Latest / Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson / Nonprofit Mastery with Glenda Hicks: Boards, Leadership, and Impact

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Nonprofit Mastery with Glenda Hicks: Boards, Leadership, and Impact · Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson

• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Collaborations fuse success.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Tune in for inspiring stories, expert insights and game-changing conversations.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Let's build, connect and thrive together.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Remember, collaboration is the key to success.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Ready Set Collaborate podcast with Wanda Pearson, the show where we inspire, empower and connect through powerful conversations.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: I'm your host, wanda Pearson.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Today, I am honored to be joined by an amazing Glenda Hicks, a consultant, trainer, facilitator and coach specializing in empowering nonprofit organizations to excel in board governance, leadership development and powerful effectiveness.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Glenda has a passion for helping nonprofits strengthen their leadership and create greater impact in the communities they serve.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: This conversation is packed with wisdom, strategies, inspiration that every leader, every board leader, every board member and changemaker would want to hear.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Settle in, grab your notebook and get ready to be inspired as we dive into this powerful conversation with Glenda Hicks.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Welcome, glenda.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: I am so happy that you are on my podcast.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Say hi to the audience.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Hello audience and thank you, Wanda, I am excited to be here with you today and to have this conversation.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Yes, a long way that we should have did this.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Two years ago, we met again at a peace podcast and we actually were speakers on that.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, thank you again.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: And I looked at it and said, oh yeah, I was supposed to have a window on my podcast.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: No worries, all in due time, everything is all in due time.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I'm excited to have you here and thank you for joining me here.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: That is such a blessing because nonprofits I actually was part of a nonprofit organization too, and I really need to get part of one with my business as well.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: We got to talk as well how I can get WDP, my brand, into nonprofits as well.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I do have one actually on my website as one of my collaborators, but I'm not sure what happened to us.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: We're going to learn a little bit more about how we can get involved as businesses, right?
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Yes absolutely Collaborating together, absolutely.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: That's why I said ready set, collaborate.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Let's collaborate, girl.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Let's see how we can do this.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: All right, my dear.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Well, let me tell you a little bit about Glenda Hicks.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Glenda Hicks is a consulting trainer, facilitator and coach specializing in empowering nonprofit organizations to excel in board governance, leadership development and operational effectiveness.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: She founded 501c Impact and utilizes evidence-based method, mythologies, best practice tools and innovation technologies to support non-profit.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Linda created an experimental.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: No, not experimental.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: How do we say that, linda?
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Experiential.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Tongue twister, learning board games, stimulating nonprofit board service and operations.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: With over 35 years of experience, she collaborates with board chairs and executive directors to develop sustainable strategies and measurable impacts.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Some of her services include strategic planning retreats I love that.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Leadership training, governance and organizational assessments and vision mission development and refinement that support local to international nonprofits with small to multimillion dollar budgets that are at various stages in their development life cycles cycles.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Glenda has served on various nonprofit boards since 1992, including roles with the National League Aid and Defenders Association, girl Scout Council of Tropical Florida, united Way Impact Board for Rockdale County and Cobb Collaborative.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Wow, you girl, I tell you you're definitely involved with this here.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: I love what you're doing, the diversity, spreading it out among everything that you do as far as nonprofits.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us and being able to answer some questions for us as far as how the nonprofits work.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: First, I want to dive into some questions for you and how you actually got involved with the nonprofits.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Can you tell us your journey of how that started?
