I just spent two days at ASAE’s Governance + Strategy Forum with my President and President-elect. My brain and my heart are both full.

I have written before about how a new CEO can connect with volunteer leaders during executive onboarding. I described the onboarding interviews I hold with board members and volunteers. I wrote about running the same diagnostic questions with the board during my listening tour. I also wrote about using my 90-day report to open a conversation with the board rather than hand down a mandate.

I have not written much about approaches CEOs can take to onboarding their new leaders. This week I realized that you can do both at the same time.

The forum was well facilitated. We learned from the presenters, traded ideas with leaders from other associations, and then worked as our own small group. That last part was the most impactful for our group. It gave us a structured way to get to know each other while we worked on how to make the organization stronger together.

If you are new to your organization, my recommendation is simple. Alongside the listening tour and the 90-day report, new CEOs should bring their leaders to a short course that is focused on improving nonprofit (in my case, specifically association) governance and business.

Having a facilitator that is guiding the conversation changes the dynamic that usually occurs during volunteer leader orientation. The CEO usually onboards the volunteer leaders. The CEO briefs, explains, and orients. That work casts the CEO as the expert and the leader as the student. That can put distance between two people who need to work as partners.

A shared course changes those roles. When you are both learners working through the same problems, neither of you holds all the answers. You build trust by working through the problems together.

I have taken courses like this with volunteer leaders at past organizations. This one stood out because it covered business strategy as well as governance. Governance training helps leaders understand their roles. Strategy work asks them to decide where the organization should go. We need to build that strategy together, so it helped to start in a room designed for that conversation.

The time itself had value. My President, President-elect, and I have not had much time together. Having two full days together was a privilege.

Before we left, we were given time to plan next steps. We now have clear directions to pursue, and we set them together.

If you are a new CEO, look at what is available in your sector and invite your chair or chair-elect to join you.

Have you taken a course alongside your elected leaders? What did it change about how you worked together?