18 Best Board Books

 

Issue No. 681 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (May 27, 2026) responds to a reader’s question about the best book on board governance. Plus, click here for back issues posted at the new location for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my recent review of The Imperfect CEO. Also, check out the resources in the Board Bucket. PICK ONE of these “18 Best Board Books” and deputize your “Leaders Are Readers Champion”—who will coordinate your “10 Minutes for Governance” lifelong learning segment at every board meeting. (Graphic: ChatGPT)   18 Best Board Books!  From a reader: “Hey, Pearson! What’s the best book for our senior team and board members to read on board governance best practices?” Me: “Pick one from my list of 18 best board books!” In 2018 and 2019, I blogged a series on “18 Good Governance Stimulators” for ECFA’s Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations Blog. (The list is below and here’s the original list—with links to short reviews of each book.) Here’s what I wrote back then: Last week, a board chair emailed me that he’s following the “10 Minutes for Governance” practice suggested in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom (see Lesson 39). Using a governance book that fits their board’s culture and season, each board meeting will feature a 10-minute segment to inspire board members in God-honoring governance. He’s already assigned board members to lead the next four segments. “Great Boards Delegate Their Reading” is the title of Lesson 38 in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. It’s true! So…select one book, appoint an avid reader as your “Leaders Are Readers Champion” and watch boardroom engagement soar. PICK ONE: [  ] Book #1: Boards That Lead: When to Take Charge, When to Partner, and When to Stay Out of the Way, by Ram Charan, Dennis Carey and Michael Useem - Order from Amazon. Read my review. [  ] Book #2: The Imperfect Board Member: Discovering the Seven Disciplines of Governance Excellence, by Jim Brown - Order from Amazon. Read my review. (Plus, see Brown's new book: The Imperfect CEO.) [  ] Book #3: Best Practices for Effective Boards, by E. LeBron Fairbanks, Dwight M. Gunter II, and James R. Cauchenour - Order from Amazon. Read my review. [  ] Book #4: Stewards of a Sacred Trust: CEO Selection, Transition and Development for Boards of Christ-centered Organizations, by David L. McKenna - Order from Amazon. Read my review. [  ] Book #5: Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask, by Ram Charan - Order from Amazon. Read my review. (See 14 blogs on 14 questions.) [  ] Book #6: Serving as a Board Member: Practical Guidance for Directors of Christian Ministries, by John Pellowe - Order from Amazon. Read my review. [  ] Book #7: The Nonprofit Board Answer Book: A Practical Guide for Board Members and Chief Executives (3rd Edition), published by BoardSource - Order from Amazon. Read my review. [  ] Book #8: The Practitioner's Guide to Governance as Leadership: Building High-Performing Nonprofit Boards, by Cathy A. Trower - Order from Amazon. Read my review. [  ] Book #9: Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board, by Max De Pree (Check out the 30-blog series here.) - Order from Amazon. Read my review. [  ] Book #10: Good Governance for Nonprofits: Developing Principles and Policies for an Effective Board, by Fredric L. Laughlin and Robert C. Andringa - Order from Amazon. Read my review.   [  ] Book #11: Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations, by John Carver - Order from Amazon. Read my review. [  ] Book #12: Call of the Chair: Leading the Board of the Christ-centered Ministry, by David L. McKenna - Order from Amazon. Read my review. [  ] Book #13: Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability, by Jeanne Bell, Jan Masaoka and Steve Zimmerman - Order from Amazon. Read my review. [  ] Book #14: Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t – Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 2.0, by Verne Harnish - Order from Amazon. Read my review (my 2018 book-of-the-year). [  ] Book #15: Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings, (Second Edition), by Dan Busby and John Pearson - Order from Amazon. Read my review. (Bonus: 40 blogs on 40 lessons.) [  ] Book #16: The Council: A Biblical Perspective on Board Governance, by Gary G. Hoag, Wesley K. Willmer, and Gregory J. Henson - Order from Amazon. Read my review. [  ] Book #17: Lessons