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: Sure, by education and training.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: I am also a CPA.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: That's how I started my career in public accounting, working for what was then a big eight CPA firm and now down to four.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: But in that capacity I was on the audit side of things and I had an opportunity to serve a variety of clients, both for-profit and non-profit.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: But when I left because I had this need to do the work and not just check behind others in terms of auditing them and I went to work for the University of Miami at that time, which is a not-for-profit education institution but I still had this tug in my heart to do more, to serve more.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: I attribute that to just my own internal personality and drive for life in terms of serving others and wanting to have an impact in people's lives I felt like it was time to go and do something different and more and deeper.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: And that's when I left and worked for a community-based nonprofit organization in their accounting department and got closer to those that we served.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: But then I took a break and stayed home with our first child and when I went back to the workforce I decided I think I'm ready to do this on my own and that's when I started my CPA practice and, as it happened, every referral that I received from friends and colleagues and contacts were nonprofit organizations.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: I began focusing on them and recognizing and contacts were nonprofit organizations, I began focusing on them and recognizing that this is my calling.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: This is the space that I am supposed to serve in, and now I will be intentional about acquiring clients that are in this space.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: That's what I've done ever since is actively pursued nonprofit organizations and just really began trying to help them increase their capacity and their sustainability.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Now, over the years, I have served some for-profit clients, a couple of them in my own practice, but then also collaborating with colleagues who have asked me to come in on projects with them.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Some of them serve some Fortune 500 companies and have gone in and done some of that.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: But really my heart has always been with nonprofit organizations and that led me to actually transition all of those non-accounting services out of the CPA firm and into 501c Impact.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: So now all of my work is done there and that's really where I find my greatest joy.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: That's awesome and I have to say I think we have a mutual friend, Andrea Lockhart.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Oh, yes, so I don't know her very well, but I did meet her through the Atlanta Black Chambers.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: Since having met her there, I refer organizations and for-profit entrepreneurs and the like to her.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: So it's been many years since I've seen her, but I continue to refer people to her.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she's our CPA.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: Okay, awesome, awesome.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: I'm her BNI.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: She's our BNI president, so yeah, so she's my client, I'm her client.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Well, tell her.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: I said hello, she'll likely not remember me, but I will no.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: I said she refers all these big companies to you.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I definitely will no.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: She refers to all these big companies to you, so yeah, I definitely will no, it's great.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: So now, what do you find most rewarding about your role as a consulting, trainer and coach?
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: With their best selves.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: I used to subscribe in my CPA practice to a mantra of really helping people to understand how to do the work, equipping them with the resources to do the work and then ensuring that they're holistically well and not really what you would think of from a CPA, but somehow just from my own work in different environments.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: I learned from watching you never know who's watching you Absolutely my own experiences in different companies and then watching others.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: What came to my mind's eye was that this combination of people needing to have what they need to do their job, being happy when they come to work or in at least an environment that promotes this team concept, and then just rallying around a shared vision and I really didn't.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: I wasn't able to completely articulate that at the time, but I just felt like that was the formula.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Over the years, as I learned more through going to formal training for myself and always I consider myself a lifelong learner Then I began to recognize that there's terminology for these things, that this is a real philosophy that people subscribe to, and I could be again intentional about building on that and then using it in my work, just being up close with people and helping them, because a lot of my clients when I was on the accounting side.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: They were frustrated In these nonprofit organizations.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: Their staff, particularly in the accounting department a lot of them had bookkeepers and not accountants or CPAs.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: There was a different level of training, education and experience that they did not have and it would frustrate them to not be able to do what they needed to do and they desperately wanted to.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: And that's where I was able to come in and begin helping them side by side to learn the information, understand why it mattered.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: That was.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: The other component was to understand the why behind things.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: Then they could find mistakes if they made them for themselves instead of the auditor coming in and finding it because they had someone to take the time.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: That's why I enjoy it so much.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: There's a different level of camaraderie I find in nonprofits and I'm sure we're going to hear from some for-profit folks I run a for-profit as well that say that's not true.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: We have a great culture in our company.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: But there's just a different level of commitment and team that I tend to find in the nonprofit sector and it's probably because they're driving towards social change and helping people and it's not a profit motive, it's a improvement, a community improvement motive, trying to make a difference in people's lives, and for me that just resonates and it allows me to lend my skills and impact an organization that's doing great things in the community.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: That's awesome, and we talked about the board game, so can you share the story behind the board of directors and, in particular, their chief executive?
