Trying to shake things up within a boardroom can almost feel like the swing of a pendulum:

Push too far in one direction, and you have board members who have been in their roles forever and are set in their ways; push too far in the other, and your board members will be out the door before you even knew they were in the room.

And as Plexus Consulting Group President Steven M. Worth notes, all the talk of term limits in the political realm simply highlights that associations face similar issues in figuring out how long is too long. His suggestion is that members should decide.

“The key challenge for an association perhaps is to offer its membership choice; and this means cultivating future leaders and encouraging them to run for leadership positions and then stepping aside to allow their membership to decide the leader and direction they prefer,” he writes.

Check out more of his thoughts on term limits on the Plexus Consulting blog.

A Sign of a Great Leader

http://twitter.com/RSong/status/599643336031346688

What’s the difference between someone who is leadership material and someone who isn’t? It all comes down to the way that you handle obstacles, psychiatrist Mark Goulston says.

“Possessing the skill of handling obstacles well demonstrates a high level of self-reliance, good judgment, and resourcefulness,” he told Business Insider. “The more proactive and resourceful you are, and the better your judgment calls and decision-making are when you’re dealing with an obstacle, the greater the trust and confidence others will have in you.”

If you don’t show this skill, you simply appear to be “the type of person who will just dump your problems on your boss.” If you can jump those hurdles without a leg up, you’ll be a lot closer to your biggest goals. (ht @RSong)

Other Links of Note

“Using personas gets you clear on just who you are trying to reach and how to reach them.” Elisa Kosarin of the blog Twenty Hats breaks down why you should use personas to reach potential volunteers.

If you didn’t get a chance to check it out last week, Wes Trochlil of Effective Database Management got the chance to talk data during a webinar with employees from Informz and MemberSuite. Check out the full clip here.

Speaking of data, the death of RadioShack is raising some interesting questions about whether a company can sell consumer data to the highest bidder. The bankrupt company is facing some pushback from the Federal Trade Commission over the sale.