Leadership Skills For The New Century: Building A Visionary Board Of Directors

THE TRAINING NEED:

We live in a time of rapid profound change. Faced with shrinking budgets, rapidly changing social needs, a hostile political climate, and ever more intense public scrutiny, today’s nonprofits are finding that it’s not enough to simply update a mission statement or patch over a list of outdated goals. Doing a good job will increasingly mean understanding change, leadership in periods of rapid change, and changing the organization to keep current.

Failing to do this places the organization and its constituents in jeopardy.

This workshop is specifically designed for members of boards and executive directors of nonprofits wishing to promote and nurture the development of visionary leadership on the part of the board. This highly interactive session will provide information and techniques to enhance the effectiveness of your board of directors, thereby positioning your organization for success today and in the future.

TRAINING TOPICS:

• Major changes having an impact on nonprofit organizations and the implications of these changes.

• The board's roles in facilitating change in a nonprofit organization.

• Organizational vision and its importance in board leadership.

• The profile of an effective board of the future and assessing how your board measures up.  

• The link between an organization’s vision and the board member recruiting, orientation, and education process.

The session will feature a number of exercises. Participants will leave the training session with a renewed sense of optimism and confidence in their ability as board members to seize new opportunities in the changing environment.

PRESENTATION OPTIONS:

The content can be provided in a variety of formats including a fast-paced keynote presentation, half day and full day workshops, and large group conference format. The program has also been combined with a dinner program to provide board members with a high impact experience that still fits within busy schedules.

There are also a number of speaker support options including print handouts, PowerPoint presentations, color transparencies, 35 mm slides to match audience size and other requirements.

VISIONARY BOARD LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT:

One of the most reliable ways the board can strengthen its performance as a governing body is to periodically assess its own performance. The centerpiece of the Building A Visionary Board of Directors Training Program is the Visionary Board Leadership Assessment. This assessment tool contains 25 competencies and characteristics which, when taken together, delineate the profile of an effective future-focused board.  This Assessment will help you determine how your board measures up to the profile of an effective, future-focused nonprofit board in this period of rapid and profound change.

The results of the assessment will be used to develop action plans to strengthen the visionary leadership capacity of your board. The assessment tool can be the focus for in-depth work in the full day workshop format or a powerful tool for back-home planning in the shorter formats.

A printed resource manual accompanies the program and provides information and tools to enable participants to apply workshop learning in their organizations.

As with all of our programs, the Building a Visionary Board Program can be custom-designed to achieve objectives determined by you.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." Edmund Burke  View Past Quotes

frank@createthefuture.com ▪ susan@createthefuture.com

© 2008 Creative Information Systems 

Revised: November 17, 2008