What we do
We support boards and top leaders in non-profit organisations.
Firstly, we work with the trustees to achieve an efficient and smooth-running governance system which serves the organisation by ensuring the highest possible standards, not only in compliance with statutory requirements but also in searching for best practice.
Although most charities can fill in the forms and tick the boxes without any external help, the real needs can be in more ‘dynamic’ areas such as relationships, motivation, culture and commitment. We can help to address these needs, where some external perspective and broader experience are invaluable.
In addition we have been asked to mentor or advise individual charity leaders, especially chief executives. Typically this involves a series of meetings and phone calls, with a variety of practical techniques to help understand the person and the situation.
It is amazing how often this has opened up a new self-understanding, enabling the leader to enjoy a more satisfying and productive role. We can also help in resolving those tricky, unspoken problems which burden so many leaders – for example in relationships, financial matters or competency gaps.
We always prefer a tailor-made approach, in which we first analyse and then work alongside the individual to develop relevant solutions. There is no simplistic formula; every leader is unique.
Some people find it helpful to see examples of how this works. The following are taken from real situations which illustrate the value of external support in our own experience.
Example 1: Sink or Swim
While one leader was about to take up a senior job in an international non-profit organization, another was already in place in another country but was planning a major change of priorities and approach. Both had to understand their roles quickly and learn some practical do’s and don’ts that can make all the difference when new leadership comes in. It was essential to have good relationships with the staff, especially with senior management, with the board and with the public. One of them also had to work with government regulators.
In both cases, a job analysis revealed that a changing mix of leadership and management, and a huge demand for communication skills, required a new approach to the role. Short, intense and frequent calls to an external mentor helped one of them to understand the most relevant approaches, while the other tried to do it alone. The difference was marked. Happily, they both succeeded in the end, but one of them had a much more effective, enjoyable and easier transition to high-level non-profit leadership.
Example 2: Board …or Bored?
The board of a national charity was described as “good, but not great”. They wanted to succeed. Some of them were distinguished in their own fields and this added a sense of corporate gravitas. But recent multi-million pound growth in the charity’s income had been achieved by the executives with only minimal help from trustees, and they seemed increasingly out of touch with each other.
The Chairman and the Chief Executive discussed the problem and agreed that they “could do with some refreshment”, to put it mildly; their governance needed to keep up with the rest of the organisation’s rapidly increasing professionalism. They agreed to bring in someone experienced and impartial who could facilitate their own development process. They engaged someone who is now a member of Oxford Leaders.
It was not an easy process. It involved replacing some members, delineating their roles, observing better disciplines and even rewriting the constitution to define their terms of service. The facilitator guided some discussions, helped to resolve conflicts and suggested best practice from wider experience. They didn’t accept all the advice, nor did they succeed in every attempted change (for example it took longer to optimise committee time), but one year later the board meetings were much more interesting and efficient, with members rising to meet their responsibilities. They even installed a peer review system for future board development. The executives and the board trusted each other more. And what about the organisation’s overall effectiveness? Not surprisingly, it improved exponentially, nearly doubling its income in the following year. Board meetings were no longer bored meetings, and the CEO and the Chairman were probably the two happiest people in the whole organisation.
Example 3: Brilliant Team Leadership
Selecting and developing the right people looks easy but it can be a minefield. The leader of an emerging NGO had a new team spread over five countries on three continents. He inspired them with vision but was not sure how to take them further, and he struggled to feel in touch when they lived so far apart.
The turning point came when he drew on external, international experience. He received vital support as he made some brave changes within the team, and learned how to take them through an analysis of their roles which included a careful use of psychometric profiling. He discovered that their real challenges were not in the physical distance between them but in their different personalities, work styles and cultures. As this shed light on their diverse paradigms, he was able to lead them more relevantly and to develop a new culture of their own. Within a year they became a high performance team with a clear strategic mandate. A member of Oxford Leaders later visited them and described the whole team as “fantastic”.
Example 4: All Change, Please
The board of a large non-profit organisation approved a change process which included staff rationalisation, senior management changes, relocation and radical marketing plans. They knew how to assess each part of the jigsaw, but were slow to appreciate the combined effect on the whole organisation including its supporters. The Chief Executive (let’s call him John) consulted an external advisor, who first listened, asked questions about their assumptions and helped them to do a skills inventory. This was helpful, but it wasn’t enough for leading a significant change process. With increasing staff complaints and an air of depression in the office, they knew that different action was needed. The advisor decided to offer more directive help and he asked John’s permission for this. Fortunately, John agreed.
He challenged John to change his personal priorities and to ask the question “why?” more often. He showed him how to upgrade their corporate planning process, and to get closer to their customers. He even gave specific advice about John’s personal office, the management of his own support staff, and his personal work-life balance. It felt like a crash-course at the time, and a painful one. But when the advisor attended a board meeting as a guest, to John’s astonishment he challenged them to “appreciate their excellent CEO”! The board responded well, and in a few weeks John was able to turn a perilous situation into a success story, with a crisp and clear change process concluding in a celebration for all staff and board members together. “We couldn’t have done it without that honest feedback,” he said. “It seemed like an intrusion at the time, but in fact it was a life-saver.”
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Example 5: The Navigator’s expertise
The national team in a field country of an international NGO knew that they needed to do some strategic planning. Their entire programme needed to move out of a “hand-out” mode and into long-term community development with a sustainable, rights-based approach. The first planning meeting was chaotic as every member threw in wild ideas. In the next meeting they were gloomy and sullen. The third had a lot of noise but little sense of reality. Dreams and cynicism flowed in equal measure, and after several sessions like that they knew they were heading nowhere.
Then one person introduced a more structured approach to strategic planning. It was not a rigid template, more a way of thinking. It had been learned by one-to-one training by a member of Oxford Leaders. Gradually the team began to clarify the facts, identify workable ideas and choose appropriate methods. In the end they adopted a deceptively simple approach, devoid of jargon but very realistic. It made “honest good sense” and they found that it gained almost passionate support every time it was explained to others. In the following two years the programme grew in size and quality, and now they are well on their way to reaching their long term goals. A team member said, “Through this experience I learned that good strategic planning is not an accident; it needs expert know-how.”
Example 6: Trap Doors
Nobody plans to fail, but corporate life is littered with failed leaders. Many could have avoided the trap doors that whisked them suddenly out of office and into the abyss.
A capable and mature leader – let’s call him Michael – entered a high-profile job outside his own country. Everything he did was of excellent quality and he felt sure it would please his organisation’s head office. But it didn’t. His supervisor, a senior and respected person, was actually quite insecure. The more Michael excelled, the more angry his supervisor became, and eventually he found a way to force Michael out. There are many reasons for such breakdown – problems in key relationships, or in various kinds of accountability, or people acting from nefarious motives. Often the victim misses the signs of vulnerability, and in this case it was driven by a mixture of loneliness, undue optimism and a lack of self-awareness.
We like to nail those trap-doors firmly shut. We also consider the optimum time for a leader to leave positively, no matter how far into the future, and to plan for it in a way that makes it simply the next step in a career of highly successful leadership.
