On Jamie's post about my post, On Collins' What Makes Powerful Nonprofit Leaders, Virgil posted this in his comment:
"Why is it that ASAE and some of our association bloggers can't figure out how to align and communicate membership mantras and leadership mantras? For example, when we hear ASAE talk about membership, we often hear incessantly that the membership is why we exist, whom we serve and how we should measure success. We hear that all too often association leadership is "out of synch" or disconnected with membership.
Yet when we hear about leadership, for example, we hear how important it is for leaders to be visionary, strategic, energetic, bold, courageous, making hard decisions that are best for the organization, yada yada.
Come on. Does anyone besides me see the complete mismatch (and conflicting results) these two independent disconnected views of membership and leadership represent? Do we have the membership specialists espousing the membership mantras and the governance specialists promoting the leadership mantras, in some sort of ridiculously competitive song and dance?
When will ASAE & the Center reconcile membership and leadership into one single, integrated and comprehensive continuum? They really aren't separate, stand alone issues, you know?"
I am a bit confused and wanted to post on this and get some clarification, if possible. Are you talking about the "serving members" vs. "leading members" debate? (Here, here and here, for example).
If so, isn't the concept of "CEO as broker of ideas" precisely the single continuum you are asking for?
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