From the Church Boardroom: 40 Insights for Exceptional Governance, by Dan Busby and John Pearson - Order from Amazon. Read my review. (Bonus: 40 blogs on 40 lessons.) [  ] Book #18: Humility, by Andrew Murray - Order from Amazon. Read my review. Bonus Books! [  ] Book #19: The Board and the CEO: Seven Practices to Protect Your Organization's Most Important Relationship, by Peter Greer and David Weekley - Order from Amazon. Read my review. [  ] Book #20:  More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! by Dan Busby and John Pearson - Order from Amazon. Read my review. (Bonus: 40 blogs on 40 lessons.) [  ] Book #21: ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson - Order from Amazon. Read my review. Note: Here’s the index to 22 blogs on the 22 tools and templates. [  ] Book #22: A Board Prayer: Explore Seven God-Honoring Board Practices, by Dan Bolin. Read my review. [  ] Book #23: The Culturally Conscious Board: Setting the Boardroom Table for Impact, by Jennifer M. Jukanovich and Russell W. West. Read my review.   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Toss this C.S. Lewis zinger to your board—and discern if your ministry is on the right road. In The Council (Book #16), the authors quote Lewis’ insight from Mere Christianity:      “We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”        QUESTION: How would we discern if we’re on the wrong road? 2) Kent Stroman, guest blogger for Lesson 38 in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, notes this from the U.S. Navy Seals, “Under pressure you don't rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training. That's why we train so hard.” Check out the “40 Blogs. 40 Wednesdays.” color commentaries on Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, by Dan Busby and John Pearson, including Lesson 38, “Great Boards Delegate Their Reading.” QUESTION: What book should our board read next?       SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #49 of 99: Eat That Frog! For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #49 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books (and articles) still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring. Eat That Frog!  21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating  and Get More Done in Less Time  Brian Tracy (2007)    Stop whining about your overwhelming workload—and listen up! Author Brian Tracy has good news and bad news for you. “…the fact is that you are never going to get caught up. You will never get on top of your tasks. You will never get far enough ahead to be able to get to all those books, magazines, and leisure time activities that you dream of.”    • Read my review in Issue No. 241 (Jan. 19, 2012).    • Order book from Amazon (4th Edition, July 29, 2025).    • Management Bucket #9 of 20: The Team Bucket. The good news? Frogs! The author quotes Mark Twain’s wit and wisdom, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” So Tracy serves up two frog rules and 21 ways to stop procrastinating and accomplish more in less time.    • Frog Rule #1. “If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.”    • Frog Rule #2. “If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.” BONUS! Read my blog, “Inspire Your Team to Read a Book-a-Month on Time Management!” at the Pails in Comparison Blog. (See the 13 time management books.)   CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN      Read why Gen. Stanley McChrystal writes, “Although I recognized its necessity, the mental transition from heroic leader to humble gardener was not a comfortable one.” See page 95 in the Team Bucket chapter of Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook. Lifelong Governance Learning in 10-Minute Chunks! Delegate your reading and inspire a board member—at every board meeting—to present a “10 Minutes for Governance” topic, such as a book review. See Tool #19 with tips on lifelong learning: five minutes of content and five minutes of Q&A. Read my blog post at ECFA’s “Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations” blog. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations Read a "Book-a-Month" on Time Management! Read how my wife’s discovery of the book, How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day, prompted my reading (or re-reading) a “book-a-month” on time management. Click here for the list of 12 books.  See more reviews at the Pails in Comparison Blog. NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon.

