For most organizations, succession planning is a tremendous challenge. In a survey put out by Dare to Lead, it stated that less than 20% of nonprofits have a written succession plan in place.
If you spend any amount of time reading reports on NPO leadership you will inevitable cross the phrase “leadership crisis” referring to the phenomenon of Executive Director Baby Boomers retiring from their job but not having anyone trained to replace him or her as the next leader of the organization.
In the book “Managing the Nonprofit Organization” Peter Drucker outlines a process for how to choose your leaders.
1. Look at what that person’s strengths are. Identify what he or she is great at, not what they’re weak at.
2. Look at the institution and ask “what is the one immediate key challenge“. Match the strengths with the needs.
3. Look at his/her character. Do you want your team to follow and model this person?
4. Look for someone who takes a great view of the agency’s functions, someone who takes their role seriously – not themselves seriously. As soon as a leader starts to think that he or she is great, the organization will fail.
5. Look for someone who thinks in terms of “we”, not “I”.
6. Look for someone who can lead regardless of the circumstances being good or bad.
What do you think is the most important quality of a leader?
Natasha is the Founder of Next Level Nonprofits, an online training company that helps equip Next Generation nonprofit Executive Directors with the practical skills to transform strategic plans into world-changing results. To help out too-busy-to-read EDs, she loves to share great ideas from the best business resources that EDs can apply to help their organizations succeed.
