Diana R. Sieger is the president of the Grand Rapids Commmunity Foundation. For more information, visit Diana's President's pages or view her biography.

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President's Point of View: The gift of leadership

December 10, 2006

Long overlooked as being critical to an organization’s success, boards of directors or trustees are essential for many reasons. No they are not the enemy to any CEO reading this post - they are your allies, your sounding board and frankly at times, your reality check!

In my last entry I wrote about the BoardSource conference that Margaret Sellers Walker and I attended and were invited to provide some insights regarding the importance of the working relationship between the Board Chair and the CEO. Margaret is rotating off the board at the end of December and I will miss her! During her eight years on the board she has taken the lead creating our Trusteeship (Governance) Committee ultimately completing the restructuring of our board process - which was a decade long journey.

Also under Margaret’s wise counsel and direction, the board has adopted many of the principles in the book Governance as Leadership , by Richard Chait, William Ryan and Barbara Taylor. Our board and leadership staff received BoardSource training in August 2005 on integrating three modes of board discussion/operation - fiduciary, strategic and generative. Marilyn Lankfer, our 2007 Board Chair, and I received a refresher a few weeks ago at BoardSource’s office in Washington D.C. With the wisdom and tenacity of a strong Executive Committee, we now make the time to tap into the intellect of our board members using the generative mode of board operation.

This is an inquiry style that has helped us in shaping our vision, understanding our BHAGs as described in Jim Collin’s monograph Good to Great and the Social Sectors as well as a multi-meeting discussion on cultural competency and the relationship to grantmaking. It is a great way to move away from the rote mode of board meetings dotted with the “let’s hear from the __________ Committee” and yes here is another report from our “remarkable” staff. We are trying very hard to embrace the generative mode understanding that no one has all the answers.

So thank you Margaret for your gift of leadership. You have left an indelible mark on the Grand Rapids Community Foundation and we are forever grateful!