Startup Boards
Startup Boards

Author: Brad Feld

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-12-09

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1118516826

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An essential guide to understanding the dynamics of a startup's board of directors Let's face it, as founders and entrepreneurs, you have a lot on your plate—getting to your minimum viable product, developing customer interaction, hiring team members, and managing the accounts/books. Sooner or later, you have a board of directors, three to five (or even seven) Type A personalities who seek your attention and at times will tell you what to do. While you might be hesitant to form a board, establishing an objective outside group is essential for startups, especially to keep you on track, call you out when you flail, and in some cases, save you from yourself. In Startup Boards, Brad Feld—a Boulder, Colorado-based entrepreneur turned-venture capitalist—shares his experience in this area by talking about the importance of having the right board members on your team and how to manage them well. Along the way, he shares valuable insights on various aspects of the board, including how they can support you, help you understand your startup's milestones and get to them faster, and hold you accountable. Details the process of choosing board members, including interviewing many people, checking references, and remembering that there should be no fear in rejecting a wrong fit Explores the importance of running great meetings, mixing social time with business time, and much more Recommends being a board member yourself at some other organization so you see the other side of the equation Engaging and informative, Startup Boards is a practical guide to one of the most important pieces of the startup puzzle.

How Not to Be a Terrible School Board Member
How Not to Be a Terrible School Board Member

Author: Richard E. Mayer

Publisher: Corwin Press

Published: 2011-07-19

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 1412997933

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Veteran school board member Richard E. Mayer's humorous approach to administrator-board relations presents negative behavior scenarios and analyses, offers alternatives, and provides win-win solutions.

Joan Garry's Guide to Nonprofit Leadership
Joan Garry's Guide to Nonprofit Leadership

Author: Joan Garry

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2017-03-06

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1119293065

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Nonprofit leadership is messy Nonprofits leaders are optimistic by nature. They believe with time, energy, smarts, strategy and sheer will, they can change the world. But as staff or board leader, you know nonprofits present unique challenges. Too many cooks, not enough money, an abundance of passion. It’s enough to make you feel overwhelmed and alone. The people you help need you to be successful. But there are so many obstacles: a micromanaging board that doesn’t understand its true role; insufficient fundraising and donors who make unreasonable demands; unclear and inconsistent messaging and marketing; a leader who’s a star in her sector but a difficult boss… And yet, many nonprofits do thrive. Joan Garry’s Guide to Nonprofit Leadership will show you how to do just that. Funny, honest, intensely actionable, and based on her decades of experience, this is the book Joan Garry wishes she had when she led GLAAD out of a financial crisis in 1997. Joan will teach you how to: Build a powerhouse board Create an impressive and sustainable fundraising program Become seen as a ‘workplace of choice’ Be a compelling public face of your nonprofit This book will renew your passion for your mission and organization, and help you make a bigger difference in the world.

The Essential School Board Book
The Essential School Board Book

Author: Nancy Walser

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13:

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The Essential School Board Book highlights effective practices that are common to high-functioning boards around the country--boards that are working successfully with their superintendents and communities to improve teaching and learning.

High Performance Boards
High Performance Boards

Author: Didier Cossin

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2020-06-22

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 1119615658

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A comprehensive guide to transforming boards and achieving best-practice governance in any organisation. When practising good governance, the board is the vital driver of organizational success, while fostering positive social impact and economic value creation. At all levels, executives around the world are faced with complexities rising from disruptive business models, new technologies, socio-economic changes, shifting political circumstances, and an array of other sources. High Performance Boards is the comprehensive manual for attaining best-in-class governance, offering pragmatic guidance on improving board quality, accountability, and performance. This authoritative volume identifies the four dimensions, or pillars, which are crucial for establishing and maintaining best-practice boards: the people involved, the information architecture, the structures and processes, and the group dynamics and culture of governance. This methodology can be applied to any board in the world, corporate or non-profit organization, regardless of size, sector, industry, or context. Readers are introduced to a fictitious senior board member – an amalgamation of board members from well-known organisations – and follow her as she successfully handles real-life challenges with effective governance. Drawn from the author's 20 years of practice and confidential work with boards across the world, this book: Demonstrates how high-performance boards innovate and refine their practices Discusses examples of board failures and challenges, including case studies from both for-profit and non-profit organisations including international organizations and state-owned agencies or even ministries Provides a proven framework to create best-in-class governance Includes a companion website featuring tools for board assessment and board practice High Performance Boards has inspired more than 3000 board members around the world. This book is essential reading for professionals and managers interested in governance and board members, senior managers, investors, lawyers, and students of governance.

