Board Roles and Responsibilities
Tom Suddes | May 4, 2007
I just gave two sessions on COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP at the Franklin University Symposium on Leadership.
Almost every ‘COMMUNITY LEADER’ I know is engaged on some BOARD for their church, school, United Way, social service agency, whatever.
Special Note: I led off my session on COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP by simply writing this on a flip chart:
BOARD RESPONSIBILITY (read more PDF)
- THINK… and GROW RICH
- FOCUS… at APPROPRIATE ALTITUDE
- COUNSEL… based on EXPERIENCE/EXPERTISE
- Be a CHAMPION… for the CAUSE and for the CASE.
- INVITE others… to get INVOLVED & ENGAGED.
- Make a COMMENSURATE COMMITMENT…
to help FUND THE VISION.
| 30,000′ | THE WHY (Think View from an Airplane) |
VISION |
| 14,000′ | THE WHAT (Think Top of the Mountain) |
STRATEGY |
| 33′ | THE HOW (Think Nap of the Earth) |
EXECUTION |
I am always AMAZED… STUNNED… OVERWHELMED… that there does not seem to be a SINGLE ‘NOT FOR PROFIT‘ that has figured out the ROLE and RESPONSIBILITY of the BOARD!!!
I have done a considerable amount of work with colleges, large national associations, almost every Catholic secondary school in America (at least that’s what it seems like), the leaders and national models in cancer research, international education, homelessness, healthcare, museums and much more.
Every single one of these groups… along with pretty much every organization who has attended our workshops or training camps… has a HUGE PROBLEM with this whole BOARD ROLE & RESPONSIBILITY.
ACTION:
You can share this WOW E-Mail with your team, board members and other community leaders.
I’ve also provided stand-alone one-pagers to go deeper on each of these.
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Katie - May 29th, 2008 10:04 am
Tom,
I saw this post on Perspectives from The Pipeline (http://fromthepipeline.blogspot.com/2008/05/saying-no-is-hard-to-do.html) that reminded me of a story you tell at training camp regarding being ‘on the board’ vs. ‘on board’.
I’ve heard you tell stories of great prospects turning down offers to be on the board because they’re too darn busy already, and how they don’t have to be on ‘the’ board to be ‘on board’ with your cause and case. They can still be a great champion for your organization without being on the board.
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