by Tom Okarma | Feb 13, 2014 | Board Development, Leadership
I love the desert, not just because that is where spring training of my beloved losers-The Chicago Cubs- practice but because of its unique vegetation. Cacti come in many different styles. Some say there are over 2,000 species of these complex living creations. One...
by Tom Okarma | Jan 28, 2014 | Blog, Leadership
Leading a nonprofit is not easy. There are many interests to balance, many balls to juggle, many personalities to assuage, many clients to serve. It’s been likened to herding carts. So, in order to do the very best job you and your agency can do, you need...
by Tom Okarma | Jan 3, 2014 | Blog, Leadership
One of a leader’s primary duties is to grow and develop others. Just recently I began wrestling with a related question posed by a long-time friend of mine-Dave-who is in ministry.…Am I a leader worth reproducing? How about you? Are you a (fill in the blank) board...
by Tom Okarma | Dec 31, 2013 | Blog, Leadership
Here are a few ideas to help ministry and nonprofit leaders work more closely (and pleasurably) with their boards. Who knows, maybe everyone will actually start enjoying board meetings! Reconnect regularly with each director, one-to-one if possible, to tap into their...
by Tom Okarma | Dec 2, 2013 | Board Development, Governance, Leadership
There must have been a full moon out recently. I had back-to-back meetings two weeks ago with two different nonprofits and thoughtI had entered the Twilight Zone. At my first meeting, members of a nonprofit board were complaining about their CEO’s not doing what...
by Tom Okarma | Nov 18, 2013 | Blog, Leadership, Strategic Planning
Vijay Govindarajan is one smart cookie. He is the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Economics at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. I was fortunate to participate in a retreat he lead for our company when I was in the business world a while...
