Nonprofit Performance 360 Magazine Vol 4 No 4

JEFFREY MAGEE

Building a Stellar Board

I n 2016, a leading think-tank connected to the boards of directors and C-suites of 275 leading American businesses via an intensive survey. The top identified concerns were health insurance, cybercrime, culture, privacy, information technology, and crisis response processes. It is critical to build a stellar board or advisory board for your organization to allow you to navigate this terrain. I have a different take on what the prevailing best minds and think-tanks on this topic are espousing, and these observations explain why we have seen and continue to see organizational implosions. Consider these strategic imperatives for the architecture of your stellar board of excellence and governance. 1. eForce versus cForce explains how and why individuals and positions act, behave, and think the way they do. This directly sets the tone at the top and drives how risk is managed, ensures compliance and standards of performance are maintained and met, lays a baseline of conduct for operational ethics and codes of compliance, drives appropriate policies and procedures, establishes on- going educational initiatives and platforms necessary to serve, and illuminates all levels, degrees and approaches to monitoring. The first application is to recognize that every position within a board or organization is either (never both) an entrepreneurial (eForce) or a control (cForce) position.

Create a general organizational diagram. Now determine which positions, in their truest form, are eForce or cForce positions. The second application of the model is to recognize that every person within a board or organization is either (never both) an eForce or a cForce person. Now, within that general organizational diagram, determine for each position whether the person in that position right now, in their truest form, is an eForce or a cForce person. Now, recognize the trauma of having, for example, an ePerson in a cPosition, or vice versa. If you evaluate almost every position implosion within organizations, or major organizational implosions, you have a clue as to how and why it happened! Accountability ensues when you have the right persona in the right position/force, or a control system in place to hold personnel accountable to performance requirements. 2. C-suite connectivity is very simple, yet amazingly missed more often than not from early-entry businesses to established mature organizations.There should always be a direct or dotted line influence from each C-suite position/force to a specific member of your Board.There is a greater level of connectivity, leveraged intellectual assets, and networks if you have a like-like in eachC-suite person and their mirror on your board. This also allows for a strength multiplier for understanding,

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