Building a Solid Board-CEO Partnership: A Practical Guidebook for Transit Board Members, CEOs, and CEO-Aspirants

In their new book, coauthors Doug Eadie and David Stackrow offer practical, detailed guidance for building the kind of close and productive transit board-CEO partnership that will stand the test of these challenging times. Without a high-functioning Strategic Governing Team at the top, the authors contend, public transit authorities fail to realize their tremendous potential to improve the quality of life in their communities. The polar opposite of a theoretical, abstract treatise on public leadership, this compact but richly detailed volume draws on the authors’ fifty-plus years of real-world experience in the transit sector. You’ll find it to be a deep reservoir of practical, tested guidance you can put to immediate use in transforming your board into a higher-impact governing body that makes a tremendous difference in the affairs of your authority.

The authors reject the traditional arm’s-length, “we-they” approach to the board-CEO partnership—a passive-reactive model that they describe as a recipe for governing futility. In its place they argue for making transit governing a truly “team sport,” appealing to the new breed of board member who expects to be actively engaged in shaping—not just making—strategic governing decisions.

In remarkably useful detail—including real-world cases—the authors cover such topics as

• Significant advances in the rapidly evolving field of public transit governance
• The role of the CEO as the board’s chief governing partner and captain of the Strategic Governing Team
• An updated, real-world definition of governing work as very concrete decisions and judgments, rather than vague “policy making”
• Practical ways to strengthen the board’s capacity to manage its own governing performance
• The design of board standing committees that function as highly efficient governing engines, working in close partnership with the CEO
• Meaningful board-member engagement in strategic and operational planning, performance oversight, and external relations—turning board members into satisfied owners of their governing work

If you’re a transit authority board member, CEO or CEO-aspirant, or an elected official who appoints transit board members, you’ll want to keep this volume close at hand, referring to it frequently in carrying out your leadership mission.