The document provides best practices for board leadership and communication based on a presentation given to the Ruidoso Downs Economic Development Group. It discusses concepts like focusing on strengths, celebrating successes, and simplifying messages for leadership. For communication, it recommends listening skills, avoiding criticism, and making meetings effective through agendas, participation, and summaries. The goal is to provide guidance for transparent, strategic, and mission-driven governance.

1. Board of Directors Best
Practices
Presentation Prepared for the Ruidoso Downs Economic Development Group
June 2, 2012

2. Our “Best Practices”
Agenda
 Introductions
 Best Practices: Board Leadership
 Best Practices: Board Communications and
Effective Meetings
 Closing Remarks

3. Format of Presentation
 Be involved and engaged
 Think of this as a two hour conversation about your
board
 Ask questions
 Give your opinion

4. Introductions

5. What does “Best Practices”
Mean?
“A method or technique that has
consistently shown results superior to
those achieved with other means, and
that is used as a benchmark”
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/best-
practice.html#ixzz1wTfV63i0

6. Leadership

7. Leadership-Best Practices
My favorite concepts from the “Change is Good”
Video & how we can apply them to board leadership:
 “Forget for Success”-Don’t think about the ways
that things have been done in the past….be
innovative and don’t be afraid to embrace bold
ideas
 Focus on Strengths-Be proud of the strengths that
you and your fellow board members bring to the
organization

8. Leadership-Best Practices
 Simplify your message-FOCUS on your mission
 Let your actions speak-BE the voice of your
organization everywhere in the community
 Celebrate success-use every opportunity you can to
share the news of your organization’s successes
 Measure Results-”what gets measured, gets
improved”

9. Leadership Best Practices
 The Board of Directors should provide leadership
for the organization
 Roles, responsibilities, and powers are usually
outlined in bylaws
 Members should fully understand their roles and
responsibilities
 Members have diverse backgrounds but share
common goals

10. Leadership Best Practices
 Every organization should have a formal Board
Policy Manual
 Board Members should be aware of current policies
 Volunteer-Be a part of your organization’s events.
Don’t just show up for meetings once a month
 Look out for the best interest of the organization

11. Leadership Best Practices
 The Board of Directors should foster a transparent,
consistent, and accountable culture
 Always have your financial records audited by an
outside agency
 Focus on results. What is your mission? How can you
measure progress?
 Understand the importance of fresh perspectives
 Develop a conflict of interest policy
 Documentation: Minutes, notes, receipts, handbooks,
presentations

12. Leadership Best Practices
 Stay “Mission Driven”. What is our mission?
Maintain consistency
 Be strategic. Spend your time wisely. Focus on the
things that are important.
 Continuously review your Board of Directors’ best
practices; evaluate your board’s performance and
effectiveness
 Board members represent the organization within
the community

13. Leadership Best Practices
 Annually review your organization’s mission
 Board orientation-continuing education
 Report on programs and services & track progress
 Actively solicit input from the community
 Represent the organization to government,
business, other agencies, funders, and the
community at large
 Support healthy and productive relationships
throughout the organization

14. Leadership Best Practices
 A strategic plan is guided by your organizational
mission
 Well-designed, effective committees
 Know your fellow board members-foster a culture
of cohesion and group vitality
 How else can we demonstrate exceptional
leadership within our organization?

15. Leadership Best Practices
Ways To Increase Your Success As A Board Member
 Attend all meetings of the board and committees on which
you serve.
 Come prepared to discuss the issues and business to be
addressed at scheduled meetings, having read the agenda and
all background material.
 Work with and respect the opinions of peers who serve this
board, and to leave personal prejudices out of all board
discussions.
 Always act for the good of the organization and represent the
interests of all people served by this nonprofit.

16. Leadership Best Practices
 Represent this organization in a positive and supportive
manner at all times.
 Observe the parliamentary procedures and display
courteous conduct in all board, committee and task force
meetings.
 Avoid conflict of interest between my position as a board
member and my personal life. This includes using your
position for the advantage of friends and business
associates. If such a conflict does arise, declare that
conflict before the board and refrain from voting on
matters in which you have conflict.

17. Best Practices:
Communication

18. Best Practices:
Communication
Effective
communication
makes your meetings
more productive

19. Best Practices:
Communication
What NOT to do: Barriers to Communication
Thomas Gordon’s “dirty dozen” of Communication Spoilers:
 Criticizing: Making a negative evaluation of the other person,
her actions, or attitudes. “You brought it on yourself—you’ve
got nobody else to blame for the mess you are in.”
 Name-calling: “Putting down” or stereotyping the other
person “What a dope!” “Just like a woman….” “Egghead.”
“You hardhats are all alike.” “You are just another insensitive
male.”
 Diagnosing: Analyzing why a person is behaving as she is;
playing amateur psychiatrist. “I can read you like a book—you
are just doing that to irritate me.” “Just because you went to
college, you think you are better than I.”