Eat That Frog!

 

Issue No. 241 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Jan. 19, 2012) highlights a best-selling book for your weekly Procrastinators Anonymous self-help group.  And in my bucket commentary this issue: why you should stop describing your workplace as a “family.” Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.

Procrastination Smorgasbord Antidotes

Stop whining about your overwhelming workload—and listen up! Author Brian Tracy has good news and bad news for you. “…the fact is that you are never going to get caught up. You will never get on top of your tasks. You will never get far enough ahead to be able to get to all those books, magazines, and leisure time activities that you dream of.”

The good news? Frogs!

He quotes Mark Twain’s wit and wisdom, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

So Tracy serves up two frog rules and 21 ways to stop procrastinating and accomplish more in less time.

Frog Rule #1. “If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.” 

Frog Rule #2. “If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.”

Time management books are a dime a dozen.  So what’s different about this one—and why should you read it?

Instead of tasting the frogs, taste these chapter titles:

   --Apply the 80/20 Rule to Everything
   --Practice Creative Procrastination
   --Focus on Key Result Areas
   --Upgrade Your Key Skills

I recommend books that align with my 20 buckets (core competencies). They must also have alignment with the best leadership and management writers. The author references Peter Drucker, Stephen Covey and others whose works complement this must-read procrastination fix-it book.

I’ve mentioned before that my friend and mentor, George Duff, reads Drucker’s The Effective Executive (“know your time”) once a year.  Covey’s four quadrant diagram in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is mentally tattooed on my forehead. A look in the mirror reminds me: Am I focused on the correct quadrant? Several clients report that Getting Things Done, by David Allen, has dramatically changed their daily productivity.

So…what do you read every year, especially in January, to keep yourself and your team members focused on Priority #1? Try Tracy’s book. You can read it in about 90 minutes (117 pages)—and the 21 short chapters with two “Eat That Frog!” next steps are perfect for a weekly “Procrastinators Anonymous” self-help meeting. 

“Hi. My name is John and I’m a procrastinator. Please pass the donuts.”

If you’ve conquered procrastination, you will still find the 21 strategies valuable—especially as you coach others. “One strategy might be effective in one situation and another might apply to another task. All together, these 21 ideas represent a smorgasbord of personal effectiveness techniques that you can use at any time, in any order or sequence that makes sense to you at the moment.”

The one-liners are memorable—and poster-worthy:

   --“Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.”
   --“Just find out what other successful people do and do the same things until you get the same results. Learn from the experts.”
   --“One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.”
   --“Before you begin scrambling up the ladder of success, make sure it is leaning against the right building.” (Stephen Covey)
   --“It only takes about 10 to 12 minutes for you to plan out your day, but this small investment of time will save you up to two hours (100 to 120 minutes) in wasted time and diffused effort throughout the day.”
   --“Resist the temptation to clear up small things first.”
   --“Time management is really life management, personal management. It is really taking control of the sequence of events.”

Idea: buy a dozen books to share with your team members. Delegate to a point person who will recruit people for five-minute chapter summaries at each of your next 21 staff meetings.

To order this book directly from Amazon, click on the title for Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, by Brian Tracy. (And thanks to Bob Neill for this excellent recommendation!)

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:

1) Somehow, we always get payroll out on time!  Brian Tracy’s Law of Forced Efficiency says, “There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.” How effectively do you manage your time?

2) Myth-buster! The author writes, “Under the pressure of deadlines, often self-created through procrastination, people suffer greater stress, make more mistakes, and have to redo more tasks than under any other conditions.” Have you believed the myth that you’re more productive under deadline pressures?

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We Are NOT a Family! - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit

One of the big ideas in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is that leadership and management is complicated—and you need to balance all three legs of the three-legged stool: Cause, Community and Corporation.

I noticed an organization’s website recently that described their staff and board as a “family.”  Oops! That works for a while (and wouldn’t it be wonderful?), until someone in the family (Community) gets fired (Corporation) because the team member, for example, was activity-driven versus results-driven (Cause). 

Effective leaders maintain a delicate balance of all three legs on the stool—not just the family (Community) leg—and to ignore the other two legs invites more complicated problems sooner or later.

Here's Your Lifelong-Learning Filing System! For a list of the 20 buckets (core competencies) grouped under the three legs of Cause, Community and Corporation, visit the website to download a 14-page PDF with the 20 buckets and 82 balls (action steps.)

MORE RESOURCES:

• BLOG: Pails in Comparison
• SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews
• JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon 
• WEBSITE: Management Buckets
• BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations

NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon.

