Governance is a Craft for both individual directors and boards as a whole.
Individual governance leaders are “practicing a Strategic Steerage Craft,” honing their skills.
5 Ways to Improve Your Craft:
1. Cultivate an Insatiable Curiosity
Governance leaders approach the unknown as a mystery – studying, changing perspectives, connecting the dots, and making observations.
They approach everything with a desire to know more vs. being right.
Curiosity actively opens up new worlds and possibilities.
2. Think Strategically
Governance leaders keep Vision, Mission, & Values as guideposts while navigating obstacles to the organization’s purpose.
While necessary, analysis alone – inside, outside, and future trends – will not yield strategy.
Creativity and innovation within a distributed stakeholder world are part of strategy, too.
3. Ask Good Questions
Governance leaders surface assumptions with open-ended as well as focused questions.
They understand brainstorming questions is initially more important than brainstorming solutions.
It is an approach of surfacing new avenues and opportunities while comfortable being wrong.
4. Learn Decision Making
Governance leaders understand the biases they bring to decision-making.
Rather than making a decision based on past results, they consider possibilities and probable outcomes.
Creativity is as important as analysis in judgment.
5. Create Value plus Oversight
Governance leaders add strategic value to the organization.
They understand that compliance and risk are necessary but insufficient for today’s governance issues.
The craft becomes one of active mentorship that challenges the status quo and guides wayfinding for all stakeholders.
Summary
Strategic Steerage Craft is something to learn and then practice, always perfecting like a master potter, fine woodworker, prima ballerina, or professional athlete. It is a practice in search of excellence.
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