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Board Leadership and Development: Summary of Findings The areas of board leadership and development are perhaps the most difficult to define for the purposes of best practices research. Leadership is always contextual. One county may define leadership differently than another. Each county may have its own needs in terms of leadership development. A county commissioner from North Carolina may see and like an example of good strategic planning in a California county, but will still need to adapt that practice to suit the context and budget in their county. If there is one clear best practice to be drawn from my research, it would be active communication. From the examples in the previous section, it is clear that communication is key to an effective board. This “active communication,” as I term it, takes many forms. It involves constant communication between board members about upcoming issues before meetings; constant interaction with the county manager and staff in order to arm board members with current and up-to-date information; and talking out contentious issues with other board members on an individual level to show empathy and resolve the conflict quickly. Active communication must be present within meetings as well. The chair must set an agenda that addresses all issues equally and fairly, with each member receiving adequate time for those issues that are important to them. Board members must be treated with respect and allowed to talk in turn. Chairs must be willing to take control of the meeting when a board member or member of the audience gets out of hand. Each element of active communication is not only the responsibility of the chair, but also of every board member. As such, active communication is not only a key element of board leadership, but a necessary element for the basic functioning of any board. Another key best practice closely related to communication is creating an information network. This means that the chair should be in constant contact with all board members between meetings so that no one is surprised by an issue. Also, the board should request updates from the county manager at least once a week. This spread of information can be done fairly easily, for example through a weekly e-mail. However, during times of crisis, board members must be willing and available to accept regular phone calls. Lastly, the final conclusive best practice from my interviews is having a clear mission. Many commissioners I interviewed noted that setting a mission at the beginning of every year helps the board stay focused on important issues and reminds them of what is good for the county. It also helps reduced political in-fighting, since everyone has the same goals and the same boundaries. Most government officials and associations consider board leadership and development to be a learned skill, garnered through education programs and workshops. This may be true, but in my interviews with various commissioners and experts, board leadership and development also comes from experience in working together. Those experiences will be unique to each board and cannot be taught, categorized or listed as a best practice. My first recommendation to the NCACC is to work on the Association’s definition of leadership. Although this may be elusive, getting an outline or “categories” of board leadership is key. This can be done by polling members. What are your needs in terms of board leadership? Do you have conflict problems? Is strategic planning an issue? Do you need advice on how to run meetings? Is there a problem with cohesiveness? All these questions and more will give the Association an idea of the best practices needed in North Carolina. Another suggestion, inspired by Mary Ann Black, is that the Association may need to turn briefly away from best practices and look more at defining the problems in board leadership and development. This could be done by identifying troubled county boards, interviewing county managers and listening to the tapes of county board meetings. This endeavor may require the resources of future interns, as well as consultants who understand team building, psychology, etc. There are many reading materials on board leadership, communication, etc. that would be excellent resources for commissioners. The sources from Part B of this report, as well as those in the “resource library section,” should be distributed to commissioners. This section will need to be updated as more information is published. Ultimately, the best judge of best practices in board leadership and development are will be the board members themselves. My final suggestion is to tap the membership as a resource to judge these practices. There are endless workshops, consultant programs and books that try to capture best practices in board leadership. In order to separate the valuable from the trivial, send commissioners and managers to these workshops and sessions and ask them to judge what best practices they got from it. They will likely choose those practices that address the problems they see in their county. As a result, the NCACC will not only develop a more accurate list of best practices, but it will relate directly to what is needed in this state. As provided in this research report, there are many consultants and programs that are available for this research. I suggest that these consultants and conferences be listed on the NCACC Web site as links, so that interested county boards can attend on their own time. These will need to be periodically updated. It should be noted that you may find no definite best practices in leadership. What works for one county may not work in another. The models and theories given in this report are simply suggestions that must be adapted for each county. It is also clear that board development is just as illusive – boards effectively develop through education, training and experience. Through education, county commissioners can build skill sets that will not only help them become better leaders, but may help them develop their own creative methods of improving board leadership and development. However, it is interesting to note that many of the most successful statewide training programs for county commissioners do not include a specific track of board development courses. The Institute of Government currently offers courses in board leadership and development, and perhaps one way to make North Carolina a best practices state is to create a county commissioner training program that emphasizes board development rather than treating it as one subject among many. New commissioner packets should contain at least some of the information from this report and future best practices research, as well as the County Leadership Handbook, produced by NACo every four years (available on the NACo Web site; see Leadership resource library). There are several best practices that stand out among successful county commissioners. They are:
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