We know there is a great deal of information out there about elected and appointed board leadership and governance. It can be hard to know what resources offer truly useful information and which people to trust.
To help, we asked board members and leaders to share their top governance resources. The following is a collection of their recommendations, appropriate for both those new to the board and to board veterans.
And our own Diligent blog offers strategy, tips and tools to help mission-driven boards do their work better and more efficiently.
Download this comprehensive list of governance resources in pdf format today, to increase your board's effectiveness and achieve greater organizational impact.
Some School Board Association podcasts that you might enjoy:
The Art of Governing Coherently: Mastering the Implementation of Coherent Governance® and Policy Governance by Linda J. Dawson and Randy Quinn is a practical guide loaded with solutions, all based on processes successfully in use today by boards across the U.S and internationally. While many of the examples offered here come from the world of public school boards and nonprofit boards, the implementation processes are equally applicable to boards of all types
Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit and Public Organizations by John Carver. Carver continues to debunk the entrenched beliefs and habits that hobble boards and to replace them with his innovative approach to effective governance.
Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life by Susan David. Emotional agility is a revolutionary, science-based approach that allows us to navigate life’s twists and turns with self-acceptance, clear-sightedness, and an open mind.
Executive Policy Governance: A Leadership Model for Local Government by George B. Cuff. This book is intended for anyone involved in an elected capacity at the local level. It offers a valuable model for any system based on democratic principles, including voting rights, equity, fairness, respect for the rule of law and a willingness to adhere to democratically determined decision.
Fierce Leadership: A Bold Alternative to the Worst "Best" Practices of Business Today by Susan Scott. With new approaches to everything from employee feedback to corporate diversity to customer relations, Scott offers fresh and surprising alternatives to six of the so-called “best” practices permeating today’s businesses.
Good Governance is a Choice: A Way to Re-Create Your Board the Right Way by Randy Quinn and Linda J. Dawson is a book about, and for, boards of public and nonprofit organizations. Its central focus is on public school boards and the special challenges they face, but the governing model it introduces, Coherent Governance, is applicable to any board of any type.
The Governance Core by Davis Campbell and Michael Fullan. Designed to guide educational leadership past difficult and formidable challenges, the governance system outlined in this book will lead to school districts and schools operating at the highest levels of effectiveness.
Peter Drucker's Five Most Important Questions: Enduring Wisdom for Today's Leaders by Peter F Drucker and Frances Hesselbein. By applying Drucker's leadership framework in the present context of today's leaders and those who lead with them, this book is an essential resource for people leading, managing and working in all three sectors — public, private and social.
Reinventing Your Boards, Reinventing Your Board: A Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing Policy Governance by John Carver and Miriam Carver. Carver’s groundbreaking Policy Governance model is the best-known, respected and talked about governance model in the world and has fundamentally influenced the way organizations are governed.
Schools Cannot Do It Alone by Jamie Vollmer. Drawing on his work in hundreds of districts, Vollmer offers teachers, administrators, board members and their allies a practical program to secure the understanding, trust, permission and support they need to change the system and increase student success.
The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything by Stephen M. R. Covey. Trust is the very basis of the new global economy, and Covey shows how trust and the speed at which it is established with clients, employees and constituents is the essential ingredient for any high-performance, successful organization.
What School Boards Can Do: Reform Governance for Urban Schools by Donald R. McAdams. To provide essential guidance to urban school board members committed to high achievement for all children, McAdams presents a comprehensive approach to board leadership he calls reform governance. This accessible framework brings together all the work of an urban school board.
10 Questions Every School Board Member Should Ask by Ken Odom Jr. The revolutionary idea of a publicly funded education governed by locally elected volunteers is the subject of numerous reform and improvement efforts. One party is strangely silent in conversations about these efforts - the locally elected volunteers who are supposed to be leading. School board members can find their voices by asking 10simple questions.
Governance in the Digital Age: A Guide for the Modern Corporate Board Director by Brian Stafford and Dottie Schindlinger. This book seeks to chart the technology-fueled changes taking place in the field of corporate governance and describes the impact these changes are having on boards and the enterprises they govern.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service and human dignity.
We hope that you and your board colleagues will find these expert recommendations useful and insightful. New trustees getting a grip on governance and their role on the board may find the suggestions particularly valuable as they get up to speed.
You can store this list in your Diligent Community Document Library to use during onboarding and training, and we hope that the list is useful for all leaders in mission-driven organizations.
