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Wednesday, Febraury 3, 2010
Building Nonprofit Senior Leadership Teams
Trust, common goals, defined roles and good relationships lead to organizational sustainability
By Leslie Bonner, Senior Consultant, Dewey & Kaye
Leadership of a nonprofit is a shared activity. Successful organizations are led not just by an Executive Director or CEO, but include a high performing and cohesive team of senior leaders. Unfortunately, many senior leadership teams face challenges that include: unclear role definitions, silo thinking, communication disconnects, poor meeting management, and lack of alignment on goals, processes and priorities. A focus on developing senior leadership teams will bring a return in both personal growth and more sustainable organizations and help in succession planning. (For more about the business case for investing in leadership team development, see the article in this month's issue of Mosaic.)
Common issues impacting teams. As we found in our study of Nonprofit Leadership Development, the individuals on the senior team need to be strategic, effective, critical thinkers and possess an appropriate set of competencies tailored to the organization's needs and life stage. They also need to be effective team players who can work together on the organization's mission and priorities. Based on our experience, eight main types of problems arise in top teams:
- Lack of trust between team members.
- The organization and team do not have clear or agreed upon strategies, priorities, goals, filters or values. Many teams fail to be effective because they lack common focus and direction. Rather than work from a single agenda that belongs to the team, each person on the team is working from a personal agenda.
- Unclear roles, responsibilities or expectations for the individuals in the team.
- The team lacks a holistic view of the organization and/or their thinking is limited to a specific function or program.
- Ineffective use of meetings.
- Clashing personal styles, an inability to recognize the strengths of others or to appreciate the value different perspectives bring to the team.
- Unwillingness to deal with conflict appropriately. Either conflict is rampant (destructive disagreements), the team fears and avoids conflict, or they overvalue consensus.
- Power or knowledge rests with just a few or one team member (i.e. financial literacy).
Building or revitalizing your senior leadership team begins with a diagnostic. The most effective process for developing a team (or an individual) begins with acknowledging the effects current behaviors are having on the organization. When Dewey & Kaye is engaged to work with a leadership team, usually as a result of this acknowledgement, we begin with an assessment of the team's strengths and weaknesses. This can involve both individual and team diagnostics. Among the many tools we can use are behavioral or style profiles such as DiSC or the Myers Briggs Type Indicator which can provide both individual and team profiles. Behavioral profiles not only give an individual a clear understanding of his or her strengths, but also give leaders and teammates an objective way to discuss differences in work styles. Organizations can then open lines of communication, understand how to overcome differences, and ensure they have people in place who complement each other.
A team survey, which asks individuals to rate the team on a variety of aspects, is commonly used in conjunction with a behavioral profile. Dewey & Kaye is currently conducting research in order to create a team assessment specific to Nonprofit Leadership Teams. (See the invitation in this issue of Mosaic for how you can participate in our research study.)
Once the diagnostic is completed, we issue a report of findings and work with senior leadership to create a plan for development. This often includes helping the team identify a set of competencies or values to help them achieve the organization's strategic goals, and follow–ups help the team maintain accountability for the results.
Written by: Leslie Bonner, a Senior Consultant at Dewey & Kaye, a McCrory and McDowell Company. Leslie can be reached at lbonner@deweykaye.com or 412.434.1335
Dewey & Kaye