20. Best Practices:
Communication
 Praising Evaluatively: Making a positive judgment
of the other person, her actions, or attitudes.
 Ordering: Commanding the other person to do
what you want to have done.
 Threatening: Trying to control the other’s actions by
warning of negative consequences that you will
instigate

21. Best Practices:
Communication
 Moralizing: Telling another person what she should do.
“Preaching” at the other.
 Excessive/Inappropriate Questioning: Closed-ended
questions are often barriers in a relationship; these are
those that can usually be answered in a few words—
often with a simple yes or no. “When did it happen?”
“Are you sorry that you did it?”
 Advising: Giving the other person a solution to her
problems. “If I were you, I’d sure tell him off.”
 Diverting: Pushing the other’s problems aside through
distraction. “Don’t dwell on it, Sarah. Let’s talk about
something more pleasant.”

22. Best Practices:
Communication
 Logical argument: Attempting to convince the other with
an appeal to facts or logic, usually without consideration
of the emotional factors involved. “Look at the facts; if
you hadn’t done____, we could have done_____”.
 Reassuring: Trying to stop the other person from feeling
the negative emotions she is experiencing. “Don’t worry,
it is always darkest before the dawn.” “It will all work
out OK in the end.”
Bolton, Robert (2009-11-24). People Skills (p. 16). Simon &
Schuster, Inc..

23. Best Practices:
Communication
 What NOT to do?
 Lack of patience
 Poor behavior or “acting out”
 Not “seeing the forest for the trees”
 Personal or hidden agendas
 Getting stuck in alliances and coalitions regardless of
the issue
 Lack of ground rules
 Ways of speaking to other board members that are
hurtful or close down communication

24. Best Practices:
Communication
 (Lecturing, chastising, threatening, bullying, etc.)
 Competition, turf, fairness, zero-sum games, winners
and losers
 Too much talking, not enough listening
 Too little leadership and skills building
 Disengagement from community
“Effective Board Building”, by Phillip Boyle

25. Best Practices:
Communication
What do these “don’ts” lead to?
 Unsatisfying communication
 Diminished trust, respect, acceptance, tolerance
 Increased stress
 Loss of community respect, difficulty getting things
accomplished
 Lose sight of Purpose

26. Best Practices:
Communication
WHAT TO DO:
 LISTEN-don’t just “hear”: A study of persons of
varied occupational backgrounds showed that 70
percent of their waking moments were spent in
communication… Communications
9%
Writing
45% 16% Reading
Talking
30% Listening

27. Best Practices:
Communication
 Unfortunately, even at the purely informational
level, researchers claim that 75% of oral
communication is ignored, misunderstood, or
quickly forgotten.

28. Best Practices:
Communication
Robert Bolton, People Skills author describes three
listening skill clusters for enhancing communications:
Attending Skills: A posture of
involvement, appropriate body motion, eye
contact, and non-distracting environment
Following Skills: Door Openers, Minimal
Encourages, Infrequent Questions, Attentive Silence
Reflecting Skills: Paraphrasing, Reflecting
Feelings, Reflecting Meanings, Summative Reflections

29. Best Practices:
Communication
Meetings are central to an organizational board’s
functioning. They can also breed arguments and long
discussions that lead nowhere and fail to produce
results.

30. Best Practices:
Communication
MAKE YOUR MEETINGS MORE EFFECTIVE:
 Ask Open-Ended Questions: this can help members to identify their own
solutions to problems
 Ask for specifics
 Use writing as a communication tool
 Turn “US” and “THEM” into “WE”
 Listen attentively and acknowledge
 Establish realistic expectations
 Don’t pressure others to see things your way, but rather to be responsible
for their own actions. “Effective Board Building”-Philip Boyle

31. Best Practices:
Communication
MAKE YOUR MEETINGS MORE EFFECTIVE:
 State objectives at the start of the meeting, follow
your agenda
 Make sure everyone knows they will have a chance
to speak
 Begin with questions related to the task
 Periodically check to see you are on task

32. Best Practices:
Communication
 Don’t reinforce or explore off-task remarks
 Use close-ended questions to address off-task
remarks, then tactfully ask the person who has
made it to relate their comment to the task at hand
 Ask how to improve the next meeting, then
incorporate one new idea
 Summarize and reflect ideas
 MODEL desired behaviors

33. Best Practices:
Communication
 Engage all board members
 Restrict dominating individuals
 Encourage honest search for consensus
Philip Boyle: Effective Board Building Creating and
Maintaining a High-Performance and High-Satisfying
Governing Board

34. Closing Thoughts on
Communication
Questions to ask ourselves:
 Are we clear about our purpose?
 How satisfied are we with our communication
processes?
 Do disagreements become personal?
 Do we share responsibility for leading our board?
 Are we treating each other fairly?

35. THANK YOU
RACHEL WEBER
RACHEL@RACHELWEBER.US
575.937.9000