Boardroom Chemistry: Getting Your Board to Govern as a Team – A BoardSource Toolkit

Overview

Boardroom Chemistry: Does your board have it?

Every board struggles with group dynamics — the ways in which individual board members interact with each other and function (or don’t) as an effective team. Successful boards have figured out how to make the most of the various relationships (chief executive to board, board chair to board, and board member to board member) so that the work of the board assumes greater importance than any individual or relationship. But, it’s not easy. That’s why BoardSource created Boardroom Chemistry: Getting Your Board to Govern as a Team.

The downloadable PDF contains 24 tools designed to help your board function more effectively by focusing on the following:

• Board composition (and the role played by board size and diversity)
• Board structure (such as term limits and how structure can enhance or inhibit teambuilding)
• Cultural and behavioral barriers (and how to understand and overcome them)
• Ways to engage detached board members
• Decision-making and other meeting practices
• Listening skills (and how to develop them) and use them to resolve conflicts

You’ll find proven advice and practical tips and techniques for improving board interactions, along with questions to stimulate board discussion around important topics. This toolkit is based on resources in BoardSource’s vast library of governance, material that has shown hundreds of thousands of nonprofit board members and other leaders how to develop sound practices.