Leadership and Management of Nonprofit Organizations: Part I

Leadership and Management of Nonprofit Organizations: Part I Thomas P. Holland, Ph.D. Institute for Nonprofit Organizations University of Georgia

Basic Definitions • Leadership: drawing people together to identify shared values and goals and then formulating plans to achieve them • Management: overseeing activities to carry out the plan and accomplish goals, including planning, organizing, delegating, and coordinating activities • Supervision: guiding production and procedures of staff to accomplish a delegated goal or objective • Overlap of skills across roles • Distinctions made in larger organizations

Components of Leadership • Envisioning situations that are in line with shared values, specifying a desired future condition • Engaging others in shaping the vision • Deciding together on our shared goals • Identifying ways to attain them together • Inspiration rather than authority • Motivated by vision and purpose • Problems resolved by referring back to shared vision

Leadership Styles • Charismatic • Charm and grace attract others • Self-belief is vital • People follow others they personally admire • Transactional • People are motivated by reward and punishment • Social systems work best with clear chain of command • Prime purpose of subordinate is do what leader says • Transformative • People follow one who inspires them • People with vision and passion can achieve great things • Get things done by enthusiasm and energy • Servant • Leader has responsibilities for followers and society • People who want to help others do this best by leading them • Leader serves others, rather than others serving leader

Leadership differs from Management • Leaders create environments that influence others to clarify and achieve group goals, knowing that people support a world they help create. • Managers implement processes to achieve goals and monitor results, knowing that people support processes that help them succeed. • Both involve people-skills, process-skills, communication, and accountability.

Leadership is NOT • Having the answer to every problem • Ordering others to do things • Being the smartest or most efficient person in the room • Blaming others for their limitations • Telling them how they should act, think, or feel • Doing the tasks others fail to do • Rescuing others from consequences of their actions (or inactions) • Clinging to familiar ways of doing work while expecting others to change

Leadership is • more about vision than precision • more about relationships than results • more about processes than structures • more about taking risks than security • more about cooperating than winning • more about effectiveness than efficiency • more about setting examples than getting quick results • more about long-term learning than short-term conclusions • more about asking the right questions than giving the right answers

A Definition Leadership: Intentional actions to facilitate the process of people working together to identify and achieve shared, long-term goals

Skills of effective leadership • Bring participants together in a safe environment to form a cohesive, inclusive group or team. • Identify the group’s true, long-term interests together: • a. Examine current realities of market and organization • b. Identify opportunities, challenges, problems • c. Draw upon mission to articulate a vision that all can share

Help the group formulate work plans for achieving that vision together • Specify goals for each dimension (what do we want to accomplish?) • Identify products or results to be attained for each of them (what will success look like in each area?) • Set clear work assignments and timetable (who will do what, by when?) • Identify evidence of success (assessed by what criteria?)

Make success a team effort • Be sure everyone knows what is expected of her/him and how that links to the group’s goals • Articulate how each individual’s talents contribute to success of the whole (why am I needed?) • Identify means for problem-solving and accountability as a team (what will we do when problems and barriers show up?) • Specify methods for reporting and communicating progress (how will we know it’s done?) • Monitor, evaluate, and report on results • Find ways to reward team successes

Reinforce Changes • Communicate progress widely and often, using multiple means • Articulate the connections between actions and results • Recognize and reward successes • Report results to others outside team • Encourage group learning from experiences • Develop and nurture new leaders, ensuring leadership succession • Model the behaviors expected of others

Effective leaders practice emotional intelligence (as well as rationality) • Self-awareness: ability to recognize and understand one’s own moods, emotions, and drives, as well as their effects on others • Self-regulation: ability to redirect disruptive impulses, suspend judgment, think before acting • Motivation: passion for the work and propensity to pursue goals with energy and persistence • Empathy: understanding of others’ emotional makeup, skill in treating them according to their reactions • Social skill: proficiency in building networks of relationships, ability to find common ground and build rapport with diverse others

Leaders go beyond familiar habits • Develop new models or metaphors to analyze issues and understand stakeholders’ long-term interests • Raise different and more penetrating questions about purposes, future directions, strategies, standards, and group performance • Invite the group to identify solutions • Model the behaviors they would like to see incorporated in the organization, such as • Diversity Accountability • Efficiency Creativity

