Centerpoint for Leaders and The Points of Light Foundation's newest e-publication to give you relevant and concise information on leadership and organizational development.

By Sandra Trice Gray

The accountable organization:

• holds a public trust to improve quality of life;
• clearly states its mission and purpose, articulates the needs of those being served, and explains how its programs work, how much they cost, and what benefits they produce;
• freely and accurately shares information about its governance, finances, and operations;
• is open and inclusive in its procedures, processes, and programs;
• is accountable to all those it exists to serve, to all who support it, and to society; and
• is responsible for mission fulfillment, leadership on behalf of the public interest, stewardship, and quality.

To read the entire article, see The Accountable Organization.

by Katherine Tyler Scott

A few tips for maintaining the health of your board:

• Root all new members in what it means to hold the organization in trust™.
• Honor the norms for governance leadership.
• Discourage groupthink.
• View defensiveness as a red flag and give time to deal with the issues creating it.
• Assume best intentions but acknowledge the gap between intention and impact.
• Take responsibility for closing the gap.
• Don't be afraid to apologize – admission of making a mistake helps people to let go of the past and move on.

Cited and used with permission from tld.org. To read the entire article, click here.

By Bryn Meredith

The first key principle required for innovation is not developing individual creativity alone, but creating a sustainable innovative environment. This is a leadership task. In order to succeed at this task, leaders must develop innovative abilities and develop them in their constituents. We call these Innovation Fundamentals. The second key principle required is to not get better at a portion of the above abilities, but to get better at all them as a system. Creating an innovative culture is without doubt a leadership issue but we need to develop all aspects of quality leadership in our senior teams if we expect to achieve our objectives on schedule.

Cited and used with permission from Bluepoint Leadership Development. To read the entire article, go here.

Part 1: Determining the Organization's Orientation, and
Part 2: Shifting Orientation from One Person to the Community

by Margaret Henderson

A nonprofit that is too centered around the resources, energy, or talent of one person is at risk. This two-part article provides indicators that a nonprofit might be overly dependent on one person, who could be a director, volunteer, or donor. Should these indicators sound familiar, readers can consider a suggested process for change.

Evolution of a Nonprofit: (click on the links below to read)

Part 1: Determining the Organization's Orientation
Part 2: Shifting Orientation from One Person to the Community

Cited and used with permission from Margaret Henderson and Popular Government.

by Dr. John C. Maxwell

What my team does for me:

1. My team makes me better than I am. If the members of my team were here, they'd tell you the same thing.
2. My team multiplies my value to others. These people don't add to my worth when it comes to contributing to others; they multiply it greatly.
3. My team enables me to do what I do best. Because the members of my inner circle complement me and do things I don't do well, I am able to focus on the things that I can do well.
4. My team allows me to help others do their best. Having a team allows me to move people around until they're in what I call their "sweet spot" or "strength zone"—the place where talent meets passion, resulting in fulfillment and excellence.

Nielson goes on to list the four key peer-based management attitudes: solicitude, speaking, listening and commitment, and provides a list of 14 principles, including transparency and respect, to guide the peer-based management team.

Cited and used with permission from Leadership Wired. Four more "What my team does for me" and further ideas on teamwork are included in the entire article, click here.

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