by PAUL A. BELFORD, MA with MARK MILROY, CAE

The Association CEO Handbook
Introduction

As a mostly learn-by-doing career, the experience and training of the association CEO is routinely idiosyncratic-moving up through the ranks in associations of varying sizes, types and cultures. Accordingly, professional development can be a bottom-up thing, doing this while learning that, as opportunities to advance present themselves. And for the mid-career executive thrust fresh and new into the world of associations at the CEO level, a holistic look at the association CEO position can be even more crucial. What the Association CEO Handbook (ACH) offers the sitting CEO is a top-down, allaround look at associations and what CEOs do in them-the boundaries of the CEO function as well as the fundamentals of the type of organization they lead. In this, you will be introduced to concepts such as the Management/Leadership Continuum, the Rule of Tiers, the Rule of the Two Authorities and the Zone of Complexity that so mark the uniqueness of the association CEO experience. ACH is comprised of two parts: Six Elements of the Association CEO Position and the ACH Workbook. The Six Elements are:

» Change and Leadership
» Commonalities of the CEO Experience
» Fundamentals of the Association
» Association Deliverables
» Responsibilities of the Association CEO
» Board/CEO Partnership

The ACH Workbook contains exercises to use what is taken from the Six Elements to analyze and improve the operations and direction of your current association as well