Leaders nurture groups that learn • Focus the group’s attention on those few, key issues that really matter most to the ends, mission and purposes of the organization as it goes into the future • Set priorities for the group’s attention and then keep meetings focused on them • Specify criteria for monitoring progress • Work on priorities through better committee structures and meeting formats • Take time to examine and learn from experiences

Key Components of Management • Planning: identifying ways, means, and resources to accomplish goals • Organizing: creating structures and assignments to pursue goals • Coordinating: overseeing the application of people and resources to accomplish goals • Monitoring: assessing progress toward goals; rearranging applications of resources to refine pursuit of goals

Core Skills of Management • Planning, goal setting • Problem-solving and decision-making • Delegating • Motivating • Sustaining communications • Facilitating meetings • Ensuring accomplishment of goals • Monitoring staff performance • Praising and rewarding success • Removing barriers to performance • Managing oneself, improving interpersonal skills

(Re)Designing the Organization • Start with a solid mission statement and clear strategic plan • Identify the skills and resources needed to accomplish strategic goals • Specify the activities needed to attain goals • Group up those activities into clusters for individuals/ teams • Establish structures of coordination and accountability • Depict positions in chart, showing lines of accountability • Delegate objectives and tasks, making sure that everyone understands expectations • Sustain clear communications • Monitor and evaluate results, use feedback loops

Base Everything on the Mission and Goals of the Organization • Goals: large, overall preferred results for the organization in the future • Mission: goals must be consistent with mission • Market: planning must engage important internal and external audiences, seeking their views and involvement • Strategies: the overall methods or processes for accomplishing the goals • Objectives: specific accomplishments that must be completed to reach the goals; major milestones along the way • Criteria: indicators of successful accomplishment of objectives and goals • Implementation: delegation of tasks to people who will complete each objective • Evaluation: monitoring progress toward goals

Managing Staff Performance • Def. Processes that provide effective management of individuals and teams in order to achieve high levels of organizational success • Emphasizes strategic goals and application of organization’s resources to accomplish them • Makes sure every individual understands how his/her efforts contribute to overall success • Integrates all aspects of the organization into coordinated activities to accomplish goals • Encourages behavior that fosters good working relationships and ongoing improvement • Provides ongoing means for learning and continuous quality improvement

Delegation • Assign responsibility for accomplishing a goal or objective to a team or supervisor • Allow that person or team to formulate activities needed to accomplish assignment • Builds motivation • Increases competencies • Risk of assuming “Why bother? I could do the work in much less time.” • Allows manager to oversee all operations

Steps of delegation • Give whole tasks to individuals/ teams • Select the right person/team for tasks, matching skills and interests with tasks • Clearly specify results expected, not the methods for accomplishing them • Make sure recipient understands and agrees with assignment • Ensure that needed resources are available • Agree on criteria for monitoring progress, times for reporting & feedback • Maintain open lines of two-way communication • Set up means for addressing problems/ barriers • Evaluate and reward successful performance

Components of Supervision • Guiding the activities of staff or teams to accomplish a delegated goal or objective • Identifying tasks and roles needed • Developing effective teams • Ensuring that the right competencies are being applied to tasks • Seeing that problems are resolved • Monitoring and refining staff/team performance • Conforming with organizational policies

Core Skills of Supervision • Translating delegated goals into action, including: • Conducting feasibility studies to refine work plan and to identify required resources and skills • Mobilizing the right mix of people and skills to accomplish components of delegated goals • Team building • Ensuring understanding of work objectives, tasks, and individual contributions to overall success • Facilitating meetings, sustaining progress • Monitoring progress toward goals and objectives • Trouble-shooting, resolving problems & conflicts

Project Planning and Supervision • State the problem (not the solution) clearly so everyone involved has the same, accurate understanding of the issue to be addressed and solved. • Identify the goal to be attained, solution (so the problem is resolved), how it is linked with mission. • Specify what the team needs to do, a framework or structure to organize work, tasks linked by structure, clear enough that person assigned task will know what to do. • Identify set of activities that together will accomplish the goal, with time ordering so they are completed in sequence and on time for subsequent tasks. Set times for beginning, milestones for accomplishment, project completion. • Organize into sequence diagram, flow chart (project management software is available for this: Microsoft office has one; see alsowww.viewpath.com and www.iteamwork.com )