More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom

 

Issue No. 421 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting  (Dec. 9, 2019) suggests a Christmas gift for your board members, CEO, and senior team members—and just in time—since Dan Busby and John Pearson, apparently, can’t stop writing books!  And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies). Two Things You Should Never Joke About! Looking for a Christmas gift for your organization’s board members, CEO, or senior team members? We’re a tad biased, but co-author Dan Busby and I recommend our latest book, More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! More Lessons features 40 short insights for enriching effectiveness and excellence in the boardroom—and practical wisdom for addressing those elephants in the boardroom that no one wants to talk about! While all 40 lessons, we believe, are worthy of your time and reflection, we do have some favorite chapters. My top-two picks would be the wisdom we passed along from Olan Hendrix: • Lesson 32: There Are Two Things You Should Never Joke About—#1: Prayer • Lesson 33: There Are Two Things You Should Never Joke About—#2: Fundraising On fundraising, Olan Hendrix recounts a time he accompanied a client on a donor call. “This Christian leader had a worthwhile cause and many friends, but wasn’t raising any money. I wanted to find out why. “After exchanging pleasantries with the donor, he began making jokes about the fact that he was there to ask for money. I had discovered his problem! Perhaps he was covering up his nervousness about asking for money, but flippancy is never a good substitute for sincerity.” Hendrix, who served as the first president of ECFA, concluded, “I want a part of my legacy to be that I helped God’s servants to see fundraising not as something to joke about or apologize for, but as a noble and vital part of ministry.” No Joke! You’ve likely been at a meal when someone announces, “the last one with your thumb up says grace.” Hendrix shares another lesson learned when a search committee rejected a candidate who “made light of prayer.” When I first heard Olan share this with a group of young leaders—it immediately changed my thinking and my behavior. Yikes. You’ll find that More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom will challenge and change board member thinking about dozens of boardroom behaviors and elephants: • Lesson 1: Two Stories—The Board and the Bachelor Farmer and $1.5 Billion Worth of Burger Blessings • Lesson 4: Guarding Your CEO’s Soul • Lesson 5: Dashboards Are Not a Secret Sauce for Sound Governance • Lesson 8: What If Your CEO Is Hit by a Bus? You’ll appreciate the short lessons in 10 major categories, including: Nominees for the Board Member Hall of Fame, Boardroom Bloopers, Boardroom Time-Wasters, Trouble-Makers and Truth-Tellers, and Boardroom Worst Practices. Examples: • Lesson 9: Just Do One Thing a Month • Lesson 13: Caution! Understand the Governance Pendulum Principle • Lesson 16: Looking for Consensus But Finding Division • Lesson 17: Botched Executive Sessions Are Not Pretty • Lesson 18: Warning! Résumé-Builders Make Lousy Board Members In our first book in this series, Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings, we encouraged boards to allocate a “10 Minutes for Governance” slot at every board meeting—to fan the flame of lifelong learning. Many boards are now doing that—and these short lessons are perfect for 10-minute segments (five minutes of content and five minutes of discussion): • Lesson 24: Should Most Standing Committees Stand Down? • Lesson 27: Address Absentee Board Member Syndrome • Lesson 35: Leverage the 80/20 Rule in the Boardroom • Lesson 39: Identify Your Key Assumptions In Lesson 39, we quote Donald Rumsfeld, “Meetings are a good place to discover whether an organization might be suffering from groupthink. If everyone in the room seems convinced of the brilliance of an idea, it may be a sign that the organization would benefit from more dissent and debate.” The Boardroom Lesson: “Identify your key assumptions so your inaccurate premises don’t lead to inaccurate conclusions and colossal flops! Invest time in assessing the validity of your assumptions—and asking for advice and counsel from others. Expect God to lead you to colleagues, acquaintances, and even experts who will give you feedback on your ministry’s important plans and your assumptions about those plans.” We encourage you to order copies for your board members, CEO, and senior team members and consider how to leverage one lesson at every board meeting and/or 10 or more lessons at your next board retreat. Watch for the “40 Blogs. 40 Wednesdays.” posts by 40 guest bloggers beginning on January 8, 2020. Visit the “More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom Blog” here to subscribe. To order from Amazon, click on the title for More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! by Dan Busby and John Pearson.    Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) “Defending Risks Everywhere Is Not a Strategic Plan,” Lesson 28 in More Lessons, warns that you must discuss the “risk elephant in the boardroom.” How effectively do our board, CEO, and senior team encourage “elephant discussions?” Is dissent and debate a value—or is conformity a boardroom value? 2) Lesson 26 cautions that “Ministry boards have a natural gravitational pull towards issues that should be reserved for the staff.” Does our board understand the “Big Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand” metaphor for keeping discussion at high levels? Should we invest 10 minutes for governance on Lesson 26 at our next board meeting?  Invest “10 Minutes for Governance” at Every Board Meeting Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook  One of the big ideas in the Board Bucket, Chapter 14, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to continue “dating” board members after you’ve recruited them to the board. Inspire board members to be lifelong learners. After all, we do appreciate airline pilots and surgeons who are also lifelong learners! “Tool #19: Ten Minutes for Governance” in the new resource, ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board (also by Busby and Pearson), provides a template and ideas for reminding board members that “good governance does not happen by osmosis. It happens only with intentionality, training, and keeping critical governance topics (like focusing on policy, not operations) on everyone’s radar.” The book provides access to 22 Word documents you can customize for your board’s unique needs. (Follow the blog on the 22 tools here.) For more resources in the Board Bucket, and links to the four governance books by Dan Busby and John Pearson, click here.                    JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). And watch for John’s review of the new book by Doug Fields and Jason Pearson, This. Customizable Journal: 52 Ways to Share Your World With Those You Love.   40 SHORT LESSONS Click here to order the first book in the Lessons series, Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings (2nd Edition),  by Dan Busby and John Pearson. NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. ECFA Tools and Templates Blog Click here to read John's new blog series on 22 downloadable tools and templates for effective board governance, including this post on a simple two-page checklist, "Tool #7: The Board's Annual Legal Audit." MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  •WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations

