A Culture of Shared Leadership?
There are a number of critical factors that contribute to a strong and resilient nonprofit organization. Succession planning is certainly one of these. However, even if you have a good succession plan, it won’t be helpful if other areas of your organization are weak.
Among the other critical factors are: a relevant and focused mission; good governance by an engaged, experienced board; competent, well-paid staff; effective programming; diversified development strategies with ongoing stewardship; community outreach and partnerships; open and frequent communication with stakeholders; a strategic framework that provides direction while also being adaptable to changing times; and most importantly, a culture of shared leadership to keep the organization on track.
What do we mean about “a culture of shared leadership”? Ideally, this is not about one or a few individuals. Rather, it is a culture where people are given opportunities to participate in meaningful ways, contributing both independently and collectively in a coordinated fashion, while continually developing their leadership skills to take on ever more challenging roles and responsibilities.
It is also a culture where people listen, communicate, train, mentor, guide, inspire, encourage, support, challenge and trust each other.
When this is done right, the potential for a negative impact of a leader’s departure is minimized as there are people who are prepared to step in and manage during this period of change. On the contrary, when leadership is concentrated in one or a few individuals, their departures can lead to significant disruption, confusion and potential serious set-backs in service delivery, funding, and impact.
How would you begin this cultural shift? Working with your team, you’ll want to start by giving serious consideration to how your organization is operating now and how it can be improved, including a good look at your organizational chart and job descriptions. How and when information is shared and the frequency of and pathways for communication are critical.
Most likely, to build a culture of leadership development will require the allocation of time and money into professional development, cross-training, workshops and conferences, mentoring and more. That said, studies show this is well worth the investment as people who are valued as leaders or potential leaders tend to contribute more and stay in their jobs longer. (By the way, much of this applies to boards as well!)
Stanford Social Innovation Review is sponsoring a webinar focusing on this topic, “The Leadership Development Deficit: How to Build Your Talent Pipeline” on June 6th. Click here to find out more about it.