The Practitioner’s Guide to Governance as Leadership

THE PRACTITIONER S GUIDE TO GOVERNANCE AS LEADERSHIP The Practitioner s Guide to Governance as Leadership offers a resource that shows how to achieve excellence and peak performance in the boardroom by putting into practice the groundbreaking model that was introduced in the book, Governance as Leadership. This proven model of effective governance explores how to attain proficiency in three governance modes or mindsets: fiduciary, strategic, and generative. Throughout the book, author Cathy Trower offers an understanding of the Governance as Leadership model through a wealth of illustrative examples of high-performing nonprofit boards. She explores the challenges of implementing governance as leadership and suggests ideas for getting started and overcoming barriers to progress. In addition, Trower provides practical guidance for optimizing the practices that will improve organizational performance including: flow (high skill and high purpose), discernment, deliberation, divergent thinking, insight, meaningfulness, consequence to the organization, and integrity. In short, the book is a combination of sophisticated thinking, instructive vignettes, illustrative documents, and practical recommendations. The book includes concrete strategies that can help improve critical thinking in the boardroom, a board s overall performance as a team, as well as information for creating a strong governance culture and understanding what is required of an effective CEO and a chairperson. To determine a board s fitness and help the members move forward, the book contains three types of assessments: board members evaluate each other; individual board member assessments; and an overall team assessment. This practitioner s guide is written for nonprofit board members, chief executives, senior staff members, and anyone who wants to reflect on governance, discern how to govern better, and achieve higher performance in the process.

THE PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE TO GOVERNANCE AS LEADERSHIPThe Practitioner's Guide to Governance as Leadership offers a resource that shows how to achieve excellence and peak performance in the boardroom by putting into practice the groundbreaking model that was introduced in the book, Governance as Leadership. This proven model of effective governance explores how to attain proficiency in three governance modes or mindsets: fiduciary, strategic, and generative.Throughout the book, author Cathy Trower offers an understanding of the Governance as Leadership model through a wealth of illustrative examples of high-performing nonprofit boards. She explores the challenges of implementing governance as leadership and suggests ideas for getting started and overcoming barriers to progress. In addition, Trower provides practical guidance for optimizing the practices that will improve organizational performance including: flow (high skill and high purpose), discernment, deliberation, divergent thinking, insight, meaningfulness, consequence to the organization, and integrity. In short, the book is a combination of sophisticated thinking, instructive vignettes, illustrative documents, and practical recommendations.The book includes concrete strategies that can help improve critical thinking in the boardroom, a board's overall performance as a team, as well as information for creating a strong governance culture and understanding what is required of an effective CEO and a chairperson. To determine a board's fitness and help the members move forward, the book contains three types of assessments: board members evaluate each other; individual board member assessments; and an overall team assessment.This practitioner's guide is written for nonprofit board members, chief executives, senior staff members, and anyone who wants to reflect on governance, discern how to govern better, and achieve higher performance in the process.

List of Exhibits, Figures, and Tables xiiiForeword xviiby Richard ChaitPreface xxiCHAPTER 1: THE GOVERNANCE AS LEADERSHIP MODEL 1Premises 2Underlying Assumptions 2Governance Reform 3The Three Modes or Mental Maps 4Why Three Modes? 14CHAPTER 2: GETTING STARTED AND GAINING TRACTION WITHGOVERNANCE AS LEADERSHIP 21What Is Optimized at Board Meetings? 22What Is Different about Generative Governance? 22Moving to Higher Purpose and Optimizing Performance:Beginning the Conversation 23Moving to Higher Purpose and Optimizing Performance: GettingStarted 26Moving to Higher Purpose and Optimizing Performance: GettingTraction 33CHAPTER 3: ENCOURAGING CRITICAL THINKING IN THE BOARDROOM47Critical Thinking and Metacognition 48Getting on the Balcony 50Ways of Thinking 51Impediments to Critical Thinking 54Cognitive Biases and Board Workarounds 62Social Loafing 70Groupthink 71Avoiding Groupthink and Its Close Cousins 77CHAPTER 4: TURNING YOUR BOARD INTO A HIGH-PERFORMING TEAM85Social Systems 86Groups and Teams 87Boards as Teams 89Effective Board Teams in the Context of Governance as Leadership91CHAPTER 5: CREATING A GOVERNANCE-AS-LEADERSHIP CULTURE125Culture 126Three Toxic Cultures 128Culture Change 131Culture Conducive to Governance as Leadership 132Tools to Support a "Governance asLeadership-Friendly" Culture 143CHAPTER 6: WHAT GOVERNANCE AS LEADERSHIP REQUIRES OF LEADERS169Leadership 170CHAPTER 7: MEASURING AND SUSTAINING GOVERNANCE AS LEADERSHIP187Measuring Board Performance 188Sustaining Governance as Leadership 211EPILOGUE 215REFERENCES 217ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 221THE AUTHOR 227BOARDSOURCE 229INDEX 231