Project Planning II • Task allocation: assign specific tasks to individuals who have competencies to complete them. Include some stretch so people will develop/grow. • Resources: ensure that needed resources are available on time for each task. • Record-keeping: set up procedures to keep track of tasks, assignments, due dates. • Communications: set up procedures for monitoring work, reporting on tasks, supporting collaboration, alerting others to barriers, testing for quality • Plan for errors and handling problems along the way: convene team to address and resolve. • Protect team members from other demands on time. • Disseminate and celebrate results.

Getting Started: Defining a New Job Role • Recognize need through problems in completing work assignments or • Anticipate need when planning for new service or program • Specify tasks and competencies through examination of current job roles and gaps • Identify how new role fits with organizational structure, work flow • Write job description • Estimate costs, including salary, benefits, taxes

Make use of Volunteers • Traditional “busy-work” not interesting or motivating to most people • Begin with workforce needs and identify tasks at all levels that may be done by volunteers • Must engage staff in planning • Follow similar steps of preparing job description, recruitment, screening, orienting, training, supervising, firing • Monitor performance and satisfactions, make adjustments to retain good volunteers • Recognition and appreciation are essential for retention

Performance Management seeks to ensure that each person • Understands what is expected of her and how her work leads to organization’s goals • Has the skills and abilities to deliver on those expectations • Meets those expectations • Is actively engaged in designing and implementing work tasks • Sustains positive relationships • Receives feedback on her performance • Has opportunities to improve performance

Problem Solving • Impulse is to react in ways that have been used before • Satisficing: looking close to familiar solutions, selecting easiest one (fewest demands) to apply • Instead, seek to understand why you and others think there is a problem • Ask what do we see, where, how occurring, when, with whom, why, own role in it? • Seek to frame the issue in ways different from past • Engage others in examining definitions and potential solutions • Set priorities in addressing components

Further steps in problem-solving • Examine potential causes for the problem; ask for views and advice from staff, peers, managers, outsiders • Brainstorm to identify creative alternative approaches to solving it in long term, including asking others views, opinions • Screen alternatives for feasibility, likelihood of long-term resolution, risks and benefits, potential consequences • Imagine success: “What would we be doing if this were not an issue for us any more?”

Communications • Everyone should submit periodic progress reports to supervisors; each is crucial audience for other • Hold regular meetings with staff to discuss progress on assignments, with individual/team summaries, open feedback • Learn to listen actively; ask for clarification, check to see if you and others understand one another’s points • Demonstrate practices of open communications, asking for and giving feedback • Encourage staff to initiate discussions when tasks accomplished or barriers encountered • Solicit views of ways to deal with barriers; invite others to help solve problems. • Spread news of successes; show appreciation for others; say “thank you” often

Managing and reducing risks • Def: Steps to ensure that critical assets and resources are protected from loss or damage • People • Screen applicants, clear job descriptions, fair reviews, adequate compensation, prevention of discrimination and harassment • Responsiveness to problems, complaints, grievances • Policies on conflicts of interest, whistle-blowing • Policies on giving public information • Property and resources • Clear policies on handling money • Careful accounting and regular audits • Monitor and ensure workplace safety • Insurance (liability, D&O, property) • Policies on document retention, access, and destruction

Managing Yourself I • Keep the mission in mind always. • Set priorities among tasks (urgent vs. important). • Recognize own signs of stress. Tell others and ask for feedback • Monitor own time and work hours; take responsibility for personal rest and renewal • Set personal growth goals and follow plan to attain them. • Get and use a mentor or coach. Ask for help. • Always tell the truth, keep your promises, admit mistakes, never blame, build trust. • Learn to delegate, as it builds others’ competencies • Understand your own style of learning, approach to power and to problems, dealing with criticism and conflict.

