Be A Leader - Now
This is not a breakthrough idea, but I am completely convinced that leadership will be the only determining factor for the survival and success of nonprofits throughout this recession. I see signs of it all the time. As the months of recession drag on, the effects of the presence and absence of real leadership at nonprofit organizations becomes more and more clear. A couple of really interesting recent blog posts got me thinking about these leadership voids and how to fill them.
In the post Nonprofits Will Never Be Respected Until We Start Respecting Ourselves, Rosetta Thurman confronts the self-induced damage of low wages, chip on the shoulders image of many nonprofit employees. She then builds up to this call to action:
With all of our own moaning and groaning about our sector, it’s no wonder other people emphasize the “non” in our nonprofit field. Believe me, I’ve been guilty of all of the above. But what’s happened is that in all of our “insider baseball” talk amongst ourselves about what’s wrong with our sector, we have somehow internalized it all to conclude that this is just how it is. This is just the nature of “nonprofit culture”. We forget that WE are nonprofit culture. The nonprofit “sector” is made up of individual organizations, which are made up of individual people, which means that this is all up to us. It is what we make it to be. So when are we going to be the change we say we wish to see?
Echoing the “take charge” message in An Open Letter to Arts Administrators, Adam Thurman (Two bloggers named Thurman, hmmm) describes the painful position of mid-level arts administrators who don’t feel supported, respected, or valued.
It doesn’t have to be like that. I know you’ve probably convinced yourself that all the garbage you deal with is just the cost of being in the field.
It isn’t. If the group you work for is being run poorly it is because people are ACTIVELY making choices that allow that to happen. It isn’t just a matter of circumstance. It’s an outcome of choice.
You deserve better then that. You deserve to work at an organization that produces great art, treats people with respect and pays fairly. No matter how much people may tell you otherwise those three goals are NOT mutual exclusive.
He then advises that these arts administrators give themselves a year to help bring about change - or to leave. I love the simplicity and enormity of that advice.
Be a leader, or leave.
But how can you be a leader if you aren’t the CEO, Executive Director, CFO, Director of Development, Board Chair, etc, etc? By leading, that’s how. I know of many cases where a new board member, mid-level program manager, or finance staffer stepped into the void, told the truth, and brought about important change. To be frank, there is risk and a lot of work involved.
Our new Recession Risk Assessment resource includes suggestions for actions to take based on the risk level. For organizations with high level of leadership risks, the advice is: “The organization urgently needs a leader to step forward to call attention to the challenges, even if it causes discomfort.”
Be a leader - why not you? Why not now?
The paragraph under be a leader, or leave is so true. However, staff people will tend to be risk adverse to taking that step. The hope is that in such a void a board member will step up and start asking the tough questions. I have volunteered in a situation where a lack of leadership has caused a significant lack of community faith in the organization. It’s hurting the business and its fundraising capability. Even though there’s overwhelming community support for the concept of what this organization does.
Comment by Gina Cuclis — June 17, 2009 @ 11:54 am