The first session was a panel discussion on hiring, firing and board meltdowns. If’ you’ve been involved either with churches or businesses for a long time, you’ve dealt with all three. Experiencing a board meltdown is not an experience anyone wants to duplicate.
The panel included Carly Fiorina, deposed CEO of Hewlett Packard, who has experience all three. She has recently had a life-changing experience and has become an active Christian. To be honest, I think there is still some defensiveness with her HP experience, but she has some valid insights. Think about these suggestions from the panel as you work with or on your boards.
Fiorina noted that if the board is not functional, then neither will be the organization.
A board is a team gathered for a specific purpose. Each member should understand the purpose, what they do to agree and how they agree to disagree. It’s a good thing to reflect at the end of meetings about whether the meeting moved the organization forward, if members can disagree about an issue without being disagreeable or disfunctional.
Membership of a board should be diverse so as to incorporate people of different skills and backgrounds. There should be term limits in order to bring in fresh ideas–and to prevent burnout. Boards should be smaller, perhaps less than 15.
A final warning–if you lose the team dynamics, then the organization loses its immune system.
Tags: Leadership
Faith Venture 
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