TOP 10 Growth Questions

Well as we finish 2024, this Inspiring Innovations LEARNING MOMENTS podcast is a targeted message toward bettering Board/Council/Committee advancement. Often as professionals are recruited and join a community development group, it becomes “growth-necessary” to pose a number of common-sense questions that help blend everyone in support of a special “cause”! 

The TOP 10 Growth Questions and related growing-pain considerations highlighted in the podcast offer only a brief review of priority development processes. Please listen closely to each one and add your own thoughts.

Enjoy the holidays. 

Transcript

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Hello again, and welcome to the December of 2024 Inspiring Innovations Learning Moments podcast. And as always, this is your monthly discussionist host, Marv Pickla, and I am thankful to all listeners for a full, fun, cool topic year. You know what I mean? Special. And whether it was leadership, communication, professional development, and of course innovation, every month I felt really privileged to share my thoughts and recommendations, and maybe a few insights into each of these topics every month. And in the end, as I sign off, I always hope that every podcast has helped everyone do things in their life world or the worlds of work world just a little better than they did before. This month we're going to address maybe a more specialized topic that focuses on anyone's involvement or membership on a board, council, or committee. And just to stay with tradition, I am going to use my fun top ten approach to review and discuss what I feel are growth questions that challenge every public, private nonprofit, and of course even private sector boards and councils and committees. And I will take a little time to talk in explanation about each one of the top ten. But always remember, no two situations, no two boards, councils, committees are ever the same, nor the issues that they face. So let's get right to it. Are you ready? Here's number one. Number one, who cares if you do well? I want you to think about that as a board, counsel, or committee member. Who cares if you're doing well? Are you approaching the right things? And think about what those people are worried or concerned about as you take on an issue. Alright? Who cares if you do well? That's always number one. Number two, do you focus on one-year priorities or do you maybe look too far ahead? These days when I work with groups, I found that setting some priorities for maybe a year, year and a half or whatever is the better way to go because if you look too far ahead, money, politics, geographic concerns, whatever, all cause you to maybe not be focused enough. So try and be more particular and use those one or two priorities in a shorter time period, and I think you'll do a little better. Number three, is membership with your organization volunteer friendly or obligation challenging? Do you know what I'm saying? Think about whether as you invite people to be part of your board, is it friendly? Because most of them are volunteers and maybe get they get paid for mileage or whatever, but is it volunteer friendly or obligation challenging where they got to be there every two weeks or hours or travel long distance? Always think about that as you're out there recruiting. Number four, what does your organization stand for? If somebody asked you, if you're on a board counselor committee, what does it really stand for? Could you answer that? Could you answer it in one sentence? Or do you got to really think hard about it to figure out what the group stands for? Knowing that and feeling that is critical as a member. Number five, is recognition of individuals the highest value or the advancement of the cause? Is individual recognition the most important thing, the highest value thing as you join, or is advancement of the cause? A lot of times when people join, they don't put their day job hat at the door and just focus on what they're there for that committee, council, or board for. And the two conflict and you don't do a good job on either side then. Think about the cause. Number six. Number six, what are your performance measuring sticks? What what are you measuring if you're doing great, kinda great, not so good? What are your measuring sticks? Make sure you figure out what they are and know what they are so all the members can be focused on the same results. Okay? Progressive results. Number seven, do members understand your organization's assets and limitations? If you have, think about personnel. If you only have one person kind of hired, and that's your investment, you know, uh are you asking them to do too much? Do they know, do you know what your board limitations are, or do you have a bigger staff where you can take on more things and more challenges? Always understand your organization assets and limitations, okay, especially in terms of personnel. Number eight, a critical one. Who are your major partners and why? Why do you partner with certain groups, education groups, uh, private nonprofits, community action agencies, other businesses? You know, who are your major partners? And are they getting a good investment for their time, a return on their investments? Okay? Make sure they feel like they're getting their share out of the partnership, out of the joint ventures that they do with you. Number nine, uh another real important one. Who is missing? And and who is not paying attention to what you're trying to accomplish, the priorities that you've set. What groups, what person, what companies or whatever, who's missing from your board, committee, counsel, table? Sometimes there's a critical piece missing that if you just do it right, you can recruit a person from that entity and and round yourself out from being just good to great. All right. And number ten, kinda my favorite, what makes you special. When I work with groups, I always push them to separate themselves away and be one step special to whatever service they're delivering. Okay? If you're just like everybody else, you kind of get lost in the shuffle. Being special in what you do and how you do it is so important in today's world, it separates you as being, you know, a critical feature in your region, with people. I think you know what I mean. Some of the growing pain considerations, if no matter what board level you're at, if you've been established for a long time or a shorter time, it doesn't matter. Some of the critical growing pain considerations as you go through the top ten growth questions, is uh professional development is going to happen both personally and professionally if you really truly take these growth questions on and be truthful and honest about them. Another growing pain is sometimes you try and be everything to everybody, and it results in being not only a minimum contributor to the cause, but you end up being kind of nothing to nobody. You got to be special, you got to set your priorities, do them well, and your return on time and investment and money will come back as boards and as staffs. You know what I'm saying. And lastly, and I've kind of almost mentioned this already, board, council, and committee members have to step away from their day job actions and priorities in order to be the best member to your group as possible. That's hard, but in my days when I worked with the board, and they were it was a big board, you everybody knew that they had to leave their day job hat at the door, and for that three hours of meeting time, they were for the cause and that they uh just workforce and education and business development. They knew it, and they knew what we stood for. Well, our time has gone and has passed quickly, and I wouldn't be doing my discussionist host duties completely if I didn't say, yeah, it's December and it's that holiday time, and I hope that everybody has a good holiday season and that you're looking forward to 2025. And I hope that you benefit from this final 2024 Inspiring Innovations Learning Moments podcast. When you talk about boards and councils and committees, it includes a lot of people and a lot of issues and a lot of trying to help the systems and the worlds and people. I hope that you take some time and look at each one. Because I could do a podcast on every one of those top ten and take up ten minutes, no problem. Okay? So enjoy sharing this with others and thank you for listening. And yes, we'll talk more in the new year.