The Importance of Identifying and Empowering the Next Generation of Nonprofit Leaders
The Two Types of Nonprofits
I’ve noticed that my nonprofit clients tend to fall into two broad categories - those who have leaders, other than the executive director or deputy director, who work “at the level of strategy” and those who don’t.
What I mean by this is that some organizations have executive leaders - and only executive leaders - who are strategic about how to carry out their work, and some organizations have other folks on staff who are similarly strategic about how to carry out their work, often the “next generation” leaders who report to the executive leadership team.
What Does it Mean to be a Strategic Leader?
What does it mean to be a strategic leader? I’m thinking about leaders who participate in setting the mission, vision, and values of the organization and are then responsible for ensuring that the organization’s programs, initiatives, and work are aligned with furthering the mission.
Strategic leaders consider not just the mission, vision, values, goals, and strategies; they take into account the perceptions of and impact on other stakeholders, the community the organization serves, its funders, and the public perception of the organization. They make decisions based on their ability to hold these things in balance, as well as on an understanding of how inputs - time effort, actions - contribute to impact.
The Challenges and Benefits of Strategic Leadership
When an organization lacks this kind of “leadership at the level of strategy” throughout multiple levels of leadership (not just the top of the org chart), individuals experience an inability to prioritize tasks, a drive to look or be “productive,” a fear they’re always about to be “found out,” an unwillingness to set down ineffective or unproductive tasks, and an inability to delegate.
Strategic leaders, on the other hand, work smarter, not harder. They’re more confident in their decision-making and prioritization skills. They have a thorough understanding of what’s important and why. They can connect discrete day-to-day tasks to larger strategic initiatives and goals. They know how to measure output and outcomes, and they’re resilient enough to offer feedback and initiate change - in themselves and others, too. And they operate this way in all areas of their work, all the time.
As a result, these folks feel confident working independently, are comfortable with ambiguity, and are able to move their work forward despite the challenges, delays, and competing demands that are common in our work lives today. They’re effective. They’re changemakers. And we need them most of all if we’re going to succeed.
Balancing Leadership and Getting Work Done
Having next generation leaders that operate this way can present challenges, too. Organizations certainly need to balance “leaders” with “doers” (and leaders who are doers are some of the most powerful forces in the sector today) because too many leaders results in a “too many cooks in the kitchen” situation, especially in small organizations.
An important balancing act comes down two things: leaders being aligned with one another and leaders being able to delegate.
At a certain point, leaders need to be able to agree about the big things like mission, vision, and values, and then they need to be truly and thoroughly bought in, not just paying lip service to consensus. In order to get a staff, funders, and a community in alignment to support an organization, “what we mean when we talk about” our mission, vision, and values needs to be aligned. The way people will fill in blanks and connect dots when things aren’t stated overtly can surprising, so talk about this alignment overtly. Clear is kind.
Once an organization is all working and moving in the same direction, then leaders need to be able to delegate. It’s wonderful if executive leaders can delegate some leadership responsibility to strategic next generation leaders, and in some small, lean organizations, these next generation leaders need to be the leaders and the doers. But as organizations grow to be more sustainable, these leaders need to be able to delegate. Again, clear is kind - it’s important to communicate expectations, set measurable goals, and share the context and rationale for initiatives.
If an organization’s leaders (at all levels) can figure this out, it lays a great foundation for long-term success and sustainable impact. By empowering next-generation leaders to think and act strategically, nonprofits can become more agile, effective, and resilient in the face of the many challenges they encounter. While balancing leadership and getting work done can be tricky, the benefits of having strategic thinking permeate an organization are well worth the effort.
