I encourage you to give this thought. Although these principles are no frills and foundational, they’re not formulaic.  If you’re not able to apply them to you personally, they’ll go nowhere. 

Many nonprofit executive directors and board members that I’ve worked with don’t consider themselves leaders, at least in the context of their nonprofit role.

The latest and greatest approaches can seem out of reach and lofty. They may be good for others that don’t understand the nonprofit world. But not me.

How in the heck do you keep up with leadership best practices when you’ve got fundraising and board development on your plate, not to mention keeping your programs running smoothly?

I recently read The Truth About Leadership by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. It was refreshing, accessible, and inspired this post.

They outline 10 basic truths and I was pleased to see that I’ve written about many of them.

They most definitely are relevant to even the smallest nonprofits.

No fads, no myths, nothing trendy. I encourage you to read the book.

Here are a few of my take aways adapted for nonprofits. There are others of course. These are the ones that I think will be most useful for nonprofit executive directors and board members as a refresher or to gain new insights.

No frills thought provoking nonprofit leadership for you

These aren’t action steps, yet they do offer nuggets that can inspire solutions to chronic problems that you may be facing.

1.  You matter.

If you don’t believe in yourself (in your role) and you don’t believe that you make a difference, you won’t be able to influence others.

If those around you don’t feel like they matter and make a difference, they certainly won’t follow you. You won’t have credibility. 

Donors, staff, and board members must believe they matter, otherwise they’ll be less inclined to make major gifts, be “all in” on the board, or become exemplary staff members.

Take-away: Do what you have to do to get over any blocks you may have about this or nothing else will take hold. 

2. Know what you stand for and believe in it.

You can’t fully commit to something that isn’t important to you – no one can.

You can’t fully commit to something that doesn’t fit with who you are and how you see yourself.

High clarity about personal values and high clarity about organizational values is what drives commitment for you and those surrounding you. 

This insight from Unilever CEO Paul Polman sums it up:

“If your personal values are aligned with the companies values, you’re probably going to be more successful longer term than if they are not. If they are not, it requires you to be an actor when you go to work or to be a split personality.”

Yikes! A split personality? 

Takeaway: Get clear and back in touch with your own personal values before embarking on anything else. Here’s a great exercise that you can use for yourself.

It’s fun and really hard. You need to spend some time cutting these into a deck of cards. Sort them over and over until you get to your top 8. After getting incrediblly frustrated, you’ll gain more clarity than ever. 

Be honest. What makes you tick? Particularly if you’re a board member – are you on the wrong board? Maybe you care, but you’re not on fire about the mission. 

3. You can’t do it alone.

This may be the most challenging and important issues that nonprofits face. If I had a penny for every time I’ve heard: “how do I engage the board more?”; “the same people do everything”; “I can’t get the community or our donors to engage with the organization”.

The result? Burn out.

This is serious stuff. If you continue to do it all alone, you won’t effectively engage donors, the board and staff, or the larger community.

From Kouzes and Posner.

“You can graduate at the top of the class from the best schools, reason circles around your brightest peers, solve problems with wizard like powers, and still be more likely to fail unless you also possess the requisite personal and social skills.”

There’s something within the culture of many nonprofits that needs to change. That’s not easy to wrap your head around, however it may be the most important thing you take on as a nonprofit leader. It’s a game changer.

Take away: Human connection matters and is a fact of life. And, it is a critical success factor for all organizations not to mention in your personal life.

Learn about leadership and emotional intelligence. Make it a priority to build your boards ability to work with each other. Read about organizational culture, go to leadership workshops that speak to this. 

I hope you’ll takeaway one little thing that inspires you to think. And that you’ll begin by gaining clarity about what matters to YOU. 

Do this and you’ll grow personally and professionally. In your work life and at home.

What are you ready to tackle?