3 Tips for Building a Solid Governance Structure

Don’t get overwhelmed with your governance structures.  Keep them simple.

Here's three that most have:

  • Board of Directors;
  • Standing Committees (i.e. finance, membership, government affairs, education); and
  • A Task Force for anything else since Task Force’s expire after their work is done.

And use these three different entities to showcase your volunteers and it’s a great proving ground for leadership in your governance structure moving forward.

What do I mean by that?

  • A rock star on a Task Force might be invited to join a Standing Committee in the future;
  • A Standing Committee rock star may be asked to join the Board;
  • A rock star Board member may be asked to chair a Standing Committee; and
  • And those Standing Committee chairs might rise to the leadership positions on the Board (i.e., vice chair, incoming chair and eventually chair).

Just a thought!  But at least you’ll have a track record of their leadership skills over a period of time.

That’s a recipe for success in any governance structure.

For more resources on governance from the Free Management Library go HERE.

And don't forget to create a scorecard for your board.  You can go HERE to find a blog post on that subject!

Public Speaking: Less is More

There’s nothing worse than listening to a speaker who repeats the “ums,” “so,” or “like” every sentence.

The fact of the matter is that it’s just a nervous tick the presenter needs to become aware of and it can be easily fixed.

Always remember, “silence is golden.”

Use a pause in your speech instead of the dreaded; "um," "so" or "like."

By remaining silent, it gives you a chance to gather your thoughts and your audience will be on the edge of their seat waiting for your next comment.

Don’t be critical of your public speaking.  We all started out with the dreaded "um," "so" or "like" as fillers to our spoken word.

Take a deep breath, focus on your story, and when you feel the urge to fill space with one of those words, don’t!

You’ll become the better speaker for it, your audience will enjoy your talks more and listen to what you have to say.

For more resources on public speaking from Toastmasters International go HERE.

For a post I did last year titled Public Speaking 101: 3 Tips to Remember go HERE.