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

Product Description 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 governanceThe role of the CEO as the board’s chief governing partner and captain of the Strategic Governing TeamAn 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 performanceThe design of board standing committees that function as highly efficient governing engines, working in close partnership with the CEOMeaningful board-member engagement in strategic and operational planning, performance oversight, and external relations—turning board members into satisfied owners of their governing workIf 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. About the Author The founder and CEO of Doug Eadie & Company, Doug Eadie has over the past thirty years helped more than five hundred public and nonprofit organizations to build their boards' capacity to do high-impact governing work and to develop rock-solid board-CEO working relationships. Doug is the author of twenty-one books in addition to Building a Solid Board-CEO Partnership, including The Board-Savvy CEO, and of more than one hundred articles on board and CEO leadership and board-CEO relations. He administers and writes for a popular blog for public transportation leaders, www.boardsavvytransitceo.com. Before founding Doug Eadie & Company, Doug served in a number of senior executive positions in the nonprofit sector and as a Peace Corps teacher in Ethiopia for three years. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Doug was awarded the master of science in management degree by the Weatherhead School of Case Western Reserve University.David Stackrow is managing partner of Scott, Stackrow & Co., CPAs. He was appointed to the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) board in 1995, serving as board chair during three different terms. Dave was named Outstanding Board Member of the Year in 2009 by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). He was elected to the APTA board of directors in 2014 and to the executive committee in 2016, and he currently serves as chair of the APTA board. Dave has served as chair of APTA's transit board member and audit committees and has been involved in a number of other APTA committees, including finance. Dave is a graduate of La Salle Institute and Siena