The BOSS Network Blog

When we begin to break our barriers, we have to look as deeply inside of ourselves as we do at our circumstances and the people around us. If you are reading these words right now, you may have lived through some things, or be living in some things, some situations, that have left you hopeless. You’ve given up along the way. If you are shackled to shame from missteps and mistakes from your past, break that barrier. Become one of the faithful few that reclaims your strength, and who believes that nothing can stop you. This is so much bigger than you—than us. We have a weighty responsibility on our shoulders to look beyond our local and reach into our global, God-given purpose. This is about our vision for our children, families, and community. Our legacies. There is no barrier that should be strong enough to hold us back. In February of 2017, I was hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury. With my family at my side, the doctors told me that based on the severity of my condition...

As my husband, Shawn, and I prepared to launch our entertainment management company, we sat down with each other, as we always do, and talked about our vision, and what we were setting out to embark upon. We’d spent countless hours up until that point, planning, pinpointing, and, most importantly, praying, about what we desired for our lives, our business, and everyone we would touch through it. We knew the type of clients that we desired to serve and how we wanted to nurture them and their careers within our firm, but we needed to go beyond that. We needed to think about not only how far that we as a team had the capacity to take people, but how far our clients, these brilliant, black stars (in every sense of the word) could take themselves. So, we came up with a quote that is now the guiding principle of our business: “Reaching beyond the limits of success.” There it was. With that handful of words, we set out to powerfully and intentionally redefine what success means...

Initially, in forming the board of an NPO, the "CEO" model of leadership (Conger, 2001) is useful, where the Board Chair and CEO is one person. Later, the two leadership roles could be split. To start, you need an odd number of board members, a minimum of three, I suggest five. Your bylaws should allow for the addition of board members as the NPO grows. The first board member is the CEO/chairman, also known as the foundation’s founder. This person’s role is the vision caster. It is their passion for the issue that led to the founding of the NPO. This role will be to help craft the mission statement of the organization and to ensure the board stays on mission. It is also a part of this role to attract board members that have the same passion and who can contribute constructively to the organization. They will work with other board members to locate grant funders and attract donors to the organization. The second member of the board is a local community council member. T...