The Practitioner's Guide to Governance as Leadership: Building High-Performing Nonprofit Boards

by Cathy A. Trower

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 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 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 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.

Genres: Leadership, Business

403 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 9, 2012

Reviews

[Laurie Neighbors · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have grown to hate the word "leadership," but I wanted a quick read about nonprofit board functions and duties and this seemed one of the less painful options. Turns out it's a really practical, interesting book, and -- I'm just going to say it -- every board member and nonprofit ED/CEO should read it. And definitely board consultants and evaluators should read it. I'd even say that leadership teams in the public sectors, such as in (especially in) higher ed should read it. Time to let go of the old authoritarian models!

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trower takes Chait's "Governance as Leadership" and provides a guide to how to move a board from fiduciary leadership to strategic and generative leadership. I suggest this for any trustee or CEO seeking to make highest and best use of the talented individuals serving on the board.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read several chapters as an assignment when starting as a nonprofit board member. I read the rest because I was genuinely interested to learn in more depth about the advice for building a truly visionary and generative role for a board of directors. I may not have given the book 5 stars if I hadn’t been experiencing the ideas it discusses in practice over the last few years, but it really helped to illuminate the theory behind the way this board works.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine book - definitely a great read if you are on a board or frequently interact with boards.