I recently recorded a podcast featuring Al French, Spokane
County Commissioner and Chair of the Board of the Spokane Transit Authority
(STA) and Susan Meyer, CEO of STA. They describe, from their different
perspectives, how they worked as a really cohesive leadership team in getting a
truly high-stakes, out of the box change initiative accomplished at STA. What happened under their leadership was the
transformation of the STA Board of Directors into a higher impact governing
body, primarily by putting an updated Board standing committee structure in
place.
I was fortunate to work closely with Al and Sue in
strengthening STA governance, so I was able to see the “Al and Susan Show” in
action close up. Four factors appear to
account for their functioning as such a productive Board Chair-CEO Leadership
Team:
1.
Both Al and Sue are united by their passionate
commitment to the STA vision and mission, and they don’t let narrower, more
parochial agendas get in the way of serving STA’s customers and stakeholders.
2.
Al and Sue not only have tremendous respect for
each other, they also very consciously help each other succeed in carrying out
their related, but different, leadership roles as Board Chair and CEO. Over the course of the several months I
worked closely with them, I never saw Al and Sue compete with each other. I don’t mean to say they never disagreed; of
course they did. But compete with each
other? Never!
3.
They clearly understood and observed in practice
the basic division of labor governing their roles: that the Board Chair leads the Board’s
deliberations, the CEO is responsible
for all international operations, and they share the external relations role.
4.
And they never kept their distance,
communicating openly and frequently and taking the time to work through complex
issues.
Over my quarter-century of working with nonprofit and public
organizations, I’ve identified the board-CEO partnership as one of the preeminent
keys to organizational effectiveness and success over the long run, so STA is,
indeed, fortunate to have the “Al and Susan Show” playing in Spokane.
Listen To Podcast Here
