The Practitioner's Guide to Governance as Leadership Building High-Performing Nonprofit Boards

by Trower, Cathy A.

• ISBN13: 9781118109878
• ISBN10: 1118109872
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-12-17
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

This book gives nonprofit board leaders a solid resource that shows how to achieve excellence and peak performance in the boardroom by fully realizing and putting into practice, tri-modal governance: proficiency in the three modes of governance (fiduciary, strategic and generative). This model was first introduced in Governance as Leadership. The author showcases the practices of high performing nonprofit boards and provide practical guidance toward optimizing those practices: flow (high skill and high purpose); discernment; deliberation; prudence; divergent thinking; insight; meaningfulness; consequence to the organization; and integrity for improved organizational performance and trustee engagement.

Author Biography

Cathy A. Trower, PhD is a senior research associate at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. She is author of the second edition of Richard Chait's book, Govern More, Manage Less. Cathy is nationally known for her expertise on board policies, leadership, structure, organizational change, best governance practices, and strategic planning. She is in high demand as a speaker, consultant, and advisor and works with nonprofit boards independently through her consulting firm, Trower and Trower, Inc.

Table of Contents

List of Exhibits

Foreword (Richard Chait)

Preface

1 What Is Governance as Leadership?

Premises

Underlying Assumptions

Governance Reform

The Three Modes or Mental Maps

Why Three Modes?

2 Getting Started and Gaining Traction with Governance as Leadership

What Is Optimized at Board Meetings?

What Is Different about Generative Governance?

Moving to Higher Purpose and Optimizing Performance: Beginning the Conversation

Moving to Higher Purpose and Optimizing Performance: Getting Started

Moving to Higher Purpose and Optimizing Performance: Getting Traction

3 Encouraging Critical Thinking in the Boardroom

Critical Thinking and Metacognition

Getting on the Balcony

Ways of Thinking

Impediments to Critical Thinking

Cognitive Biases and Board Workarounds

Social Loafing

Groupthink

Avoiding Groupthink and Its Close Cousins

4 Turning Your Board into a High-Performing Team

Social Systems

Groups and Teams

Boards as Teams

Effective Board Teams in the Context of Governance as Leadership

5 Creating a Governance-as-Leadership Culture

Culture

Three Toxic Cultures

Culture Change

Culture Conducive to Governance as Leadership

Tools to Support a “Governance as Leadership–Friendly” Culture

6 What Governance as Leadership Requires of Leaders

Adaptive and Technical Work

Adaptive Leadership

The Paradoxes of Adaptive Leaders

Boards as Viewed by Executives

The Effective CEO in General

The Effective Governance as Leadership CEO

The Effective Board Chair in General

The Effective Governance as Leadership Board Chair

The Dynamic Duo: CEO and Chair

7 Measuring and Sustaining Governance as Leadership

Measuring Board Performance

Sustaining Governance as Leadership

Epilogue

References

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Index