Governance Team Building

Are you interested in helping your board improve its performance? Are you interested in helping your board become a high functioning team?   The Center for Healthcare Governance recently published two monographs that add governance process issues as well as competency based governance. Chief executives and board chairs might find both monographs very helpful as they lead and guide their boards.

The first monograph is entitled The Guide to Good Governance for Hospital Boards.  While the title indicates the monograph is just for hospital boards, I it provides information and resources useful  for all nonprofit community based organizations as well. The monograph provides helpful information about the roles and responsibilities of  the board. There are also many helpful process oriented forms and templates that could be used by the board chair and/or the chief executive as they partner with the board and its standing committees.

The second monograph is entitled Competency-Based Governance: A Foundation for Board and Organizational Effectiveness. This monograph focuses on the individual board member and what they bring to the board.  High performing boards need competent members who collective come together to form a mission-directed team.  A Blue Ribbon Panel identified the core competencies needed by board members and made suggestions on how these competencies can be helpful in selecting new board members for right fit on the board. The competencies can guide Governance Committees as they design education and development programs that will enable to the board to improve its performance.

The first monograph focuses on governance process improvement and the second focuses on director competency. Both are important resources that will help improve nonprofit governance. I highly recommend both monographs to board chairs and chief executives!