The Imperfect CEO

 

Issue No. 680 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (May 19, 2026) invites you to make the climb up four peaks to organizational health. Must-read: The Imperfect CEO—just published today. Plus, click here for back issues posted at the new location for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my recent review of I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything. Jim Brown writes in The Imperfect CEO: “The first two peaks—Collaborative Culture and Leadership Accountability—take you a long way. But if you miss the next peak, you’ll be stepping off a cliff.” (See Peak #3 of 4: Strategic Momentum.) [Graphic: ChatGPT]   “What you see as strong leadership, younger staff sometimes see as controlling…” I was hooked—right from the get-go. (Who reads a book’s foreword, anyway?) Yet...in the foreword, Stephen M.R. Covey writes that Jim Brown, author of The Imperfect CEO, “has a gift for making complex things simple.” Also, “He teaches principles without arrogance, and he’s relevant without the ego.” Covey’s seven-page high-five is clearly one of the most compelling book forewords I have ever read. He adds, “The world is desperately in need of leaders who are less interested in looking good and more interested in doing good.” He urges all imperfect leaders (that’s you and me) to read this powerful book.   The Imperfect CEO:  Making the Climb to Organizational Health by Jim Brown   Jim Brown writes, “The idea that an organization ought to be healthy has progressed from a novel concept to an undeniable imperative. No one wants their company to be ‘unhealthy,’ yet thousands of businesses continue to operate with painful and preventable imperfections.” Raise your hand if you know any imperfect CEOs, leaders, managers, team members, board members, and customers! (I’m in that group—and I just learned I should re-title one of my books. Mastering Mistaking-Making will now be called Mastering Learning Moments. Brilliant!) For your next weekly staff meeting (with coffee and bagels): POP QUIZ! Your assignment: Discover “the four peaks” that your organization or company must climb to be healthy. What are the four? Illustrate with three bullet points for each peak. And then describe how you will communicate this in a book with no more than 160 pages (plus notes, etc.). Do not read the rest of this email! ANSWERS! How about a business fable—a compelling story—that sounds a lot like your shop? In about 100 pages, we meet the six members of the executive leadership team of EVaant, including David, the CEO, and Carmen, the Chief People Officer. We also meet Jorge, the Chief Revenue Officer—but then he quits in a big huff! And (does this sound familiar?)…the CEO admits, “Clearly, we had the wrong guy—I picked the wrong guy—and that was costing us more than we imagined.” THE FABLE. I love business fables because I can remember the story and the relatable characters (and some are definitely characters). Think about what we learned from The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, by Ken Blanchard, and The Motive, by Patrick Lencioni. (Also, those memorable stories—parables—told by Jesus!) Spoiler Alert! Picture this: David, the CEO, is meeting with his board chair, Maria, and another board member, Dennis. (Not a pretty picture, because Maria is not pleased.) It’s a difficult conversation, but David is growing as a leader.  “David took it in. Part of him was defensive. But he wanted to be sure not to miss what the learning could be. He was pushing back against his default to defend. Replace judgment with curiosity, he told himself. ‘Tell me more,’ he said sincerely.” THESE FOUR PEAKS WILL PREACH! #1. Collaborative Culture (“the essential core”). The chapter, “Teamwork Can Be Tough,” spotlights the struggle to create a Collaborative Culture (one of the four peaks). The “heated exchange” between promises made by sales and the impossible deadlines foisted upon the production team—well, you’ve been there. Can this be fixed?  