Managing Yourself II • Develop emotional intelligence • Communicate with staff, supervisors, partner, mentor (err on the side of too much) • Learn and practice active listening • Give constructive feedback to others on the spot; don’t let discontents fester • Resist impulse to jump in and “fix” things • Address underlying issues, not crises • Identify aspects of work that are satisfying • Know when to stop, quit, leave. Prepare successors and stay aware of “founder’s syndrome.” • Recognize and celebrate own accomplishments

There is never enough time! Signs of poor time management • Staff meetings last too long and accomplish too little • I’m spending too much time on e-mails and the telephone • My time gets consumed by unimportant things • My staff does not work productively when I’m not in the office • I tend to get too involved with too many projects at once. • There are always so many interruptions. • I need to make so many urgent decisions that I cannot study them all • I’m just a hands-on manager and like to be involved with everything • If there are problems, I can always finish the job myself.

Principles of time management • Planning • An hour of planning can save many hours of implementation. • Start the day by deciding which issues are the most important and put them first. • Save smaller issues for late in the day. • Avoid accepting others’ definitions of each problem as a crisis. • Remember: Someone else’s procrastination isn’t my emergency.

More on time management • Organizing: • Make responsibility congruent with authority. • Have people report to one supervisor only. • Staffing: • Match person with task to optimize motivation (including yourself). • Orientation for newcomers can save time later. • Learning should be supported and reinforced on the job. • Expect people to take initiative and responsibility for solutions, not just identifying problems.

More on time management • If it cannot be changed, don’t waste time on it. • People adopt the organization’s culture, so lead with solutions, not just complaints, and expect other to do same. • Focus on goals and policies, not complaints. • Make sure plans are clear about tasks and responsibilities. • Don’t take on tasks that could be delegated to others. • Delegate responsibility for whole tasks, not just parts. • Communicate expectations clearly. • Keep your eye on the long-term future.

More on time management • Decision-making • Distinguish issues from causes. • Focus on underlying issues, not complaints. • Build on what works now (not just in the past). • Indecision is in fact a decision, one that wastes time. • Decisions should be made at the front lines, not in executive office, wherever possible. • Decisions should be made by those who have the most information in the issue and the most stake in success.

Emotional Intelligence • Identifying emotions: the ability to perceive and recognize emotions in oneself and others (this varies widely among people) • Using emotions: the ability to generate and feel emotions in communication • Understanding emotions: the ability to understand emotional information, how they arise and combine • Managing emotions: the ability to regulate expressions of emotions in oneself and others so as to promote interpersonal understanding and growth.

Personal Emotional Competencies • Self-awareness of one’s own inner states • Recognition of how one’s emotions influence attitudes and communications • Self-confidence in one’s own worth and capabilities • Self-management and control of one’s own feelings, impulses, resources • Trustworthiness in maintaining personal honesty and integrity • Conscientiousness, taking responsibility for personal performance • Adaptability, flexibility in handling change • Initiative, readiness to act on opportunities • Achievement-orientation, internal readiness to improve or meet higher standards of excellence

Social-emotional competencies • Social awareness of others’ feelings, needs, concerns • Body language: reading voice, movement, gestures, eye contact, volume, posture, silence, timing • Empathy: sensing others’ feelings, perspectives, taking active interest in their concerns, active listening • Organizational awareness: reading a group’s emotional currents and power relationships • Service orientation: anticipating, recognizing, acting on consumers’ needs and interests • Social skills in inducing desirable responses in others • Developing others: sensing others developmental needs and bolstering their competencies and confidence

More social-emotional competencies • Leadership: inspiring and guiding others, using effective tactics for persuasion • Communication: listening actively and openly; sending clear and convincing messages • Change catalyst: initiating and managing change in relationships • Conflict management: negotiating and resolving disagreements, finding mutual solutions • Teamwork and collaboration: working well with others toward shared goals; creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals; showing appreciation to others for accomplishments.

Exercise • Review and rate your own performance in the skills of leadership, management, supervision. • Identify your strengths and limitations. • Select one skill in which you would like to grow. • Specify how you want to perform in that area. What would someone see if you were doing it well? • Decide how you want to get feedback from others on your performance in that skill. From whom? In what form? • Select some learning resources that will help you improve in that skill. • Negotiate a plan for getting periodic feedback on your progress.

Leadership and Management of Nonprofit Organizations: Part I