Learning to Lead for Impact
leadership insight from Tom Okarma
the latest and greatest…
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
leadership
A Full 180 Degree Turn
It won't come as a shock to many of you that I am a big sports fan. Always have been, always will be. For the record, I pull for any team with "Chicago" on its jersey--even soccer-tho I have no idea why people like that sport. And yet, while I follow each team, I...
Transform Your Nonprofit Board-Part-3 of 3
We are in a discussion of how to improve your nonprofit board's impact and execution through four transformational practices. So far, we've discussed: Consistency: how a Board Policy Manual, a strategic plan, and thoughtful board make-up can build in process, focus...
Transform Your Nonprofit Board-Pt. 2
Last time, I identified four keys to transforming your board through authentic leadership. They are: Consistency, communication, execution, and accountability. I discussed consistency last week. This week, I'll cover communication and execution. Keys to Communication:...
Transform Your Nonprofit Board–Pt. 1
Some might think it is easy for ministry boards to provide authentic leadership to their organizations. Consider: we all work for the same owner -- God, we all share the same ultimate purpose -- building God’s Kingdom here on earth for all eternity, and we all operate...
Who fixes a Weak Board?
Who's responsibility is it to fix a weak nonprofit board that no longer adds value, when the organization's needs exceed what the current board can provide? Who's job is it to be sure the organization has the right board composition to take the organization to the...
Authentic Board Service is Messy
Board candidates and directors want to serve on boards that make an impact but not all of them are willing to pay the price to either exercise, or follow, authentic leadership to do so. And, unless you provide challenging and meaningful board experiences to your...
board development
Mission, Vision, Values
Having a clear mission, vision, and values (MVV) statement, one the entire leadership team helped create, fully understands, and commits to follow, is a terrific tool. It not only provides a motivational and rallying point for employees and volunteers, it also...
Financial Management
One thing about a nonprofit’s financials is that revenue projections can be a bit “iffy”, while projected expenses always seem to roll in just as planned. Aggressive revenue projections are not necessarily bad, but unless someone owns the fund raising function-and...
360° Reviews
Have you ever considered conducting a 360° review on yourself? Do you know what they are? I was somewhat reluctant to go through one, but wow, what a useful experience! I wish I had done it earlier in my leadership career. A 360° review provides you (and you alone)...
strategic planning
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everything…
Your New Best Friend-Governance
It seems to me almost all nonprofits whether faith-based or secular think if they can just hammer out a good Mission/Purpose Statement (What It Does), Vision Statement (What It Will Become), and Values Statement (What It Believes), then they have pretty much got...
7 Keys to the Right Kind of Board-Part 2
Last week I introduced this discussion about my friend having the right kind of board serving her organization. Briefly, I told her it depended on where her organization was in its life cycle and what it needs to succeed. Today, in part two I share more of my...
7 Keys to the Right Kind of Board-Part 1
I was recently asked by a friend of mine about the difference between an organization having a board of directors versus a board of trustees. He is trying to determine which model best helps him grow and refocus his small but successful organization. He wants to grow...
Shaping the Organization’s Future
Have you ever had to rebuild a department, ministry, or an entire organization or church? Did you wrestle with how much to structure the process versus letting others handle it? We did. One of our departments had gone through a tough period. An ego-driven leader had...
Thinking Small
Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to an organization is growth. Now, growth can be a good thing-in fact a very good thing- when your talking about professionalism, donor contribution levels, bank balances, staff development, and more. But if you lead a...
Why Most Small Organizations Fail
I recently reread an excellent book written in 1995 and was struck by the timelessness of its subject matter. And, with the holidays approaching I thought it would serve as a terrific gift for someone you know who leads an organization: any size, any type, nonprofit,...
One Hour Plan for Growth
No one can deny that planning is critical to success. While I personally thrive in an organizational culture of creativity and entrepreneurial thinking, eventually, if you want to get things done, you have to have a written plan. Still, planning can be very tedious...
Failing Boards-Part 2
Following up on my recent post about how boards fail, here are more thoughts on how boards can fall short of their responsibilities. Again, let me have your thoughts on these... Allowing personal agendas to trump focusing solely on the clients being served Not...
Why Boards Fail-Practices That Failing Boards Do Very Well
With a tip of the hat to a certain late night TV talk-show host, I have been thinking about what makes a board “good” or “bad” and have come up with a top twenty list that covers a lot of ground. I originally titled this article “Top Five”…then Top Ten…but had to go...