Doing Good Better
Doing Good Better

Author: Edgar Stoesz

Publisher: Good Books

Published: 2015-06-09

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 1561488240

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This trusted handbook for nonprofit board service is newly revised and includes new case studies and even more tips and ideas from the trenches of nonprofit board work. Doing Good Better is approachable wisdom. Edgar Stoesz has made Doing Good Better a guidebook for both board members of nonprofits, whether new to the task, or highly experienced. First, Stoesz identifies two failings common to many boards of nonprofit organizations that are often overlooked: 1. A board’s governance role is very different from the role of management. “Making this distinction requires a reorientation for most board member, because in their day jobs, they are managers or employees.” 2. Boards often fail at two matters: a.) preparation of their members, and b.) regular evaluations of their own effectiveness and focus. In practical, pointedly-written chapters, Stoesz covers: Helping Directors Understand Their Governance Role A Plan to Fulfill the Purpose Reporting Back to the Members Planning Effective Meetings Great Boards Have a Good Fight (occasionally) Working Your Way Through a Crisis Great Boards Celebrate Leaving Right Stoesz deftly interweaves background philosophy, vision, and razor-sharp specific ideas. "Discussion/Action Questions” conclude many of the chapters. In addition, Stoesz offers a “Board Evaluation Form,” a “Director’s Self-Evaluation Form,” and an outline for the “Executive Director Annual Review.”

Great Companies Deserve Great Boards
Great Companies Deserve Great Boards

Author: Beverly Behan

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2011-05-15

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 0230120547

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Despite the many changes in governance regulation over the past decade, few boards function as a true corporate asset to the companies they oversee. In this book, Behan offers practical advice that a CEO, Chairman or board member can introduce at the very next meeting. Boardrooms are filled with intelligent, accomplished people—yet seldom achieve their full potential and add the kind of value for the CEO, executive team and company shareholders that many boards are actually capable of. Beverly Behan draws on her experience working with more than 100 boards over the past 14 years—from major Fortune 500s to recent IPOs—offering no-nonsense insights that can take any board from mediocrity to the top of its game including establishing a constructive working relationship with your board; addressing some of the dysfunction that may lie within the board you’ve inherited, and making your board a significant asset to you, your company, and your executive team. Working with the Board of Directors is one of the most important components of any CEO’s job—and most will admit it is something they wish they knew more about. Nearly all CEOs want to change at least something about their board, yet many are unsure how to go about this in the right way. This book not only alerts the reader to common pitfalls that CEO's can make with their boards, it provides workable approaches to a tackle a variety of boardroom issues from getting new talent into the boardroom to engaging effectively with the board on strategy and succession planning.

The Nonprofit Board Answer Book
The Nonprofit Board Answer Book

Author: BoardSource

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2010-12-21

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1118047486

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“Think for a moment of the best conversations you’ve had with friends and colleagues. You were honest with one another—not shy about speaking up but relaxed, even if the topic being discussed was serious in nature. That’s the type of conversation The Nonprofit Board Answer Book aims to have with you in the pages that follow. It follows a question-and-answer format, enabling you to quickly find an answer to a burning question you have right now. At the same time, it’s easy to pick up and read straight through, either cover to cover or one section at a time. At the end of each question-and-answer pairing you’ll find suggested action steps. These offer ways to put the information to a practical use on your own board and within your own nonprofit organization. Implementing some of these steps may lead to more questions as you become even more committed to fulfilling your responsibilities as a board member. Remember: behind every good answer lies a good question. So keep asking those questions.”--from the Introduction

The Imperfect Board Member
The Imperfect Board Member

Author: Jim Brown

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2010-12-03

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1118041062

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Praise for The Imperfect Board Member "Finally! A book about boards that isn't boring!" --Patrick Lencioni, author, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team "Everyone wins with good governance--countries, corporations, and community groups. In a compelling style like no one before him, Jim Brown helps leaders understand the keys for boardroom excellence. The Imperfect Board Member ought to be required reading for people on every type of board. The great thing is that it won't need to be required--it's such a fun book, every leader will want to read it." --Jim Balsillie, chairman and co-CEO, Research in Motion; chair, Centre for International Governance Innovation "I know no board members, myself included, who won't learn valuable lessons from Jim Brown's book The Imperfect Board Member. Don't miss it!" --Ken Blanchard, coauthor, The One-Minute Manager and The Secret "Thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley, boards have become active. The Imperfect Board Member clarifies sharply the lines of what boards need to do and what management needs to do. The time has come for the two groups to work together and yet keep independent." --Ram Charan, coauthor, Execution, and author, Boards That Deliver "The Imperfect Board Member by Jim Brown is a highly perceptive, eminently readable, engagingly human book on how boards and directors can improve their performance. In a breezy conversational style that uses dialogue invitingly and often, the author explores with sensitivity and a light touch not only the standard ingredients but also the more subtle nuances of excellence in both corporate and not-for-profit governance." --William A. Dimma, author, Tougher Boards for Tougher Times; chairman, Home Capital Group Inc.

Board-Seeker
Board-Seeker

Author: Ralph Ward

Publisher:

Published: 2018-07-09

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781637423233

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This is the first practical guide written specifically to help board-ready leaders and executives gain the knowledge, resources, and confidence to shape their successful personal "onboarding" program. Assess the experience you've gained that makes you valuable to a board (there's more than you think). Shape this into a powerful outreach portfolio, including a board resume, online image, and personal pitch. Gain the allies and mentors you'll need (especially your boss), and build a targeted board network. Learn step-by-step how board searches really happen, and how to master each stage. Prepare for the board interview and vetting process, and get ready for your first board meeting.