Category Archive for : ‘Vision’

I recently had the privilege of presenting at a conference in Phoenix with my long-time friend, Dr. Don Christian, President of Concordia University Texas, about ways to strength your board of directors. Don is one of the most successful nonprofit leaders I know, and he has achieved much of his board success through a combination of deep relationship building and solid policy-based governance.

Much of my consulting success comes from helping boards develop a series of best practices that, when applied, can only strengthen the board…towards better collective leadership and

After blogging regularly for 2½ years I took an eight month break from writing. It wasn’t that I wasn’t working or caring about the father son relationship or leadership. It’s that I was feeling depleted. Depleted from the “white noise” caused by isolation due to COVID, intense political and racial ugliness, and trying to make sense (and grieving) the lack of empathy and love for our fellow neighbors.

I don’t have it figured out by any stretch of the imagination, but I know that writing helps me process my thoughts and

Last week I had the privilege of leading a webinar for numerous nonprofit board members, CEO’s and other executives. The Christopher Family Foundation of Hinsdale Illinois offered this webinar (and periodically offers others) to their grantee network in mostly the Chicagoland region.

The webinar covers five key topics: 1) 6 G’s of Successful Boards 2) Improving board culture 3) Recruiting the “right” people 4) Implementing best practices 5) When the pendulum swings back.

Just click “Read More” in the blue box to go to the video of the webinar.

I was interviewed recently by Jay Frost, one of the leading development experts in the United States. Jay hosts an educational series for nonprofits called “Unbound” provided by DonorSearch.net.

I was invited to do a webinar for nonprofit leaders recently and then Jay extended the offer to interview me on their Masterminds Series about my thoughts on leadership in general and the pandemic. Go here for the interview. Just click and you can listen on your phone or computer.

“DonorSearch provides accurate and actionable information that identifies your best prospective major gift

Unbound Webinar Series – Hosted by Jay Frost on www.donorsearch.net Tuesday, May 12, 2020 – 1:00 p.m. CT

The Executive Director – What is the board doing, particularly the board chair, to support and be engaged with Executive Director during these challenging times? Donor Relations – What is the board doing to ensure that donors and stakeholders are well informed and cared for?Best Practices – What best practices should be maintained and jettisoned during this time? Long Term View – Short Term Decisions – What is the board doing to

The Art of War by Sun Tzu was written more than
2,500 years ago. His lessons are still employed by many leaders today. Some
historians believe that if the political and military leaders of the 20th
and 21st centuries had studied and applied Sun Tzu’s lessons that
Vietnam, the Korean War, the Bay of Pigs, and that World Wars I and II may have
been avoided. At the very least, these major conflicts would have had
significantly different outcomes, whereby millions of young lives would have
been saved.

What might the lessons be for coaches, political, business

For those who are regular readers of my blog you may have (or not) noticed that I’ve only posted two blogs in the last six months. That’s because my son, Jeff and I have been working on a very important project that is near and dear to our hearts. For the last two years we’ve been researching and writing about the importance of the father-son relationship.

Here’s the secret…on March 1 we will be releasing our brand-new book about how to build the vital relationship between fathers and sons.

The book will

The state of affairs in American politics these days has led me to do more reading about Abraham Lincoln. I’ve been reminded of what an incredible example of character and persistence he demonstrated for the greater good while the country was in the darkest, most deadly and deeply divided state in all of American history. He demonstrated powerful and enduring lessons for leaders in all situations, whether political, business or nonprofit settings.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s award-winning book, Team of Rivals, provides a fascinating look at how Lincoln shocked his political friends

Last week I wrote about a client that “fired” their board of directors, and what they learned along the way and how they went about rebuilding a much stronger board. I included the graph showing a very astute “maturation process” for nonprofit boards. Much credit to the Arts and Business Council of Chicago for the original design of this. I’ve modified it a bit over the last year to fit my own client’s situation.

In a recent interview, Bill Gates mentioned one of his favorite books Factfulness by Hans Rosling’s. He talked

“We just fired our board… Well, actually we asked 14 of our 15 board members to resign.” That’s what a new client of mine told me on the first day of our new agreement. A significant funder of theirs told them that if they were serious about continuing to receive major funding from them, and if they were going to seek more significant funding from larger foundations in their region that they had to have a Board of Directors that was serious about taking them to the next level.

My new