December 7, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes
NEW BOOKS
The Imperfect Board Member: Discovering the Seven Disciplines of Governance Excellence
by Jim Brown
Jim Brown, a founding partner of Strive, a leadership-development company that specializes in governance, uses a fictional narrative to illustrate seven lessons for board members: reflect on organizational results, involve people served by the charity and invite them to contribute ideas, choose effective leaders and manage them well, guide the organization according to its mission and values, monitor its performance, work to make the board a team, and ensure that all the members understand their roles.
David, a busy, stressed chief executive officer of a communications-technology company, joins the board of his community center. Frustrated by both his initial experiences on the nonprofit organization’s board and as chairman of his company’s board, he turns for help to Trevor, a pastor and a fellow director of the community center.
Trevor teaches David the first part of a board member’s job: to direct and protect the organization. Directing involves “strategic leadership,” working with the group’s management and planning for its future. Protecting means that “boards are assembled to act as trustees on behalf of the owners they represent, be they stockholders or members or taxpayers in the community,” and boards must make sure the organization’s performance holds up to the expectations of the owners.
Through their discussions, David and Trevor add five more lessons to their outline: reflect, respect, select, expect, and connect. Each word corresponds to an idea and suggestions for healthy, intelligent board operation.
In the book’s afterword, Mr. Brown expands his discussion of each lesson, and provides Web sites where board members can learn more about the characters, download outlines from the book to their personal digital assistants, or read more about common governance problems boards face.
Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 989 Market Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94103; (800) 956-7739; fax (317) 572-4002; http://www.josseybass.com; 204 pages; $22.95; ISBN 0-7879-8610-0.