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: whether it's their title, ceo or executive director.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: There was this common frustration among them and typically it was my board's not following through.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: They're not doing what I need them to do to really support my work there, and this is that 80-20 rule, where 20% of the board is doing 80% of the work, and that applies in a lot of different areas of our lives and jobs, but it was true in this capacity, and they either needed them to help fundraise more or to show up to the meeting so that they'd have a quorum, or to volunteer to chair a committee and just a myriad of things.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: So I recognize this pattern of pain points and symptoms of a bigger issue which, for me, I felt like that issue was they didn.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Some cases they were, but even that wasn't enough.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: They still didn't understand what it looked like to fulfill their roles and responsibilities.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: The other side of that is they also didn't understand the consequences of not fulfilling their responsibilities.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: So if they didn't follow through or they weren't effective, they didn't really understand what issue, what problems that caused, not only for the chief executive but for the organization as a whole.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: And it truly impacts the sustainability of a nonprofit when your board does not fulfill its responsibilities effectively and it could lead to your chief executive leaving because they've had enough, they can't take any more of trying to do their job and the board's job.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: All of that led me to think maybe it's the way that we're training these folks and because there's consultants all over the country and the world.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: There's thousands of people doing what I do and I thought maybe we them to learn by doing, and really it's a simulation.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: It allows them to simulate serving on the board and, to some degree, running the nonprofit, just because of the way I designed it, so they can make decisions, they can engage in strategic planning, they can engage in conversations around difficult issues that maybe they never directly address in the boardroom and they just remain the elephant in the room.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: And all the while, they're getting better at understanding what it looks like to be a board member and what does it look like to assist in fundraising and to be mindful of the risks and exposures that the organization is subject to, and how do they plan for that and what does it mean to draft policies around different things that need to be in place, particularly now with all of this AI?
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: We were chatting just before we went on air about how each of us is using AI in our businesses.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: As things are evolving so quickly with our world and our economy, there's things that the board needs to be aware of, and they and to develop a board game that I'm really excited and proud of and has allowed nonprofits to have these ahas and walk away from that experience with a short list of action steps.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: It's not a full strategic plan, but it's created conversation, it's created team and it's allowed them to walk away with how are we going to do some things differently?
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: I love how you do that.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: So I think we touched on some of the things.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: But what are the most common challenges?
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Nonprofits, face boards, face today, and I think we probably touched on that a little bit.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I did touch on it, but there's definitely worth repeating and amplifying that, because there are a lot of commonalities and one of the things I think is the largest is the fact that there's constant turnover.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: You have to consistently meet new people and create relationship quickly, because ideally you have term limits on your board.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: I've come into some boards that don't have term limits and people serve for decades, which is not healthy in the long run.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: But you want to bring in new voices, new ideas, new perspectives.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: You want to give people a break from serving for a very long time.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: You want to give them an opportunity to serve on other boards for which they have an interest, because we're not one-dimensional.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: We have interests in a lot of areas.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: We probably support multiple charities in different ways and term limits cause this concern of constantly turning over people every two to three years for their individual service.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: But it turns into someone rolling off the board every single year and particularly for the chief executive, that board chair is probably turning over every year or every two years, because board chairs typically serve one to two year terms.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Now you've got to create a new bond and a new relationship with people in a short amount of time, and that challenge is what I find as a huge hurdle, because you have these very well-intentioned and high-capacity individuals who are leaders in different ways of their life, different walks, but they're not necessarily connecting the dots in terms of oh, I need to bring those same skill sets to this board that I'm using at my other job or in my household or in my church or wherever it is.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: They're also a leader, so that we can create an accountability structure that allows us to not only follow through but to hold the person next to us accountable and if they're not fulfilling their responsibility, step forward and speak up and say something about that in a proper way, be professional with addressing those concerns.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: But I think that element of leadership is one of the biggest challenges that organizations face is what does leadership really mean when you get to a board?
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: Because it's not just about padding your resume, although that's a great perk.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: It's also about bringing your talent and then functioning in a way that mirrors some of the ways you expect things to function back at your workforce, where you're the VP of something or the president of something, and I agree with that.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: So how can organizations balance their governors with day-to-day operational effectiveness right Without overwhelming their leadership and we just talking about leadership.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: So how can they do that?
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: One of the ways is understanding your role as a board member in terms of oversight.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: How do you exhibit oversight?
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: Oversight for the financial matters of the nonprofit, oversight of the program and whether it's meeting the intended outcomes.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: How are the programs delivering on the mission?
