Creating A High-Performing Board Of Directors

How can boards create a culture of high performance? We get some great advice from High Performance Nonprofit Organizations, Managing Upstream for Greater Impact by Christine Letts, William Ryan, and Allen Grossman.

"Asking the right questions will be more important than having the precise answers, processes or strategies for improving performance," and those questions include, "What difference are we making in the lives of our community?" and "Where could we do better?"

Yet even before we get to those questions, I've found that it is also essential to ask: What does our shared vision of success for this organization look like? What are some steps that we can take to reach that vision, beginning today? If you are a leader in your nonprofit organization, how can you make sure that your board is not stuck in a rut, but is actively creating a real future for the entire organization? A starting point may be having real dialogue around these questions.