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A Board Retreat Can Help Your Board…
and Extend Your Career
A board retreat gives your board a chance to level with you. In order to satisfy the board, you need to know what’s keeping board members awake at night. Sometimes board members are not happy with the way the board does business. Relationships are strained, trust is often missing, and board members do not look forward to the board meeting. Challenges like these are best addressed when the board meets in executive session with a neutral facilitator present. The neutral facilitator does not have a vested interest in the board or the organization. As a result, he can be counted on to create a level playing field for each board member – even the member who may be feeling alienated.
Working closely with you, Gary can:
1. set and enforce ground rules in order to create a safe environment
2. make sure that critical issues get discussed
3. assure everyone a say in the discussions
4. provide a useful written summary of retreat decisions
5. help the board see itself in a new light
6. permit the board chair and the president to be full retreat participants
7. affirm the principles of good board practice
8. help the board distinguish between “strategy” and “wishful thinking”
His clients say that Gary is:
1. well prepared and organized through pre-retreat interviews
2. able to get people to say what's really on their minds
3. cool under pressure
4. available for follow-up that insures effective implementation
5. able to understand political realities
6. experienced in balancing risks vs. benefits
7. able to understand different personality and temperament types
8. skilled in developing the board’s sense of its own identity
9. able to set and enforce boundaries for board behavior
Are you ready to help your board develop its level of trust and a sense of itself? Chief Executive Officers who spend time with their boards in retreats develop a deeper understanding of the board’s concerns, hopes and dreams. Executives succeed and extend their careers when they help their members make board service more rewarding.
Isn’t it time that you helped your board plan a retreat? Gary Davis has conducted more than 200 board retreats. References are available. You can reach Gary at gwdavis@insightbb.com or (217) 737-3359. There’s never a charge for consultation.
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