CEO Solutions :: KST Consulting

It’s US Census time!  Completing the census form prompted me to do a bit of personal reflection on how my personal and professional life has changed markedly in the past ten years. In fact, my life has been transformed. I am:

•  enjoying a different career as an association consultant after 35 years working inside associations,
•  married to a different man,
• grandmother to four children,
• live in a different home,
• a blond instead of brunnette (gray doesn’t fit my self image!)

just to list a few of the changes my life has undergone in the past 10 years. How has your life changed?

Better yet, what do you think has changed in your organization? How have your members changed? How have the demographics of your membership changed? What new programs/services are you offering and how are they being delivered differently? If you haven’t carefully considered these questions very recently, it is time to take a Census for your Organization.

I recommend you do it annually rather than waiting ten years. In fact, you need to keep in touch with the pulse of changes in your organization constantly with significant assessment periodically. So much can dramatically change in so little time that it is not enough to tweak your offerings, you may need a significant overhaul to your value proposition and how it is delivered.  You may need to be on a path of transformation through reinvention and innovation just as I have been personally and professionally for the past ten years. The changes I made didn’t all happen overnight or all at once. It was a progression of events and choices that resulted in my current life. Most of them occurred within a five to seven year timeframe.

A few things to think about:

• How will you attract and retain young professionals (millenials/Gen Y born 1977 and beyond) to engage them as future contributing members?
• How are you integrating social media into your marketing and communications initiatives if you haven’t already and are you gearin up for more changes in the social media environment?
• Are you successfully meeting and exceeding the expectations of four or more generations of culturally diverse members and staff?
• Do you engage in global initiatives? If not, are you missing opportunities?
• What language does your staff need to speak–English, Spanish, French, Chinese, other?
• What are your core business hours in a 24/7 world? Do you offer flexible schedules for staff? Operate up  from virtual offices?
• What needs to change, what needs to stay the same, what needs to be stopped so you can be the “go to resource” for your market five and ten years from now with a talented and engaged staff and cadre of volunteer leaders?

These are just a few questions that I encourage you to talk about with your stakeholders. What is your self image for the future and how will you achieve it?

Wishing you successful transformation in the next ten years, Karen

I was recently a speaker for a board development session–the first ever offered by the association. It made me wonder how many associations are neglecting this very important activity. Sure, most association CEOs offer some sort of orientation to the specifics of their association. For instance, there may be a round robin of presentations by various senior managers and an overview of the basic logistics such as travel expense policies and procedures, dress code, transportation tips, and more. How many devote time and resources to training their board members on how to be an effective board?

With this particular client, it was a group of highly educated and sophisticated members. Most of the individuals have served on other national boards, so they wanted more than the basics. I asked a few questions and determined that the basics were in fact needed in addition to more advanced knowledge.

For instance, most could not respond to my query about the three legal duties of a board. That was just the beginning and made me realize that I was on the right track by offering a board development session annually when I was a CEO. Do you? Can your board answer my query? What else might they know or not know? Think about how you can provide the training and information they need in order to protect themselves legally and lead your organization on a continued path of success. It’s a new decade, in this somewhat still new century. Maybe it is time for a new approach to your board orientation and development sessions. Just a thought.