Shared Leadership Thought-Starters

In his book “Better Together,” John Fulwider points out the following:

“Nonprofits promote human thriving outside their doors. But the very human leaders within them too often fail to thrive. They barely survive.”

Ponder that for a moment…does it feel ok?

While there are many forces and systems that “make it tough,” there is one area we have total control over that may be the greatest antidote to barely surviving…

Relationships!

Take a moment and reflect on a great relationship you have had (either personal or professional – although they are really personal…)

Think of how you felt when interacting with that person…

Think of what you were able to do as a result of having that person at your side…

Great relationships help us thrive!

Now consider, what conditions made that relationship possible? What allows you to engage and support another and allows them to engage and support you?

These are conditions we can create and we can actively create them between Board Chairs and CEOs.
 
According to Joan Garry, nonprofit blogger and coach, relationships not only benefit the people involved, but also ripple throughout the organization. She believes ”the single best sign of a healthy nonprofit is a strong relationship between the Board Chair and the CEO” – and she is not alone in this sentiment – just google “nonprofit Board Chair-CEO relationship”

What can these relationships make possible?
  • Imagine boards members excitedly rushing out of work to ensure they get to the board meeting on time, with that giddy smile and bounce that we get when we are seeing old friends

  • Imagine the board chair role opening up and several members anxiously offering themselves up for a stint of getting a chance to “have whatever she was having,” referring to the energy and excitement of the outgoing chair

  • Imagine feeling that perky tingle and goosebumps on the skin when the caller ID says “Board Chair”

  • Imagine being a board chair and feeling like you made a difference today, if for no one else, at least the person that makes the day-to-day awesomeness happen

  • Imagine being the CEO and feeling you have a trusted thought partner to turn to who knows you, the organization, and the community

  • Imagine what having all of the above can make possible when working to change the world

If your imagination has played along, you are stepping into the world of what is possible when you focus on creating a relationship within which people thrive in who they are and what they can achieve. A relationship where leaders don’t feel alone.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Start Asking How Your Board Can Be an Asset

"Houston, we have a problem"   While this may never have actually been said on the Apollo 13 mission, it holds a great deal of meaning in our society. It is our shorthand for expressing that things are not going as we had planned, and, in fact, our situation is dire and potentially life threatening. So, here is a statistic from BoardSource's 'Leading with Intent' research - 2021 * Only 31% of nonprofit CEOs report that their boards have a very positive impact on their organization's overall performance (Pause and re-read that) While that sinks in, let me introduce another concept: asset . Usually, we think of an asset as something of financial value. However, in our world of community benefit, we rightfully consider assets as 'anything valuable or useful' (thank you Collins English Dictionary). Specifically, assets are things that positively contribute to our ability to advance community benefit (aka achieve our mission outcomes). This lens helps cla
Read more

Beyond the Sound Bite: Being Your Visions, Outcomes, and Values

Image
Many organizations go through the process of articulating visions, values, and desired community impact/benefit. It is most often part of a strategic planning process, but also can come up when organizational leadership feels the organization is off track or struggling to be relevant in a changing world. Independent of the reason for changing or refining the vision, values, and benefit of an organization, doing so is a significant step in the development and evolution of the organization. Making the change indicates that there is a desire to be different from what we are and have been in the past. It is, at its core, a change in the identity of the organization. People are choosing to define the organization with different words, different beliefs, different desired outcomes, and potentially different approaches. THIS IS BIG! Change is not an easy thing, precisely because it requires us to do things differently than we have done them in the past. Changing identity may be the most chall
Read more

We Need to STOP Undervaluing Our Values: A Call to Board Action on Values and Culture Integrity

Quick question (really a series of questions because you all know by now that, I never stop at one...) How regularly does your board evaluate the financial position of the organization? How regularly does your board evaluate the community outcomes and impact of the organization? How regularly does your board assess the organization's progress against a strategic plan? How regularly does the board assess organizational culture and behavioral alignment with values? Notice anything about the answers... In my experience, the answers to the first question are usually in line with 'every time the board meets' and then the frequency progressively decreases as you step down through each question - often landing on 'not regularly' or 'never' as the honest answer to the last question. This tells us something about what we are led to believe we are supposed to do as board members and what it is that we actually value. If we are not regularly assessing something, that g
Read more