1. Practicing leadership presence
foundations of board engagement
Nathan Brown Ph.D.
TrueBearing Consulting

2. The Board experience
The experience of serving on a board

3. The Board experience The experience of serving on a board
Thinking back on your board career (or any goal-oriented group experience)
Identify a “peak” and a “pit” experience
How do you make sense of each experience? What made it turn out so well or so poorly?

4. The Board experience The experience of serving on a board
Thinking back on your board career (or any goal-oriented group experience)
Identify a “peak” and a “pit” experience
How do you make sense of each experience? What made it turn out so well or so poorly?
There are at least two ways we tend to make sense of these experiences:
In terms of the success or failure of certain leadership techniques
In terms of the human/relational strengths and weaknesses of those involved

5. leadership presence- What is it?

6. leadership presence- What is it?
Leadership presence is a learned ability
to focus your attention on the situation at hand
to recognize your own range of choices in the moment
to empower others to bring their best to the situation

7. Presence is not a technique
“You can’t just cut and paste a few things effective leaders do and expect the same results– Good leadership flows from the inside out.”

8. Presence brings leadership techniques to life
Just as a well-made tool requires the skilled hands of a master carpenter to create something beautiful, the degree of success of any sound board leadership technique depends upon a leader who is fully present.

9. Leadership Presence and Performance
Small wins- focus on chunks of moderate importance
Focus on what you can control- efficacy
All of us ride this curve:
Board colleagues
Staff
Ourselves

10. Becoming a non-anxious presence
“The most important attribute of a leader is not knowledge or technique but what the leader brings in his/her presence. And the presence he/she needs is a non-anxious presence.” Edwin Friedman, Failure of Nerve.

11. Cultivating presence in Yourself One habit of highly effective Samurai
A board’s level of engagement in its work depends on the extent to which its members are personally present– at the top of their personal performance curve

12. Cultivating presence in others
Always begin with yourself
Maintain your own non-anxious presence. You’ll know you’re doing that when you exhibit:
Positive attitude
Attentive listening, other focused
Consistent “people skills”
Capacity to be vulnerable, to acknowledge mistakes

13. Cultivating presence in others
Always begin with yourself
Cultivate meaningful relationships among board members: bedrock of a healthy organization
Recognize that cultivating relationships among board members are as important to the long-term health of the board (and the organization) as the tasks
Team up on assignments where possible
Offer helpful feedback and genuine appreciation
Take time for conversation

14. Cultivating presence in others
Always begin with yourself
Cultivate meaningful relationships among board members: bedrock of a healthy organization
Identify and support others’ efforts to get atop their own stress curve
Identify and support others’ efforts to get on top of their own stress curve
Support others’ investment of time and energy in at least some tasks that are personally meaningful to them
Encourage others to engage in “small wins”

15. Cultivating presence in others
Four touchstones
Always begin with yourself
Cultivate meaningful relationships among board members: bedrock of a healthy organization
Identify and support others’ efforts to get atop their own stress curve
Create a decision making culture that systematically engages all voices
Create a decision making culture that systematically engages all voices
Next session

16. Playing the game right
The moment could hardly have been bigger for the Mariners’ Bill Risley. Coming into the ninth inning, tying run at the plate of this franchise-defining game, Risley proceed to get two tension-filled outs, pick up his second-career save and send the Mariners on to Game 5. "I was not nervous at all, no butterflies, nothing," Risley told author Chris Donnelly for his 2010 book Baseball's Greatest Series of taking the mound in that game. "Lou (Pinella) told me to 'relax like you've never relaxed before.' That really helped me because he knows I'm an intense guy and I try to overdo it.” (Source:

17. Nathan Brown Ph.D. TrueBearing Consulting LLC
©TrueBearing LLC Contact author for permission to use these materials in whole or in part.