Creating Excellence in Organizational Leadership

What's the Board's Role?

With regularity an assumption is made that every board member knows and understands the role of the board relative to the organization it leads. Seldom do boards clarify their role in writing. So, most board members believe they attend each meeting prepared to make decisions on the issues at hand, whatever they turn out to be. Boards functioning in this capacity are reactionary.

• They lack the proactive leadership management desperately desires

• They waste the knowledge and wisdom offered by gifted board members

• They squander scheduled agenda time and elongate meetings

• They let priority items slide in favor of minutia

Boards owe it their members and stakeholders to define and document the expected results of their work. In writing, the board should identify its job products. Job products go well beyond a detailed list of responsibilities by specifying the desired outcomes, results, or accomplishments of those duties; along with appropriate timeframes for their completion. Whatever appears on the job products list must be different than the items assigned to management; thereby eliminating competition and conflict.

Boards that govern by keeping agendas focused solely on preselected job products …

• Demonstrate proactive leadership

• Bring an enduring value to the organization

• Give priority and legitimacy to what’s most important

• Separate themselves from management

• Empower management

• Create meaningful agendas and meetings

• Recruit board members with governance skills

• Inspire a leadership culture for accelerated progress and achievement

Logicboard offers an innovative and highly successful model for board leadership and governance. It brings detail and coaching to the items listed above. Contact us today for more information.