The Leadership Blog

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 →

This post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. Outside of the few wonkish people who really enjoy board meetings, these events aren’t usually very sexy or exciting. They’re often filled with overly detailed minutes of previous meetings, bewildering financials and verbal committee reports that drone on and on without any call for input or action. What’s a dedicated board member to do when meeting agendas and structures cool his or her passion for the work of the organization? It... Read More →

This post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. Nonprofit organizations play important roles in communities as experts in their areas of service. It is therefore problematic when nonprofit organizations shy away from advocacy and policy work. Admittedly, a nonprofit organization must be clear about what its board members and employees can and can’t do when it comes to political advocacy, but our communities miss out on vital perspectives on the issues when our nonprofit experts... Read More →

This post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. Unless its bylaws or articles prohibit or limit their use, a nonprofit board may develop committees to support its work. Committees serve various functions, from addressing complex and time-consuming issues to providing the leadership and volunteers needed to present a major event. Committees will not automatically make an inefficient or disengaged board function better, but they can help ensure that important board tasks such as... Read More →

This post first appeared in the Corridor Business Journal. One of the responsibilities of the board is evaluation of the organization’s chief executive. In most organizations, performance evaluation is done annually. Too often, however, the executive must remind the board of this responsibility; in some cases, the executive even provides the evaluation structure and process. This puts the executive in the awkward position of guiding his or her boss. The effective board embraces the... Read More →