Chairs Training | The Effective Third Sector Chair

The Effective Third Sector Chair

First among equals, the Chair leads the Board and sets its agenda. The Chair is pivotal in creating the conditions for the overall Board and individual director/trustee effectiveness.

This series of four workshops will explore good governance and support individuals to be an Effective Third Sector Chair.

Over the course of the workshop series, participants will also receive extensive materials which will build to form a good governance handbook.

The Role of the Chair in ensuring an Effective Board

This workshop will focus on the governance role, the board cycle of business, preparation and conduct before, during and after meetings. Creating an environment of informed decision making, clarification of responsibilities and monitoring the implementation of decisions.

Annual Performance Appraisal – the case for appraising, the Chair, CEO, Board and individual Trustees

Utilising performance appraisals to enhance and enable board performance improvement. This session will focus on techniques and procedures for:

CEO formal performance appraisal

Appraising the board Chair

Appraisals of individual Trustees

Whole board evaluation

Effective Relations between the Chair and CEO

This workshop will explore the relationship between the Chair and Chief Executive. When the relationship is weak or sour, both are distracted in trying to manage their relationship and the organisation suffers. When the Chair – CEO relationship is strong, the organisation benefits, with each playing a distinct leadership role and each supporting the other.

Strategic Direction, Financial Oversight and Stakeholder Relations

The board’s role is to ensure delivery of the organisation’s objectives within a framework of prudent and effective controls. This workshop will explore tools to assist in setting out strategy, what information is required to provide robust financial oversight and the importance of strong stakeholder relationships in delivering objectives.

Programme Leader

The workshop programme will be led by Brendan Mullan. Brendan is a Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors. He is a winner of the Northern Ireland Non-Executive Director of the Year Award and was also recognised at the UK Director of the Year Awards for Excellence in Corporate Governance.

Previous Programme Participants’ Comments

“An excellent programme. All subjects were covered in sufficient depth and the opportunity for discussion was particularly valuable. Handouts a real source of information for future reference.”

“The training was very well planned and led. Within the past couple of years I have become a Trustee on a couple of boards and it was good to meet others from such a range of organisations, and to hear that we all have similar issues.”

“Really well presented in interesting and understandable way. Excellent support materials. Good mixture of didactic and discussion. Useful network of other Chairs and learning from their experience.”

“As a new Chair I am so grateful for the support and encouragement this course has given me. I really feel equipped to deal with the issues faced by a small charity. Thank you so much.”