Dr. Kurt Senske joins host Elizabeth Pittman in this episode of The Concordia Publishing House Podcast to talk about his newest book, The CEO and the Board: The Art of Nonprofit Governance as a Competitive Advantage. Dr. Senske discusses the key points made in his book regarding the relationships between CEOs and boards and how strong governance models are made.
Get a copy of his new book on cph.org.
Show Notes:
The world is increasingly uncertain, complex, and competitive. The governance model that many boards and CEOs are currently using may not be best suited for their future.
In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Senske reveals how the time has come for leadership teams to collectively work together to implement an evolving, adaptive model of governance that is tailored to the current situation of their unique organization. Laid out in his book, Dr. Senske gives listeners a preview of how he goes through different facets of how nonprofits can make effective changes to craft an intentional relationship between the board and the CEO for organizational success. He also discusses the inspiration for the book, how he came to write it, and his experience on 11 different boards of directors through the years.
Questions Covered
- What has it been like have a new book launched during your retirement?
- What are some of the most common questions you are getting about your book?
- What would you say to a consultant who tells an organization that there is one governance model that they should be using?
- When it comes to choosing the right model, what are the roles and responsibility of every board and CEO, regardless of the model that they're going to use?
- You talk about appropriately diverse boards for your situation. What do you mean by that?
- You mentioned three non-negotiables for every board member. Tell us about those.
- Tell us more about emotional intelligence and what it is when it comes to boards.
- Tell us some of the hallmarks of both positive and negative leadership.
- How can an organization cultivate that servant leadership?
- Why is it so important that we not only name the elephant in the room, but we deal with it?
- What does a healthy CEO board relationship look like?
- What is the competitive advantage that organizations will gain as they master this art of governance?
- What do we have as a unique advantage in this as Christian organizations?
- How can you see your book being useful to pastors and church leaders?
About the Guest
Dr. Kurt Senske spent twenty-three years as CEO of Upbring, where he more than quadrupled the size of the agency and steered the once-troubled agency back to financial strength. Dr. Senske is the founder and now principal of CEO-Board Services, a consulting firm that specializes in working with mission-oriented organizational leaders and boards around issues of governance, strategy, organizational structure, succession planning, coaching, and mergers and acquisitions.