I’m pretty much always thinking about governance. That thing that boards do.
Board = collective. Board member = individual. These 2 terms are NOT NOT not NOT never interchangeable.
And here’s what Colleen, SMUMN Cohort 28 wrote in summer 2019….governance….management….
“The thing that struck me most about my time spent [in the governance course at SMUMN] thinking, reading and acting out all things governance, was the balance of giving the best of me and willingly receiving the best of others. I wrote about it a little in my final project: how people come together to lead.
“I view leadership of a nonprofit as a separation of powers, not too dissimilar to our American governmental system in theory. I like the idea that people can come together, challenge and be challenged so that the result is the strengthening of an organization. I walk away with a much better sense of the importance of a strong CEO and how that person interacts with the governing board. Really, I have a greater intellectual respect for staff I think. In the back of my mind, I think I gave boards too much responsibility. I thought they needed to have all the answers, Not so.”
So how’s your governance going? And your management?
