Nurture Your Governance

Tesse Akpeki 't Need a Great Idea

Ethics and leadership – what drives behaviour?

“Culture exists regardless.  If left to its own devices, it shapes itself, with the inherent risk that behaviours will not be those desired.  Employees will work out for themselves what is valued by leaders to whom they report”  Anthony Saltz (The Salz Review of Barclays Business Practice)

The Charity Governance Code Principle 2 on Leadership recommends

“The chair provides leadership to the board ensuring it has agreed priorities, appropriate structures, processes and a productive culture.  The board through its relationship with senior members of staff creates the conditions in which charity staff are confident and enabled to provide the information, advice and feedback necessary to the board”.

Thinking and feeling influences behaviours at all levels of an organisation.

  • How are you thinking and feeling?
  • Does the organisation have the capacity to empathise with those who suffer?
  • Where do the vulnerabilities of people who are being served and who serve lie?

Answers to these questions surface the importance of protecting and nurturing , loving and caring for people who work together, of board members, of volunteers and of people supported.

The conditions within our institutions and in our communities are so important.  Culture, values, behaviours and ethics matter.  And we can pay a terrible price if these are neglected.

The word ‘nurture’ means love, protect, encourage, compliment and bringing out the best.  How are we doing against the ‘nurture’.