The five “Coaching Questions” and five “Exercises” in this chapter are gutsy. Example: “Reflect on a time when you prioritized your department’s goals over the organization’s collective goals.” The recommended exercise: develop a “Collaboration Charter” for your leadership team. Note: Gratefully, Brown does not just inspire and motivate—he gives away the store. The book is filled with “Coaching Highlight” notations—and links to online resources. #2. Leadership Accountability (“the pivot point”). I’m so tired of hearing CEOs and other leaders apologize to the media for their missteps with the well-worn PR answer, “I will be holding myself accountable.” (My opinion: that’s meaningless. Don’t say that!) In Brown’s business fable, instead, we get a realistic view of what leadership accountability—as a team—looks like. Read why accountability can be framed as “leadership homework.” By the way—the four peaks on the climb to organizational health DO NOT magically appear after the leader comes down from the mountain with staff marching orders. You’ll love the give-and-take (disagreement, wrestling, strong opinions) that emerges as the CEO shuts-his-mouth and steps back to allow everyone to engage—as the four peaks slowly emerge. (This is a brilliant story.) Early in the fable, Carmen takes a risk and tells her CEO, “I think you’re accustomed to speaking to your employees with confidence and clarity and having them appreciate your leadership authority.” Then she paused and continued, “In case you haven’t noticed, the world changed. Confidence and clarity are often seen by Gen Zs and millennials as if you think you know it all and that you get to order people around. What you see as strong leadership, younger staff sometimes see as controlling—and they make up most of this company.” #3. Strategic Momentum (“the rudder”). The three bullet points:    • Clear strategy    • Sustainable profitability    • Proactive adaptability Discussing the “proof of a good strategy,” the author quotes Ken Blanchard and Peter Drucker in the same paragraph. That’s a TwoFer! I named Blanchard, Drucker, Lencioni, and Jim Collins to my “Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends” list. Similar to Jim Brown’s book, The Imperfect Board Member (I named this one of 18 “best board books”), the fable and the model are applicable both for nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies. “For an organization to be healthy, it has to be fruitful.”    Two-Thumbs-Up! Carmen, the Chief People Officer notes, “I love how some people say that nonprofits should stop labeling themselves by what they aren’t and start declaring what they are—‘for-impact’ rather than ‘not-for-profit.’ So Strategic Momentum for them would be about the impact they’re making in the world.” (Or…as others have said, “Nonprofit is a tax designation, not a management philosophy.”) #4. Talent Magnetism (“the beacon”). In “The Model,” the second part of the book, I found my favorite chapter, “Talent Magnetism.” Brown lists seven “Case in Point” examples of the talent magnetism principles, including:    • An Australian software company features “ShipIt” days when staff “are encouraged to set aside their regular tasks for 24 hours to tackle any project that excites them.” (And yes…it includes a show-and-tell segment.)    • Mastercard encourages “reverse mentoring programs, where senior leaders pair with young leaders to learn about emerging trends and new technologies.”    • And the unorthodox interview settings that Southwest Airlines uses to discern the core values of applicants—how they’ll really react in real life.  There’s More!    • The Two-Minute Rule. “Encourage team members to take collaborative actions that can be completed in two minutes or less."    • Read why Jimmy Mellado, Compassion International CEO, says The Imperfect CEO is “a must-read,” and why Jay Bransford, CEO of Best Christian Workplaces, writes, “This book doesn’t shy away from the tough stuff.”    • You’ll appreciate the CEO’s “learning moments” with his grandson—which may prompt you to read the book, The Neurodiversity Edge (see my review).    • Accountability Exercise: “Pick a recent costly misstep. Map out who was consulted before the decision. Identify whose input was missing and how earlier listening could have prevented the error. Present findings to the leadership team.” Honest! Out of the 50 or more “Coaching Highlights” and “Coaching Questions,” I could easily have selected any 10 statements or questions—and delivered 20 take-aways. (Maybe I should have done that!) Example: “When was the last time you adjusted your approach based on feedback from team members? What did you learn from that experience?" So…how many imperfect CEOs and imperfect Leaders do you know? How many copies of this book should you order? (And as Stephen M.R. Covey reminds us, “The great thing is that you don’t need to be a CEO to benefit from this book! Any leader can benefit.") TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for The Imperfect CEO: Making the Climb to Organizational Health, by Jim Brown. (And thanks to the author for hand-delivering a signed review copy!)   BONUS! Free eNewsletters: “The Imperfect Church Leader” and “The Imperfect Board.” BONUS! Listen to the "Life After Ministry" podcast (May 17, 2026) featuring an interview with Jim Brown about his new book. Listen here.   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Chief People Officers, I predict, will buy this book for every executive leadership team member. In the business fable, Carmen reminds David, the CEO, what he learned from John Maxwell: “Everything rises and falls on the leader.” Jim Brown lists 30 books in the “Sources and Inspirations” notes. Question: How many of these books are in our Staff Resource Library? 2) Jim Brown writes: “The first two peaks—Collaborative Culture and Leadership Accountability—take you a long way. But if you miss the next peak, you’ll be stepping off a cliff.” (Re: The Strategic Momentum Peak.) Question: Do our board members and leadership team members know and own our strategy? (Read more: Ram Charan’s Question #5 of 14: Does Our Board Really Own the Strategy?)       SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #48 of 99: The Speed of Trust For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #48 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books (and articles) still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring. The Speed of Trust:  The One Thing That Changes Everything   by Stephen M.R. Covey (Oct. 17, 2006)   Covey says that “leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust.” His 13 behaviors tell you how to do that.     • Read my review in Issue No. 186 (June 7, 2010).    • Order book from Amazon.    • Management Bucket #8 of 20: The Culture Bucket “Contrary to what most people believe,” writes Covey, “trust is not some soft, illusive quality that you either have or you don’t; rather, trust is a pragmatic, tangible, actionable asset that you can create—much faster than you probably think possible.” His content is very deep (character isn’t enough, you must also pair it with competence). His four cores of credibility will preach: Integrity, Intent, Capabilities, and Results. Bonus! Covey (and his co-authors) wrote another bestseller in 2022, Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others. Watch for my review! CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN      On page 89 in the Culture Bucket chapter of Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook, you'll find "11 Confidential Questions to Assess Your Culture." Question #6: "We squander too much time in unnecessary meetings." NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. Chopsticks & Fulcrums: The Board Chair/CEO Relationship “The board chair-CEO relationship is like a pair of chopsticks,” writes Michael Naufal. “One is much more effective with the support of the other.” Read my blog post at ECFA’s “Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations” blog. 5 Teasers & 4 Confessions I urge someone on your team to read this book—and inspire your organization to take a look in the mirror. Read my four confessions and my five teasers in my review of The Neurodiversity Edge: The Essential Guide to Embracing Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Other Neurological Differences for Any Organization, by Maureen Dunne. See more reviews at the Pails in Comparison Blog.