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: But then also oversight of the chief executive, ensuring that they're bringing back to you the information that you need every month in a board meeting, or bimonthly or however frequently you meet the information you need to make decisions.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: A lot of times I'll find, especially when I'm working with organizations that are transitioning from their founding board to a true governing board they have a challenge in letting go of the reins.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: When you're a founding board, you're used to being in the weeds.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: You do a lot of the work yourself because you're getting the organization up and running.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: But as you transition out of that and you've got staff now working at your nonprofit, the staff are expected to carry the load and execute the strategic plan and the policies under the guidance of the chief direct.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: But the board needs to have oversight on that.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: They want to know that we're expanding our reach or we're changing lives or getting more people to access to healthcare, or we're protecting our environment and the way that our mission says and toward the vision that we adopted, and bringing that operational element in alignment with the board governing element is probably.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: Another challenge that I could have listed is how do we walk that fine line of keeping the board at that 30,000-foot level of oversight and then diving deeper into the weeds when there's true questions and concerns around specific issues and then coming back up to that 30,000-foot level to allow the chief executive and the staff to carry out the day-to-day responsibilities, but also including them when appropriate in a board meeting as a guest to the meeting to share some deeper information and really continue to educate the board on what's happening from day-to day.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: What are they seeing, what are they hearing?
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Maybe letting the board take a tour of certain facilities or sit in on a program where it's appropriate so they get that firsthand experience and look into exactly what the organization is doing?
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: So even that is another challenge in terms of the board truly understanding what is the work that we do.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: I know the mission I joined the board because I agree with the mission but I'm not necessarily familiar with all the programs we offer, and that then keeps the board from being able to talk about those programs out in the community.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: That further helps promote the good work that they're doing.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: So it's all very interconnected, but you just have to know how to navigate the lane that you're supposed to be in at a particular time.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: That's awesome and that really makes education is so important.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: And involvement and getting everybody involved, that's how you grow, right?
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, leadership development is a big part of your work, right?
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: So what qualities do you believe that make an effect of nonprofit leaders in today's climate?
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: A number one factor is listening.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: You have to be able to listen.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: A lot of times you'll encounter leaders that are eager to share their thoughts and ideas and without listening to others in the room and giving everyone an opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas, and without listening to others in the room and giving everyone an opportunity to share.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: So it's very important to listen, and actively listen, so, as you hear what's being said, comment on it, ask a follow-up question, see how it aligns with what you're thinking, use it as a jumping off point to then share what your thoughts are and see how you all can work toward a common solution.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: Another thing about leadership is not being so quick to jump to the solution.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: Sometimes, especially at the board level, when you've had a long day at work and now you're going to a six o'clock meeting in the evening that's going to last 90 minutes on average, maybe two hours You're anxious to get out and you want to go home.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: You're tired.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: You've dealt with a lot of crises already in your day job to make it through that meeting and to listen and contribute and not check out, not think about what you still have to do for the rest of the evening, not reflect on what happened during the day.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: A lot of times there's a transition that's needed by the board chair who's leading the meeting, to maybe give people five to 10 minutes to decompress at the beginning of the board meeting before you jump right in.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: Allow the members to walk around and talk with each other and just shift gears, if you will, before diving into the business of the nonprofit.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: So there's a lot of skills that leaders should possess in this particular sector with making that transition from coming from and I continue to say coming from a day job, but you may be coming from your household, where you've managed a lot of things, because maybe you're retired or you're a stay-at-home parent, and now you're going into a board meeting bringing your skills and your talents and you've got other types of dynamics you were dealing with.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: So it's all the same, but different.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: Being intentional around these leadership skills of active listening, of giving others an opportunity to speak, stepping back we like to call it step up to speak If you don't normally share.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: Step back to give others an opportunity If you typically hog the mic, so to speak, so that everyone has an opportunity to be heard.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: And then mentoring others.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: If a new board member comes on, then be a buddy to that person and help them learn the dynamics and the culture of your board.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: I love that, I love that and talk about, and we're winding down, I'm going to have you on again.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: So many nonprofits rely on volunteers and community members.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: How can leadership development extend beyond the staff to include board members and volunteers?
