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Weekly inspiration for building your nonprofit leadership skills.

Building Nonprofit Boards

Effective boards can be a great resource for nonprofits. But even very skilled businesspeople often fail to invest much time in structural issues at nonprofits. These nonprofit boards can end up fille

Diverse Boards Provide Diverse Perspectives

When it comes to boards, the idea of having a diverse set of people with varied backgrounds is a good one. When you’re only talking with people who know exactly what you know, and whom you value becau

Nonprofit Boards and Bad News

Some chief executives use board sessions to do a lot of cheerleading and pointing to all the accomplishments they’ve presided over at their nonprofit. Since the chief executive serves at the pleasure

Structure + Processes + People = Culture

Support for diversity, equity and inclusion, based on the values of mutual trust and respect, is at the core of a strong and productive organizational culture. This strong and productive culture is, i

The Plate Spinner

When I was at Applied Materials we adopted an analogy for the tough job of being a manager. We called them “plate-spinners.” A plate-spinner is an old county fair act where the entertainer starts plat

Managers Must Address Their Shortcomings

It is human nature to emphasize what we do well and ignore or put off working on what does not come as naturally. A good manager must fight that instinct, understand what key leadership or management

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