432: How to Work With a Board, with Denice Hinden

Denice Hinden: Managance Consulting & Coaching

Denice is the president of Managance Consulting & Coaching, a firm that helps transform organizations with provocative strategic planning and coaches leaders and leadership teams. She was lead researcher and co-designer of Executive Transition Management (ETM), a now widely used methodology for effectively supporting nonprofits through leadership transitions.

Denice is the author of The Nonprofit Organizational Culture Guide: Revealing the Hidden Truths that Impact Performance* and Taking Leadership to the Next Level: A Year of Stimulating Essays to Discover More Joy in Leading & Inspiring Others* has a tremendous amount of experience helping leaders and boards find alignment and succeed.

In this conversation, Denice and I discuss the purpose of a board and how leaders can build relationships with board members. We explore the importance of transparency, how to keep initiatives moving forward, and the practice of regularly providing context.

Key Points

• Six purposes of a board: (1) set policy and direction, (2) monitor operations for compliance and mission, (3) represent the organization, (4) serve as strategy partners, (5) keep records for the organization, and (6) develop current and future leaders.
• Leaders who lean into full transparency with their boards will build relationships that weather difficult times.
• Be cautious of making assumptions about what board members want to know.
• When meeting one on one, communicate what has happened in conversations with other board members to help keep things moving forward.
• Connecting board members to context regularly will help them find movement, especially when the board is in a volunteer capacity.

Resources Mentioned

• The Nonprofit Organizational Culture Guide: Revealing the Hidden Truths that Impact Performance* by Denice Hinden
• Taking Leadership to the Next Level: A Year of Stimulating Essays to Discover More Joy in Leading & Inspiring Others* by Denice Hinden

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