Learning to Lead for Impact
leadership insight from Tom Okarma
the latest and greatest…
Board of Director’s Role: What Exactly Should Your Board Be Doing?
Do you know the Board of Director's Role for Your Nonprofit? The board of director's role in an organization can make or break it. Individual directors (and boards as a whole), play key roles in...
What Will 2017 Hold for Your Nonprofit?
A New Year, New Leadership, a New Nonprofit Landscape... Change is in the air, no doubt about it. Many nonprofit leaders and boards are concerned right now as they try to figure out what their new...
7 Ways to Engage Millennials in Your Nonprofit
Everywhere I go, I hear nonprofit leaders and board members talk about the same challenge -- Millennials. How do you attract, engage, and leverage this group of individuals in their organization....
12 Biggest Board Meeting Myths – Exposed
How to Make Your Board Meetings... BETTER. Sometimes, being a leader feels like you are out in front of a marching band, with everyone smiling and marching closely behind you, in lock step to your...
Is Your Board a Little Too Close for Comfort?
Most nonprofit board of directors fall into two categories — Governance boards and Working boards. Both have important responsibilities. Either can be necessary at times. They can each can be the...
Is Your Board Going Bad? 8 Things You Need to Know…
You're likely a nonprofit leader, an executive director, maybe a board chair. At minimum, you're probably on the board. You've helped to lead your agency for a long time and things have gone well,...
leadership
What Should You Do With New Board Members?
How to get the most out of your non profit board of directors. Now that the new year has begun, the makeup of many non profit board of directors may look quite a bit different from last year. Yours is probably no exception. Some experienced and high value board...
How to Fill Empty Nonprofit Board Seats
This is the third and final chapter in a recent series about removing nonprofit board members who no longer fit the future needs of the organization. The first two articles offered suggestions on how to remove board members — How to Deal with Difficult Board Members,...
When Should You Let a Good Board Member Go?
10 Steps to Follow to Make Your Nonprofit Board Better Last week we discussed how to deal with a previously high-value nonprofit board member who has become difficult, argumentative, and even divisive over time. We reviewed approaches you might take to address the...
How to Deal With Difficult Board Members
What do you do when a good board member goes bad? One of the most important roles you have, as part of a board of directors, or as the executive director of a nonprofit, is to help identify and “vet” new board candidates. You use comprehensive checklists, you...
5 Questions Every Nonprofit Leader Should Ask
How to change your thinking to make 2016 your best year yet. We're quickly coming up on the end of 2015, and it's time to start thinking about the new year. How can you help your nonprofit board and leadership team ignite its entrepreneurial spirit and begin the new...
How to Extend the Reach of Every Volunteer
14 Ways To Create a Volunteer Program Built for Impact Are you using volunteers to extend the reach and capabilities of your team? No doubt about it, volunteering is on the rise, or at least, the desire to volunteer is. According to LinkedIn, more than 4 million...
board development
When a Board Falls Short of Expectations
There must be something in the water around here. I've had coffee with four separate nonprofit executive directors over the last 45 days, each one with the same problem--actually two problems. Their first problem is each ED believes their board is not providing the...
Got Alignment?
If you stop to think about it, leaders can significantly increase the impact of their nonprofit agencies without spending an extra dime. Say what? Let's say your agency has: Experienced leadership-CHECK! A clear and compelling strategic plan-CHECK! The respect and...
Quick-Start Your Board in 2013: Here’s How!
Now that the holidays are behind us and baseball’s spring training has begun, it’s time to insure the board is fully engaged in its work. For some, that means reconvening the current board. For others, it means welcoming several new board members to their first...
Show Up–Step Up–Speak Up!
My golfing buddy Brian tells me professional golfers have just three rules for their caddies: show up, keep up, shut up. Golf pros usually aren't looking for advise unless they specifically ask for it. They only want their caddy to be there when required and do their...
A Bad Idea that Won’t Go Away
Board Chairs, Directors, and Executive Directors: Heads Up! I am pretty familiar with a substantial nonprofit that I think is making a big mistake. I see this happening from time to time in both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. And the results of their doing...
Retaining High Capacity Directors
Paraphrasing an old joke- QUESTION: Know how to get a few good directors" ANSWER: Start with a lot of good directors. A couple of nonprofit boards I am somewhat familiar with are in the process of losing some good directors by their own personal choice, not due to...
strategic planning
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
everything…
Why Your Nonprofit Board May be a Huge Disappointment
After leading a comprehensive process to identify and recruit new board members you found your best candidates and they agreed to join your board. You looked forward to working with them and six months ago you could not have been more excited as they were installed on...
Why I Believe Leading a Nonprofit is Harder than Leading a Business!
When I became involved with nonprofits—starting with volunteering, then board service, and finally board chair—I thought it would be an easy transition from my previous business leadership roles. I have been a small business owner and the president and CEO of an...
3 Reasons Your Nonprofit Board is Having Problems: How to Overcome 3 ICK FACTORS of Board Leadership
There are several reasons why certain nonprofit boards struggle and I believe the top three reasons override almost everything else. Fix these three problems and you will see your board soar to new levels of impact and success. ICK FACTOR 1: POOR BOARD CANDIDATE...
How to Get Your Nonprofit Off to a Good Start in 2015
The holidays will soon be behind us and after this long, wonderful break we all are currently enjoying, it will soon be time to get to work on the goals you recently set for 2015. It’s also time to re-energize your board to ensure it is ready to fully engage in its...
Break Through the Ick Factors of Nonprofit Leadership
Welcome to my new website. It was built with the nonprofit leader--both executive director and board member--in mind. My purpose is to provide you with the latest information on critical issues nonprofits face and offer solutions to the problems you as a leader face...
Means and Ends: Who does What
One of the major causes of friction in the area of nonprofit leadership and poor nonprofit board performance, and a big reason why boards and CEO's may part ways, is poor boundary setting between the board and the CEO. For most agencies, everyone understands each...
Who Owns Your Nonprofit Agency?
The board of directors has a weighty responsibility-to convert the vision of an owner into a viable organization and to keep it in alignment with that vision. Its job is to take the owner’s concept, create it and watch over it once built. In this process, the board’s job is to accurately reflect the owner’s vision and values. For this reason, I think my question raises serious issues, especially if you haven’t thought about it previously…so, who owns your nonprofit?
Bully Boards-Here’s One Way To Avoid Them
Every so often, I hear about tough, demanding boards but nothing like a board I recently “met” through a friend who also serves as the CEO of a separate, very successful, well-mannered nonprofit agency. My friend told me about the rude, abrasive, unruly practices a different board had, including a confrontational, in-your-face, no-fun board style. My friend asked, “How do I keep my board from becoming like this one?
25 Ways Your Board May be Failing
Do many of these sound familiar? If so, it’s time to do something. Let me know what else you might add to this list. No strategic plan in place Poor alignment between goals and:resources, staffing, structure, budget, decision-making Infrequently monitoring financial...