The Consultant's Irreverent Guide to Nonprofit Management
Have you ever wondered about the most challenging leadership issues that Executive Directors, CEOs and Directors face in a nonprofit, social justice organization? This blog will invite you into the exciting world of nonprofit HR and Organizational Development Consulting, sharing the good, the bad and the ugly so that you can learn from the success and mistakes of others.
I invite you to come along , sit down, buckle up and brace yourself for a journey into the Consultant's Irreverent Guide to
Key Behavioral Challenges Faced by Many Non-Profit Leaders
UNDERMINING BEHAVIORS
In my consulting travels, I have the great pleasure and honor to work with some of the most dedicated professionals in the world of work. As social justice practitioners, I know that everyone I see is passionate about their cause and mission.
Unfortunately, I also consistently encounter very busy non-profit leaders who struggle to keep up. This manifests in predictable ways; however, these behaviors often undermine your effectiveness as a leader and add to your stress unnecessarily. This article is intended to highlight some of the more common behaviors that get in your way and to provide simple solutions for addressing these challenges proactively. The saying, "If it's going to be, it's up to me" applies here.
Too often, we know we're struggling or drowning in a sea of work and we fail to course correct to ensure that we have the adequate bandwidth and capacity to manage the constant influx of emails, information and tasks that come our way. When we feel our lives are out of sorts, it's very likely that they actually are out of sorts because we're not managing our work effectively or proactively.
Our job, from a certain perspective, is to make all of the butterflies we're responsible for to fly in formation. That can't happen if we allow chaos to become our modus operandi.
To my surprise and disappointment, I have worked with some leaders who exhibit almost all of these behaviors almost all of the time. Not surprisingly, they are at a crossroads to either address these concerns effectively or face imminent failure and perhaps the failure of their organizations. Others, may only exhibit a few of these behaviors on occasion. Regardless, if you allow them, these behaviors will get in the way of your effectiveness. The more of them that you may be personally exhibiting, the more critical it is to take an inventory right now of what you need to change for your own benefit and for the benefit of your organization.
Here are some examples:
- Allowing email boxes to fill to overflowing without clearing incoming messages or responding within a timely way.
- Not using out-of-office messages to alert stakeholders of an absence proactively, rather than leaving them to wonder why they are receiving no response.
- Failing to demonstrate good personal and professional boundaries.
- Lack of follow-through on important tasks, perhaps even for months-at-a-time, causing a hurry-up-and-wait process to unfold.
- Lack of attention to basic business compliance items, favoring programmatic and fundraising functions, that result in unnecessary and avoidable liability and risk.
- Triangulating third parties into private conversations without indicating that these additional parties are being queried or included. Example: Speaking with attorneys and not informing HR in employee relations matters.
- Frequent crying or reacting emotionally to difficult situations rather than responding..
- Allowing emotional decisions to take precedence over logical ones, which leads to wimpy leadership.
- Wanting to be 'liked' by everyone which leads to impotent decision-making.
- Not enforcing rules, expectations or standards of performance through accountability. Allowing mediocrity or poor performance to become the norm, thus lowering the bar.
- Failing to communicate salient information to staff, or expecting others to convey information without ensuring that it has occurred.
- Hiring quickly, firing slowly. The opposite of the" hire slowly, fire quickly" mindset.
- Promoting or hiring people out of expediency to fill an opening rather than actually vetting the candidate for appropriate fit in the new role. Just because they were good at their former role doesn't mean they're ready to fill a leadership role now. Aspirational hiring versus hiring of people ready to hit the ground running is almost never advised.
- Avoiding conflict — refusing to engage in it early or to confront challenges early.
- Failure to pay attention to measurable results and/or to expect those types of S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Temporal) results from subordinates.
- Making assumptions. It is important to "trust, but verify. "
- Being so busy that you have no time to stop and think, plan, coordinate, communicate or address issues. Some organizations seem to believe that the more meetings they have, the more productive they are. This is actually the opposite of what needs to happen.
- Operating as if they're a cruise ship versus a yacht or speed boat. They're not nimble in the water and their own bureaucracy creates avoidable bottlenecks.
- Over-use of the democratic leadership style, rather than opting for different styles in different situations.
- Failing to give adequate feedback, or giving feedback in toxic ways, or waiting until an evaluation to spring the feedback on the unsuspecting employee in the form of an ambush. Also, not adequately documenting concerns and interactions along the way.
- Hiring or spending money without regard for the budget (any budget), cash-on-hand, sustainability projections or fundraising obligations and timelines.
- Exhibiting public disdain or disrespect of others in leadership, undermining the authority of others on the team and splitting the team into camps of allegiance.
- Making promises that can't be kept, setting up high expectations with poor outcomes that leads to lowered morale and distrust in leadership.
- Delegating tasks to subordinates who are neither prepared nor trained nor available to handle the tasks being delegated.
- Engaging in blame-shifting rather than taking personal responsibility for results.
- Modeling the opposite of what is expected from others (i.e., disheveled, inappropriate attire, schedules, follow-through to meet deadlines, etc.).
- Being MIA due to travel or other obligations so that you are not present to observe or handle day-to-day oversight of the organization.
- Revisionist history to fit your own perceptions, not the facts or reality being addressed.
- Procrastinating until the 11th hour, then cramming to complete a project in an unsatisfactory manner. Not looking ahead at what is coming up and planning accordingly. Same with failing to hold staff accountable to sufficiently early deadlines in order to leave ample time for edits and reviews.
- Not calendaring critical renewal or due-dates.
- Confusing the paradigm of being an activist with basic business practice — thinking the rules don't apply to the organization because it's a non-profit social justice organization. News flash. The rules do apply to your organization!
- Failing to ensure adequate orientation and onboarding of new staff.
- Failing to train supervisors and/or to hold them accountable to reasonably high standards.
- Consistently causing your organization or department to operate outside of realistic capacity, leading to burnout and eventual turnover.
- Relying too heavily upon grant funding and not enough on the development of unrestricted funds with donors, corporate sponsorships, fundraising events, estates, etc..
- Failure to follow your own by-laws and policies.
- Being frozen in fear, unable to make critical decisions in a timely manner.
- Entering into collaborative partnerships without a clear and explicit MOU.
- Operating programs and services that are not adequately overseen or supervised, potentially resulting in very poor service and risk, in addition to squandered funds.
- Capricious decision-making. Lack of neutrality when determining facts or exhibiting favoritism.
- And more.
The Solution to Overcoming these Undermining Behaviors is Simple!
The solutions are easier than they may seem. Essentially, they involve doing the opposite of the things listed above and right-sizing your workload to fit into a realistic schedule. That's right. Prioritize by using the Pareto Principle. Ask yourself, "What is the 20% of my work that yields 80% of the benefit?" Once you can determine that, your priorities are clear and a lot of the clutter that gets in the way of achieving that 20% can be swept aside.
The goal is to become the leader others will follow by doing more than talking the talk. As a non-profit leader, whether as a supervisor, manager, director, or Executive Director, you are held to a higher standard. It is critically important that you set the stage by walking the walk. You model the behavior you expect from your team. When you're able to do that consistently, your team will give you their very best each and every day and you will enjoy the benefit of greater work/life balance. Contrary to popular belief, it is achievable, even in the busy nonprofit sector.
When we, as leaders, fail to demonstrate the basic behaviors and leadership principles we say we want from our teams, they disengage. They begin to distrust that what we say is not necessarily what we do. We create the opposite of what we really want. The reality is that all eyes are upon us as leaders, all of the time. Act accordingly.
