You may quote this material provided it is acknowledged as follows: Used with permission from Charles Clayton, Trends in Non-Profit Leadership, http://www.oxfordleaders.co.uk

Oxford, 20th January 2010

Here are the main trends that I observed from an extensive listening exercise among the top leaders of selected non-profit organisations on four continents from October to December 2009.

Three encouraging strengths:

(1) STRATEGIC CAPACITY: More than 50% of the leaders I interviewed have skills in strategic planning, or have these skills among their senior staff or board members; and they are using this knowledge effectively in their organisations.

(2) PERSONAL SUPPORT: Most of the leaders I interviewed are aware of their own need to develop professionally and have sought out training courses, professional mentors or relevant reading materials in the last twelve months. It also made them hungry for more training, mentoring or coaching.

(3) FRESH VISION: Most of today’s top leaders are renewing their vision for their non-profit organisations. It seems that the current pressures of the worldwide financial downturn are driving out complacency and motivating leaders to clarify their strategic objectives.

Four challenging needs:

(1) TIME TO THINK: Many leaders are swamped by public demands, in addition to internal demands such as emails and other administration. There is no time to think and reflect, yet this is a key responsibility in leadership. The underlying reason is a lack of sustainable funding and the need to set an example in frugality, and costs are cut by reducing the support staff. The CEO’s “thinking time” is often sacrificed for “emailing time”.

(2) PRODUCTIVITY METRICS:  This need was expressed most by Australian CEOs, who are very concerned about how to measure the “outputs” of their charitable work. It is most likely a result of the Productivity Commission, a government regulatory body which wants to see measurable results in public services. This is also appearing more in the US context, as donors are ever more pragmatic and expect to see quantifiable results for their donations. The trend will doubtless increase in Europe too!

(3) SELF-MOTIVATED TEAMS:  There is a widespread desire among CEOs to have management teams who have a sense of urgency, who take initiative and don’t need to be pushed to implement the work.

(4) BOARD DEVELOPMENT: Many board members need training and challenging. But the CEOs are not in a good position to provide this, so they prefer to rely on external facilitation.

INTERESTING COMMENTS heard in the course of these interviews:

“My biggest challenge is not how to get rid of bad people; it is how to deal with mediocre people.”  (Europe, public servant)

“You have to learn who are the gatekeepers in your organisation. Sometimes it is your personal assistant.”  (Said by charity leaders in both Europe and Australia)

“In my experience, the leaders of [religious] organisations are less likely to express a need for training; they assume that being ‘gifted and called’ is sufficient.” (USA, Christian charity leader)

“The greatest impediment in my leadership is my own communications ability; I want to learn how to bring others up to speed with what is in my mind.”  (Australia, charity leader)

“We have no performance reviews, no development, no strategic plans, no spare money, no time to think, and we have a severe work overload throughout the organisation. We just need to manage the stress.” (NGO leader)

“Great listeners make great preachers.” (USA, Church leader)

“We have only one way of developing people: hire the good ones and fire the bad ones.” (International NGO leader – paraphrased!)

“I need leadership development internally, in my own situation, not just by external courses. But I need mentoring externally, outside my situation, not just by my boss.” (Middle East, NGO leader)

“You should have asked: what gets in the way, what holds you back, what obstructs your leadership? I really want to talk about that.”  (Australia, charity trustee)

“If we can get the people right, the money will come in.” (USA non-profit leader, when asked why he didn’t mention money in the interview. They have subsequently reported a good year of funding in 2009.)

“Leadership? I never thought about it. I just make sure that we are all pointing in the same direction, select the right team and work at supporting them.” [not bad!]  (European educational leader)

And finally, how (not) to inspire your staff….

“Our CEO counts the toilet rolls. If we use too many, the costs are deducted from our wages.” (NGO employee)

With my personal thanks to all the leaders who took part in this exercise,

Charles Clayton, Director, Oxford Leaders

YOU MAY QUOTE THIS MATERIAL PROVIDED IT IS ACKNOWLEDGED AS FOLLOWS:  Used with permission from Charles Clayton, Trends in Non-Profit Leadership, http://www.oxfordleaders.co.uk