The Practitioner's Guide to Governance as Leadership


Book Description

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.




Governance in the Digital Age


Book Description

A new edition of the #1 text in the human computer Interaction field! This book seeks to chart the technology-fueled changes taking place in the field of corporate governance and describes the impact these changes are having on boards and the enterprises they govern. It also describes what the future could look like once companies truly embrace the power of technology to change governance. Additionally, this book will provide a set of "suggested action steps" for companies and their boards focused on ways they can leverage technology tools to enhance governance immediately. Through a review of the latest governance research, interviews with key thought leaders, and case studies of enterprises that have embraced governance technology, readers will be armed with new insights and approaches they can take to enhance the work of their boards and senior leaders to reach new levels of performance. Explains how to use design and evaluation techniques for developing successful interactive technologies Demonstrates, through many examples, the cognitive, social and affective issues that underpin the design of these technologies Provides thought-provoking design dilemmas and interviews with expert designers and researchers Uses a strong pedagogical format to foster understanding and enjoyment An accompanying website contains extensive additional teaching and learning material including slides for each chapter, comments on chapter activities, and a number of in-depth case studies written by researchers and designers.




Startup Boards


Book Description

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.




The Nonprofit Board Answer Book


Book Description

“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 Director's Manual


Book Description

Directors: Improve Board Performance The Director's Manual: A Framework for Board Governance offers current and aspiring board members essential up-to-date governance guidance that blends rigorous research-based information with the wisdom found only through practical, direct experience. The book's flexible approach to solving governance issues reflects the authors' belief that no two boards and the cultural dynamics that drive them are the same. As such, the advice offered reflects recognizable leadership dynamics and real world, relevant organizational situations. The book's two authors, Peter C. Browning, an experienced CEO and member of numerous boards and William L. Sparks, a respected organizational researcher, combine their individual experiences and talents to create a book that is both innovative and applicable to directors in any industry sector. Specific best practice guidance is designed to help board members and their directors understand the unique strengths and challenges of their own board while at the same time provide targeted information that drives needed improvements in board performance and efficiency. Specifically, this book will help board members: Explore practical advice on key issues, including selection, meeting schedules, and director succession Consider board performance from multiple perspectives, including cultural and group dynamics Discover how to effectively manage classic problems that arise when making decisions as a group Access a comprehensive set of assessment questions to test and reinforce your knowledge The Director's Manual: A Framework for Board Governance offers practical advice to guide you as you lead your organization's board.




A Guide To Corporate Governance


Book Description

Concept Of Corporate Governance. Corporate Governance Has Caught The Interest And Imagination Of All Segments Of The Corporate World. Governance Has Assumed Greater Significance In The Light Of Series Of Corporate Failings, Both In Public And Private Sectors. The Society At Large, Have Begun To Loose Faith In The Infallibility Of Governance Systems.What Could Be The Minimum Ethical Standards Is Being Debated. The Characteristics Of Governance, When Applied In The Context Of A Country, Comprises Mechanisms, Processes And Institutions Through Which Citizens And Groups Articulate Their Interests, Exercise Their Rights, Meet Their Obligations And Mediate Their Differences. Its Aim Includes Formal Institutions And Regimes Empowered To Enforce Compliance, As Well As Informal Arrangements That People And Institutions Either Have Agreed To Or Perceive To Be In Their Interests.




IT Governance


Book Description

For many companies, their intellectual property can often be more valuable than their physical assets. Having an effective IT governance strategy in place can protect this intellectual property, reducing the risk of theft and infringement. Data protection, privacy and breach regulations, computer misuse around investigatory powers are part of a complex and often competing range of requirements to which directors must respond. There is increasingly the need for an overarching information security framework that can provide context and coherence to compliance activity worldwide. IT Governance is a key resource for forward-thinking managers and executives at all levels, enabling them to understand how decisions about information technology in the organization should be made and monitored, and, in particular, how information security risks are best dealt with. The development of IT governance - which recognises the convergence between business practice and IT management - makes it essential for managers at all levels, and in organizations of all sizes, to understand how best to deal with information security risk. The new edition has been full updated to take account of the latest regulatory and technological developments, including the creation of the International Board for IT Governance Qualifications. IT Governance also includes new material on key international markets - including the UK and the US, Australia and South Africa.




High Performance Boards


Book Description

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.




Governance IV


Book Description

Each volume of this series on governance examines the interrelationship of the three major branches of the national government or the functions of one of the branches as it was impacted by the others. In this volume, journalist R.W. Apple, Dr. Ronald Moe, and Professors Steve Finkel, William D. Richardson, Jack Rossotti, Cornell Clayton, Timothy Cook, C. Lawrence Evans, and Barbara Perry examine a variety of topics. Contents: Governance and Recurrent Problems; Political Learning and Presidential Campaigns; Governance: Ethics, Administration, and Democracy; Governance: Lobbying and Interest Groups; Recent Trends in Executive-Legislative Relations: The Impact of Government Legal Policy; The Media as a Fourth Branch of Government; The Managerial Presidency: From Phoenix to Ashes; Congressional Leadership; and The Presidency and the Selection of Judges. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.




Your Roles and Responsibilities as a Board Member


Book Description

Shows how board members must be successful strategic leaders, willing to cherish diversity, strive for accountability, and pinpoint board positions, for the good of the organization. Describes the essentials of the board member's job, and relates the job to Carver's Policy Governance model.