Meeting the Governing Challenge: Applying the High-Impact Governing Model in Your Organization

by Doug Eadie

Book Overview

In "Meeting the Governing Challenge: Applying the High-Impact Governing Model in Your Organization," Doug Eadie offers nonprofit and public leaders answers to such critical governance questions as:... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0979889405
• ISBN13: 9780979889400
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Governance Edge Publications
• Length: 84 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A practical guide for strengthening the board-CEO governing partnership

There are hundreds of books on nonprofit leadership, but few offer CEOs a concise guide to building a stronger, more collaborative working relationship with their organization's governing board. Eadie's book fills the gap nicely by explaining - and showing examples of how board-savvy CEOs effectively involve their boards systematically and proactively in making governing decisions and judgments about the high-stakes issues facing their organization. His chapters on crafting a board mission statement and putting in place an effective committee structure are especially valuable. If you're serious about building a board that helps you shape a clear strategic vision, monitor performance, and ensure your organization has the resources to carry out its mission, this is the book for you.

Building A Better Nonprofit Board to Get More Effective Results

Doug Eadie's new guidebook on building better nonprofit boards offers a double-barreled benefit. The author presents powerful, simple-to-apply strategies for building a higher-impact governing team; plus, his to-the-point, direct style wastes few words (and reader's time) in explaining the ins-and-outs of his "High Impact Governing Model." In six concise chapters, the author describes how successful nonprofits nurture a collaborative board-CEO partnership by forging a detailed governing mission to guide the board's work; carefully designing processes for involving the board proactively in such governing functions as strategic planning, budgeting, and external affairs; organizing well-designed board standing committees that serve as the nonprofit's governing engines; putting in place a CEO-nurtured board self-management program; and providing staff support for board members in carrying out their governing functions. The author's experience with more than 500 nonprofits of every size and purpose is evident in the book's practical (non-theoretical) thrust. Its chief tenets come alive in the case vignettes showing high-impact boards at work. For the board-savvy CEO, Eadie's book provides a valuable framework for making good boards even better. As an executive guidebook you can put to work today, there are few books that can compare.

A Book You'll Want to Keep Close at Hand and Refer to Frequently

Doug Eadie's concise guide to developing better boards starts with this premise: higher- impact governing depends on building mission, structure and processes that keep the board focused on the high-stakes issues facing the organization they are charged to govern. To-the-point and blissfully free of padding, this book covers the five key elements of Eadie's high-impact governing model: 1.) a board-savvy CEO who works continuously to build the board's governing capacity; 2.) a clear detailed governing mission; 3.) well-thought-out processes to keep the board involved proactively in key governing functions; 4.) a well-designed standing committee structure, and 5.) a board self-management and executive support system. There is nothing theoretical about Meeting the Governing Challenge. Its considerable value and power flow from the practical governing principles Eadie describes and the real-world scenarios that show high-impact boards at work. If you are a nonprofit leader who works for--and with--a volunteer board, you'll want to keep Meeting the Governing Challenge close at hand and refer to it frequently.

Empowering nonprofit boards to move beyond the review-and-approve role

In Meeting the Governing Challenge, Doug Eadie reminds us that nonprofit board members are usually high-achieving, impatient, and hard-driving professionals who wish to be involved with the high-stakes decisions facing their organizations. To consign them to a passive review and approve role, he warns, will eventually lead to a rift between the CEO and the board that is charged to govern the organization. Eadie's direct and practical guide--written for the nonprofit CEO--provides clear and thoroughly tested guidance for increasing ownership and satisfaction among board members and producing greater collaboration with the CEO, even in times of change and crisis. In six succinct chapters the book focuses on putting in place the key elements of what Eadie terms his "high-impact" governing model: 1.) A board-savvy CEO who views the board as a precious asset that should be fully deployed and nurtured; 2.) A detailed board governing mission and carefully designed governing processes, including strategic work sessions and governance improvement task forces; 3.) Well-designed board standing committees that function as the organization's governing engines; 4.) And a board self-management program buttressed by strong executive support systems that help board members carry out their governing functions. There are plenty of books on nonprofit board development. This one cuts through the theory and gets right to the heart of high-impact governing. It's the clear choice for CEOs who want to start today to tap into the full leadership potential that volunteer boards bring to their organizations. Jeffrey A. Finkle President & CEO, International Economic Development Council