Critical Mistakes to Avoid if You Serve on a Board of Directors (For-Profit or Nonprofit)

06/21/23 • 50 min

Many company leaders are asked to serve on boards of directors, whether with nonprofits or for-profits of various sizes. There are many questions and issues to consider before saying yes and after saying yes. It is always an honor to be elected to boards, and it allows someone to have far-reaching positive impact beyond their normal job or company. Board service comes with fiduciary responsibilities and can include personal liabilities and reputation risk.
In this episode, Laura Gregory, an experienced attorney and now a management consultant associate with KC&A, explores the spectrum of questions we should ask and issues we should evaluate related to board service.
Our leadership is important to nonprofits all around us- industry associations, local youth sports leagues, homeowner associations, school booster organizations, chambers of commerce, hunting clubs, civic clubs, etc. And our leadership can also have far-reaching positive impact on job-creation and economic opportunities with for-profit boards of small, medium, or large companies, whether closely held or publicly traded.
Laura provides a series of questions and concerns to consider before saying yes, as well as a series of responsibilities and methods to maximize your impact and usefulness on a board after saying yes, including when to stop serving. She also offers a list of strategies to measure your success in board service, as well as specific, critical, and costly mistakes to avoid.
EPISODE RESOURCES:
> Laura Gregory on LinkedIn
>Laura Gregory Bio
>US Bar Associations' Directories
>West Alabama Community Foundation
>Eagles Wings
>Weekly Leadership Quotes on LinkedIn

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.

Previous Episode

The Agent of Your Own Life

The Agent of Your Own Life episode contrasts the long-reaching negative impacts of perennial victimhood mentality, with the never-ending positive impact of being an individual who is 'the agent of their own life.' As agentic, this individual recognizes that they can take actions and make decisions today that will make their tomorrow better. This contrasts with the perennial victim who always believes someone else's decision controls their access to success.
Someone who is the agent of their own life is a person who makes the choices that takes them where they want to go, overcoming disappointments, unfortunate hardships, and failure, by seeing each as an opportunity to learn. They never come back from a bad experience without having learned something important they apply today or another day in the future.
A person who is the agent of their own life retains their power and control over their attitude and future, and is empowered and emboldened to see themselves as unstoppable with their goals because of their grit. Contrast this with the perennial victim who is stuck, bitter, and angry, believing that the decisions made by others has complete control over their life. This person has surrendered control of their life and future to someone else.
All of this has immense impact on modern workplaces, families, and society. As a leader, can you help lead someone from victimhood mindset to being an agent of their own life? Dr. Chapman says yes, and explains how in this episode. How can each of us self-assess, accurately, to determine if we are effective agents of our own lives? Dr. Chapman also walks through practical strategies for this in the episode. This thirty minute episode answers many other questions related to this topic, as well.
EPISODE RESOURCES:

>Bio of Ken Chapman, Ph.D.
>Follow Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc. on LINKEDIN
>Follow Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc. on FACEBOOK
>Safety Beyond The Numbers (book and seminar)
>Podcast interview with Tony Orlowski about Safety Beyond The Numbers
>Wall Street Journal Jonathan Haidt Article (referenced in episode)

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.

Next Episode

How To Find, Hire, Develop, and Empower Proactive Problem Solvers

Nisha Patel explores what it takes to populate an organization with problem solvers and how to be one. Problems at work are most often negatively associated with stress. Repeatedly, however, problems prove to be gates of opportunities for career catapults, entrepreneurial ventures, and other rewards for those who can leverage creativity, calculated risk, and resilience to solve them. And yet, that only happens in an organization that knows how to find, hire, develop, and empower proactive problem solvers. This podcast episode delves into the how-to of this desired strategy and outcome.
Nisha is the Director of Wellness and Administration at UAB Heersink Medical School. Previously, one of her roles was as Chief of Staff for the Medical School Dean and CEO of the UAB Health System. UAB is one of Alabama’s two largest employers. She has an undergraduate degree from Middle Tennessee State University, an MBA from UAB and a Masters in Healthcare Administration from UAB. She has also gone through Lean Six Sigma Green Belt for Healthcare certification, as well as being a part of UAB’s Innovation Academy.
EPISODE RESOURCES:
> Nisha Patel on LinkedIn
>UAB Heersink School of Medicine, Office of Wellness
>Wall Street Journal, As We Work Podcast: The Value of Being Invaluable at Work
>Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense
>Brené Brown

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.