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Great question.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: The best way for organizations to look at their people is to look at them as resources.
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: Everyone is a resource that helps move the mission forward and get to that ultimate vision that you have.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: Those resources are not just financial, like we typically think of.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: It's human capital your board members, your paid employees and your unpaid volunteers, and that means you should treat your volunteers in the same way you would in your employees in terms of onboarding them.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: So it's really good for organizations to have a formal onboarding process for their volunteers to ensure that they understand the do's and don'ts at the organization, the basic rules and responsibilities, things they have to comply with legally, but also to help them feel a part of the family, that they are not an outsider, they're not just a volunteer, they're critical to the success of the organization overall.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: That includes onboarding them formally, allowing them to go through training, not just training about your programs and services or how to do a particular task, but even training on skills development, if you feel like those particular skills are very important to your organization, whether it be customer service or just the way they're sorting donations.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: If there's a process to that, ensure your volunteers are part of that and reward them and acknowledge them and ensure that they feel comfortable and welcomed and a part of the team.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: I love that because they want to be part of what was being created and stuff.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and if, without them, you would not get the same level of success that you're achieving, because they're willing to come in and do it without pay, they're truly giving up a lot.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: They're just as important as the board, who's volunteering their time but setting direction, and the staff, who's getting compensated but executing.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: And then the volunteers, who are not getting compensated but are a key component to the overall success and sustainability of the organization.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: So let me ask you something.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: Could you share an example of a nonprofit transformation you have witnessed, where better leadership of board governors made a significant impact?
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry I missed the question.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: I thought you were still setting it up.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: Do you mind repeating it?
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: No problem.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: Can you share an example of a nonprofit transformation you witnessed where better leadership aboard governors made a significant impact?
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: One in particular is just when we were able to create a sense of being heard and I've used that consistently.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: There was a disconnect between the board and the senior leadership in terms of their perspective around how things should be done or whether the other side was fully qualified and actually it's a couple of clients I've served in this way whether they were fully qualified.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: Some questioned the ability of the board members and board members questioned the ability of the staff to the point where they were not communicating effectively.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: And one of the things I do with my clients regularly is a board self assessment and we start out by administering an assessment to the board to give them an opportunity to score themselves and understand what their responsibilities are.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: Just by the nature of taking the assessment, the questions themselves are educational, but through their own words and scoring they can see where they land in the continuum of what is expected of a board member.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: There's 10 universally accepted roles and responsibilities.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: From there, I don't just give them back the results, we dialogue around them and we go through each of the four primary components of the particular assessment tool I use, which is for the board source self-assessment, and it creates conversation and what happens is I'm able to facilitate, in a safe space, a conversation among the board and the chief executives in a way that they've never done before.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: They're talking to each other about concerns they've had in an environment where they know they will not be retaliated against, because we lay out rules of engagement that everyone agrees to and from this debriefing, which is multiple sessions, even though we end with an action plan of what we're going to do from there.
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: To answer your question, the point is it allowed them to create a stronger working relationship, work together more effectively, they increased their trust level among themselves and they increased their individual competence about what they were supposed to do and how to do it, and there were a lot of other things that have come out of that.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: From the various clients I've helped in this way, but with two in particular that come to mind right off the top, those are some of the outcomes that we achieved because of the assessment and then the facilitated dialogue and the safe space that I created as part of the process, and it's helping them to just move forward in ways that they were very concerned about prior to that that's awesome.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: That really makes a big difference.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Assessing each other and knowing where each one, understanding each one of that.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: So that's great.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about and we're winding down here, Okay, I'll have you back on because there's a lot of information that we need to learn from.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: I would love to come back and learn from that.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: So what is one practical tip or strategy you encourage nonprofit leaders to implement right away to strengthen their organization?
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: I know it's a lot of tips, yeah.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: I would say working on their culture and that's a ubiquitous term.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: Everyone is talking culture, but when I say that I mean it genuinely, in the sense that really tap into your people and what they are feeling, what they need and what success looks like for them as they attempt to contribute to the mission of the organization.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: So I'm speaking from a staff perspective.
