nonprofit board occurs in its meetings. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that meetings make good use of the time and skills of the board members to ensure that the organization is getting its work done. An effective... Read More →

This post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. High-functioning organizations have strong co-leadership between the executive director who oversees the management of the organization and the board of directors, which oversees the direction and vision of the organization. An effective board chair often makes the difference between a board that exercises strong co-leadership and one that cedes much of its power to its executive director. Probably the most obvious role of the board... Read More →