Category: Mindset

From the Boardroom: Questions Many Boards Never Think to Ask (Part III)

Rick Maloney

In Parts I and II of this post, we considered questions rarely (maybe never) asked by Board members regarding orientation and professional development of board members, the full Board, and its Superintendent/staff. This third part will deal with questions about some strategic Board-level functions: About Planning Strategic Board Functions Strategic planning. Q#1:  Does the Board take responsibility for strategic planning? The Board is likely to answer this question in the affirmative, as this is something the Board does pay attention to, Read More …

From the Boardroom: Questions Many Boards Never Think to Ask (Part II)

Rick Maloney

From the Boardroom: Questions Many #Boards Never Think to Ask (Part II) December 16, 2017 Rick Maloney In Part I of this post, we considered some questions rarely (perhaps never) asked by Board members regarding such topics as the orientation the Board provides to its members, ongoing Board member professional development, and professional development for the Board as a body, focusing on collective behaviors that are not addressed in individual Board member professional development. Some more “never think to ask” Read More …

Board-CEO Relationship: A Three-Legged Stool

Rick Maloney

A Three-Legged Stool In any leadership situation, including the leadership role assumed by a board of directors, a conceptual trio of responsibility, authority, and accountability share an inseparable relationship. Boards of directors must understand this relationship if they are to succeed. Like the legs of a three-legged stool, they must be kept in balance, or they will not stand. Ineffective boards pay little or no attention to this essential balance. A hands-on board, for example, that refuses to delegate authority Read More …

Servant Leadership, A Dual Role for Boards

Bob Hughes

In his 1977 book Servant Leadership Robert Greenleaf tells of a journey, and a man named Leo… …who accompanies the party as the servant who does their menial chores, but who also sustains them with his spirit and his song. He is a person of extraordinary presence. All goes well until Leo disappears. Then the group falls into disarray and the journey is abandoned. They cannot make it without the servant Leo. The narrator, one of the party, after some Read More …

What’s Wrong With Boards?

Rick Maloney

What’s Wrong With (Too Many) Boards? 8 Lessons for Improving Board Performance “A [board’s] got to know [its] limitations.” – Dirty Harry Ok, so Harry wasn’t a board member. He didn’t go in for collective action – he acted alone, one man standing against ‘system’. Maybe Harry never uttered these exact words, but if he were advising a board, he might have. If a board is to govern effectively, it must understand its own limitations and develop a strategy for Read More …