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: I've worked with organizations, I've done leadership development with their staff and coaching, and it has been an opportunity for employees to talk for the first time in ways that they haven't before Again, that safe space of sharing what their challenges are and what their concerns are and what they would like to have.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: Even though the company has an annual evaluation process and even though they have one-on-one meetings with these employees, in that evaluation meeting, there's still some things that are going unattended.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: When you lean into that as a leader, as a chief executive, with your senior leadership team if there is another layer sometimes there isn't and it's the chief executive doing this when you lean into saying I truly care about my staff having what they need and them understanding what it takes to get what we need, that's another disconnect is the staff don't always understand what it really takes to run the organization and that was another way I used my game was to play it where I had staff playing the game and one of the employees walked away from the game saying, wow, I have a whole new level of respect for my chief executive.
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: I did not realize this is what she has to carry every day in her job.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: I think the takeaway is being in tune, being aware, being alert to what's happening with your staff.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: And then how can we do something about that?
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: What is it going to take for us to ensure that they're getting what they need and they're all in and we have a mechanism to continue this, so that they have a way to report out if they need to address something else going forward?
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: And the same is with the board being in tune, working hand in hand with that board chair.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: The strongest relationship of the board with the staff is between that board chair and the chief executive.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: If they're not communicating weekly in some way, whether it's text or a formal meeting or a phone call, then there's a problem.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: They need to have the strongest relationship to make the board effective in its work.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: Those would be the two takeaways within the similar category of being in tune to the people and trying to help them to get what they need.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: So I get listening, communication and relationship.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Oh, you're good.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: You are good.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: Yes, that was yes, yes.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: Well, let down to the nuts and to the nitty gritty.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Yes, three words listening, communication and relationship.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: So how can listeners connect with you and learn more about your services and resources?
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: Thank you for asking me that they can connect with me.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: On my website, www.501, 501cimpactcom www.501cimpactcom, there's a contact us page.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: They can also reach out directly.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: My phone is 770-865-0979.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: That's the company line and I'm on LinkedIn so they can reach out and invite me to connect with them on LinkedIn and email info at 501cimpactcom so they can shoot me an email, call me, go to the website or send an invitation to connect on LinkedIn and you are on Facebook too.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, I'm also on Facebook.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: 501cimpact is the Facebook page.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: Thank you for adding that additional social media platform.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: I'm going to put it all on the show notes.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: So everything is going to be on the show notes so people can remember, because I know we have CRS sometimes.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: What did she say?
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: What's she talking about?
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: So it's going to be on the show notes as well.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: But thank you so much for coming on my show.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: But, wow, what an incredible conversation with you, with Glenda Hicks.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: Her insights on board governance, leadership, development and operational effectiveness are so valuable for anyone striving to strengthen their organization and maximize their impact.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: If you'd like to learn more about Glenda and her transformative work with nonprofits, be sure to connect with her at and Glenda just said her website 501C, no, www.501cimpactcom.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: So definitely connect with her and I'm going to put that all in the show notes and remember collaboration is the key to success.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: Thank you for tuning in to Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share with a friend.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Also subscribe on my YouTube channel, ready Set Collaborate podcast and with Wanda Pearson or WD Pearson Associates.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: Thanks again, brent.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: I'm going to call you Brent.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: Thanks again, linda.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: No worries For being on my podcast.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: This was very informative and and really taught me a lot about what you do and you're just a wealth of knowledge.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: You know as far as you are.
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: I really enjoyed it, wanda.
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: I appreciate the invitation.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: I look forward to joining you again in the future and I thank you for all that you do.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: This is a collaborative effort, and having us on as guests to share who we are and what we do is part of how you're giving back to the community.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: I want to amplify that.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: I greatly appreciate this opportunity.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: So until next time, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel now?
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Yes, ma'am, absolutely All right.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Thank you Bye.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: That wraps up another episode of Ready Set.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Collaborate with Wanda Pearson.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: I hope you found inspiration and valuable insights to help you build meaningful connections and successful collaborations.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe, share and stay tuned for more great discussions.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Until next time, keep collaborating and making an impact.