BoardBridge Co-Founder Stephe McMahon on How to Join a Nonprofit Board, Why It Beats Traditional Leadership Development, and the Power of Your 'New Kid Card'

Stephe McMahon (boardbridge.com [https://www.boardbridge.com/], linkedin.com/in/stephe-mcmahon-3b2750/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephe-mcmahon-3b2750/]), co-founder and Chief BridgeBuilder at BoardBridge, which empowers corporate employees to serve on nonprofit boards, joins host Dan Freehling (contempusleadership.com [https://www.contempusleadership.com/]) to dig into why there are more than a million open seats on nonprofit boards and how to close the gap. Stephe explains why the on-ramp to board service is so unclear and how BoardBridge lowers the barrier for individuals and nonprofits alike (01:18). He shares his advice for aspiring board members (07:55) and gives a crash course on board service (14:20). Stephe and Dan discuss board service as a form of leadership development, including new Taproot Foundation and PwC research showing pro bono service outperforms traditional training on human skills (17:44). Stephe makes the case for using your "new kid card" and what good governance actually looks like (32:25) and walks through the BoardBridge process end to end (38:10). Recommended Reading: BoardSource's resources [https://boardsource.org/] and Taproot Foundation and PwC's "Human Skills at Work [https://taprootfoundation.org/tools/human-skills-at-work-pro-bono-service-driving-development-in-a-changing-world-of-work/]" report. Show notes at forwardlookingleadership.com [https://forwardlookingleadership.com/].