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Articles on Governance and Leadership in Purpose Driven Organisations.
Governance
New Directions in Directing
Nothing destroys the spirit of an organization faster than focusing on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths, building on disabilities rather than abilities. The focus must be on strength…the greatest mistake is to try to build on weakness. — Peter Drucker Today’s boardrooms are increasingly governed for weakness. Many directors no longer direct their organisation into strength but monitor and cross-examine their management out of fear and an unchallenged acceptance of a failing model of corporate governance.
Peter Tunjic
Strategy & Risk
Disaster and Crisis: Dilemmas and Challenges for Boards
The world in which our organisations have to operate is growing increasingly complex and turbulent. Organisations in the not-for-profit sector are being buffeted by an ever-increasing range of impacts on their operation and demand for their services. There is an almost endless list of disasters and crises that might occur, but the one thing they have in common is that they force VERY rapid change on organisations. A little preparation can be incredibly valuable for an organisation trying to cope during a disaster or crisis.
Michael Tarrant
Board Dynamics
What is Your Director Personality?
There is a growing understanding that board behavioural dynamics are a central driver in producing strong organisational outcomes. Every board will demonstrate different behavioural dynamics. These differences are both between boards and within the one board over time. However, boardroom dynamics is often a difficult area for boards to address when they go awry. Four important drivers impact board behavioural dynamics: The specific issues facing the board at the moment; The impact of both the organisational and board cultures; The individual personalities of the chair and the CEO and how their personalities interact; The personalities of the directors and, to a lesser extent, the roles and personalities of the company secretary and members of the senior management team such as the chief financial officer.
James Beck
Board Recruitment
Recruiting Board Members – Working with a Nominating Committee
For too long, not-for-profit boards have remained a coy social group, not always adding value to the strategic development and operations of the organisations on whose boards they sit – yet CEOs cannot get their strategies off the ground unless they have a capable board to endorse and support them. It’s all about cause and effect. The problem often results from the way in which directors were recruited in the first place.
Philip Mayers
Finance
The True Cost of Business
We commonly relate cost of doing business with the monetary cost of inputs to deliver an output. However, true or full cost and costing involves detailed identification, categorisation, measurement and valuation of ALL resource inputs required to achieve the objectives of the activity, program and ultimately, the purpose of an organisation. As part of good organisational governance, it is the Board’s role to establish the framework, methodology and approved policies under which service costing (and eventually pricing) is managed.
Linda Hayes
Not for Profit, Not for Fraud
We trust our staff. We are a values based organisation. We don’t have any fraud here. Let’s clear this up once and for all. It is likely that you do have some form of fraud or corruption happening in your organisation; you just don’t know about it yet. More often than not some of your staff will be either involved, or at the very least, aware of its existence. Any questions?
Trent Dean
Book Review
The Fish Rots from the Head — Book Review
Bob Garratt’s The Fish Rots from the Head: Developing Effective Board Directors is an impassioned treatise on achieving effective corporate governance. Garratt offers an enthusiastic discussion of how boards can develop the requisite skills and approach and defy the potential problems and failings of corporate governance. Garratt particularly focuses on how the serious insufficiencies of some boards have negatively affected or caused the failure of organisations they govern. Garratt asks readers to appreciate the board’s determinative role in the success and effectiveness of an organisation.
Julia Duffy
Board Performance & Metrics
The Path to Effective NFP Board and Director Evaluations
In the past, board performance in the not-for-profit (NFP) sector was seen to not need to be at the same standard as that required in the commercial sector. Thankfully, this view is changing, as it is far from the truth. Whether an organisation is focused on obtaining a profit or not, its governing body (whether it is a board, council or other grouping) should be adding value to that organisation, not hindering organisational performance.
Practical Steps to Good Governance and Risk Management
For us tragic Essendon Football Club supporters, good governance is something that cannot be ignored. Governance and risk management go hand-in-hand, and provide a framework to ensure that an organisation meets its legal obligations, manages its risks and ensures appropriate accountability throughout the organisation. Some practical steps which a Board might consider as part of this framework include: Board Charter A Charter can set out the duties, responsibilities and expectations of the Board, the Chief Executive and the executive staff of an organisation.
Michael Gorton
Leadership
Felt Leadership
I spent my formative years growing up in the ‘60s with a very much older set of parents. Older by a decade than probably most others, older in their world views and values, and older in their behaviours too. They were my ‘leaders’. They mostly said, and occasionally did, the things that they wanted or expected of me and like many other kids of the ‘60s – I did the things that I wanted to do.
Clive Blunt