by Tom Okarma | Nov 16, 2011 | Blog, Governance, Leadership, Strategic Planning
No one can deny that planning is critical to success. While I personally thrive in an organizational culture of creativity and entrepreneurial thinking, eventually, if you want to get things done, you have to have a written plan. Still, planning can be very tedious...
by Tom Okarma | Nov 9, 2011 | Blog, Board Development, Governance, Leadership
Following up on my recent post about how boards fail, here are more thoughts on how boards can fall short of their responsibilities. Again, let me have your thoughts on these… Allowing personal agendas to trump focusing solely on the clients being served Not...
by Tom Okarma | Oct 25, 2011 | Blog, Board Development, Governance, Leadership, Strategic Planning
With a tip of the hat to a certain late night TV talk-show host, I have been thinking about what makes a board “good” or “bad” and have come up with a top twenty list that covers a lot of ground. I originally titled this article “Top Five”…then Top Ten…but had to go...
by Tom Okarma | Oct 5, 2011 | Blog, Board Development, Leadership, Strategic Planning
When I led a for-profit company, we used to talk about “creative friction”- a condition whereby people with different opinions on a particular topic were encouraged to voice their opinions and provide evidence to substantiate their positions. It was very helpful in...
by Tom Okarma | Sep 27, 2011 | Blog, Leadership
One of the most powerful tools a leader can employ is consistent communication. Does everyone (staff and volunteers) know your top three priorities? If you randomly asked them what key priorities simply had to be accomplished over the next year, how many different...
