Board Leadership and Succession Planning

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Board Leadership and Succession Planning

• Tim Harrington, CPA
• T.E.A.M. Resources
• 7049 E. Tanque Verde Road, PMB 136
• Tucson, AZ 85715
• 800-788-9542 e-mail tharrington_at_forTeamResources
  .com

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Board members are working to protect the members
interest

• When Board members forget who they serve, they
  become vulnerable to unethical actions
• We dont serve the existing management or the
  employees
• We dont serve our own, personal needs
• We serve our members

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Succession Plan

• Do you have a Management Succession Plan?
• Do you have a Board Succession Plan?
• Part of plan is to find new directors
• Par of plan is to develop leaders from existing
  directors

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Chairpersons Role

• Supreme Commander or
• First Among Equals

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Chairpersons Role Jean Frankel

1. Understand organization
2. Know Chairs responsibility and authority
3. Set goals and expectations
4. Create safe environment for decision making
5. Build working culture
6. Manage board structure
7. Cultivate future leaders
8. Manage meetings well
9. Communicate with board through effective
   communication system
10. Maintain productive relationship with CEO

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Is Your Chairperson a Keeper?

• Gate Keeper Controls agenda
• Time Keeper Keeps meeting on track
• Peace Keeper Allows deep, probing discussions
• and sharing of ideas
• with diplomacy!

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Chairpersons Role

• Facilitator
• Role is to keep meeting on track
• Focusing on the highest priority items
• Away from operational items
• Eliciting comments from even the quiet members

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Chairpersons Role

• Rotating the Chairmanship

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His Board of Directors and Staff
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To make matters worse

• There was no American Army yet
• 1940 U.S. Germany
• Total military 130,000 3,000,000
• Total tanks 100 4,000
• Total aircraft 1,175 6,000
• June 1942
• 2 partially trained
• divisions for N. Africa 40,000
• Aircraft 2,000
• Tanks (Shermans) 100

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German Mark VI Tiger tank
US General Grant Tank
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Characteristics of Someone Who Will Not Make a
Good Leader

1. Self-seeking
2. Passes the buck
3. Attempts to do everything himself
4. Bad manners and discourteous
5. Great love of the limelight
6. Treats subordinates as lesser
7. Pessimistic

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An Enlightened Leader

1. Exhibits personal integrity
2. Plans thoroughly, communicates vision
3. Selects staff well and backs them completely
4. Encourages a close, family relationship among
   staff
5. Remains optimistic at all times
6. Deals well with difficult people

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Handling Conflict

• Become the change
• you would like to see.
• Mohandas K. Gandhi

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Handling Conflict

• Conflict will arise!
• Must have rules of conduct
• Be clear on your expectations
• Lead, but allow entire board to assist
• Model the kind of behavior in problem solving you
  would like to see
• Use questions that start like I am curious why
  Do you mean?

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Team

• Boards work best where there is supportive team
  spirit, as long as independence is not compromised

Team does not mean there is not conflict. Team
means that inevitable and necessary conflict is
handled in a productive, supportive manner.
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5 Dysfunctions of a Teamby Patrick Lencioni
Inattention to Results status and ego
Avoidance of Accountability low standards
Lack of Commitment ambiguity
Fear of Conflict artificial harmony
Absence of Trust invulnerability
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A Functioning Teamby Patrick Lencioni
Focus on Collective Results team passion
Hold one another Accountable high standards
Commit to decisions and plans
clarity
Engage in unfiltered Conflict healthy
tension
Members Trust each other vulnerability
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Team

• If anyone undermines any of the steps on the
  pyramid
• Counsel them
• Evaluate them, document evaluation, suggest
  changes
• If all else fails, be prepared to remove them
• Do not nominate them at end of term
• Ask them to resign
• Use hammer to legally remove them

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Team

• Never confuse honest dissent with disloyal
  subversion.
• Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Handling Inactive, Incompetent, Disconnected
Directors

• Direct is best
• Peer-Evaluations will indicate problem
• Present director with issues
• Elicit directors ideas on solution
• Be prepared to ask director
• Not to run again
• To resign
• Board Emeritus program for aging members

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Handling Inactive, Incompetent, Disconnected
Directors

• Your Companys greatest asset is not your
  people.
• Your companys greatest asset is the RIGHT
  people.

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Handling Inactive, Incompetent, Disconnected
Directors

• Term Limits?
• Age Limits?
• A cancer?
• Time for my Party!
• Celebrate Board Retirements

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Preparing Directors to Become Leaders

• Reshuffle Officers Deck
• every few years
• Not a guaranteed rotation
• Candidate must be suited for job
• Do this by election at reorganization meeting
• Include Chair in this reshuffling

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Grooming Directors

• Whats the process that
• Works for you?
• Supervisory Committee?
• Other Committee?
• Ambassador or Advisory Committee?

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Grooming Directors

• Ensure they attend high quality directors
  conferences
• Suggest some attend Chair-Vice Chair conferences
• Get them GOVERNANCE training

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Grooming Members

• Get them LEADERSHIP training
• 9 Principles of Leadership by Robert Dilts
• Anticipate
• Detecting early, weak signals
• Developing mental agility
• Freeing up resources

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Grooming Members

• 9 Principles of Leadership by Robert Dilts
• Act
• Leading through embodiment
• Task through relationship
• Creating cultures that can act

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Grooming Members

• 9 Principles of Leadership by Robert Dilts
• Anticipate
• 80/20 leadership
• Strategically necessary Vs Strategically
  desirable Gen. Eisenhower
• Ready, fire, aim
• Dogged pursuit (and knowing when to stop)

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Grooming Members

• Feedback not Failure

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Board Leadership and Succession Planning

• Tim Harrington, CPA
• T.E.A.M. Resources
• 7049 E. Tanque Verde Road, PMB 136
• Tucson, AZ 85715
• 800-788-9542 e-mail tharrington_at_forTeamResources
  .com

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Tim Harrington, CPA President, T.E.A.M.
Resources 7049 E. Tanque Verde Rd. PMB
136 Tucson, Arizona 85715 (800)
788-9542 tharrington_at_forTeamResources.com www.forT
eamResources.com