The Qualities Needed in a Nonprofit Organization’s CEO
A Posting by James V. Toscano & Dania Toscano Miwa
The latest surveys report between 20-40% of CEO/EDs of nonprofit organizations are thinking of leaving in the next few years. Is this a disaster or a remarkable opportunity to improve leadership?
In addition to management degrees, e.g. MBAs, MNPM, MPAs, and good track records, what else should we be looking for in the next generation of nonprofit CEOs? Here is our collective baker’s dozen on those qualities that will help bring nonprofits to a new, more productive, innovative position. Some who are next in line at these organizations may have many of these qualities, some will not. Our good friend, Lars Leafblad, a veteran recruiter of superb EDs, recommends prioritization of the qualities needed for each specific situation. All will not be strong in all categories, so pick the candidates with the best combination for your position.
Here’s the list.
1. Mission-Centered. Unlike many of the professional manager class in business, nonprofit CEOs should, must believe in the mission of the group from the get-go. Personal and professional values need to come together in the person chosen. A certain element of passion needs to be evident as well. The CEO’s focus must be on the outcome of the work needed to move the mission needle substantively and significantly.
2. Visionary. Constituting larger and larger importance, nonprofits need leaders whose vision go well beyond the commonplace and ordinary boundaries, leaders who are willing to take their organizations to new, perhaps more uncomfortable places in their efforts to contain, hopefully solve, the problems they are confronting.
3. Entrepreneur. Flowing directly out of the first two qualities, the new leader needs to be an entrepreneur, creating new ways of achieving the mission, adopting and adapting novel modalities and processes from business, government and other nonprofits. Making large bets, taking calculated risks, starting or combining with for-profit business, and merging and acquiring are the new repertoire to help achieve Mission with better outcomes and impact.
4. Quarterback. The executive function in a nonprofit must be team-based, requiring CEOs to understand and fit well into their quarterbacking role. Delegation, hand-offs to strength, even Hail Mary’s are all part of the executive function and should be understood. CEOs self-image requires that they see themselves not as “boss” but as team leader and team player. Like any professional team, management needs training, practice and feedback.
5. Communicator. The CEO has an essential role as the voice of the institution, internally and externally, no longer focusing on program and internal management alone, but now needing to articulate, attract, and continuously inspire. With the multiplicity of media available, multichannel messaging is an important part of the CEO’s job in establishing and reinforcing “brand.”
6. Cheerleader. Beyond communicator, the CEO and team need to motivate, encourage, cheer and generally inspire engagement, for efficiency, effectiveness, morale and productivity internally and among supporters, “fans,” followers, and donors for an expanding trusting constituency externally.
7. Organizer. Today, traditional hierarchies don’t work as well as they once did, given the connectedness of staff and constituents networking at the speed of light on digital devices. How does chain of command compare to interactive networks? How does span of control respond to Friending or Liking or the many other “ings” that seem to dominate social media?? Who really is “in” an organization as opposed to “out” of the group? (See 10 Things a New ED Should Do.)
8. Planner/Futurist/Learner. To operate only in the present is no longer enough. Systematic, long-term planning is vital to anticipate the vast changes that await us. We are on the cusp of knowledge and data revolutions. Certainly our moral, ethical compass will still point north, but everything else may change. The CEO must continuously anticipate the future, drawing up alternative scenarios for significant survival, drawing on the best minds in the field, and learning from data, experience and instinct.
9. Financier. Seemingly mundane compared to the others, but absolutely essential is a CEO who understands finance, cash flows, days cash on hand, operating statements, accrual accounting, the various ratios, audits, balance sheets, lines of credit, endowments, board-restricted pseudo-endowments, all of the rest. Moreover, the CEO needs, more than ever, to understand and focus on revenue generation as a topmost priority. Nonprofits are typically about expense, which is often their undoing.
10. Constituent/Resources Developer. CEOs are the chief resource development officer in any organization. If they reject this notion entirely, they rarely achieve the full potential of their office. The ability to build constituency, and, from that, prospects and donors, is of extraordinary importance in our resource-hungry environment.
11. Talent Scout. Positioning colleagues to achieve their highest and best potential is a special characteristic necessary in a successful CEO. Deep insight into people and human nature goes beyond any HR skill; it is one of the basic requirements that a CEO possess. Skill suck as spotting new talent and unrecognized talent in existing personnel, then integrating these dimensions into the group’s efforts are essential to the continuous improvement of the organization.
12. Evaluator. Everyone now seems to want measures of a nonprofit’s impact. Whether a fad or a trend, the CEO, to continue to improve functions as well as results, must be data-driven, albeit relevant data-driven. Feedback loops, measures of comparability with similar organizations, quality improvement methodology and formal programs of performance management, e.g. “managing to outcomes,” also need to be in the toolkit of the CEO.
13. Authentic Leader. A friend, Bob Terry, thought deeply, brilliantly and perceptively on organizational leadership: one of the vital elements he posited was that of authenticity. Honesty, directness, resiliency, forward thinking, organizational knowledge, perceptivity and a score of other elements create the true authenticity of a leader.
Now that we have expostulated our baker’s dozen, we still need to ask, “Where are these leaders?” What are the priority qualities needed in the job description?
Those who are needed for a specific job are everywhere and they are nowhere.
What do we do? The potential for combinations of the above exists in many, but the formal training is often not available. So we need to establish intensive training programs, from internal operations to university degree offerings.
The nonprofit trade and aid associations and the foundations that understand the need to build capacity must also step up, recognize that all need to take a much longer look at the future of the sector and its leadership and devote resources to this high priority challenge.
Nonprofit leadership needs this training, the immersion on variables such as those above, that will position the sector for growth and societal benefit. If we do not do these things, nonprofits may be moved aside in a society and culture which looks to what works regardless of economic sector, rewards success, and opts for whatever achieves desired impact.
It’s an incredibly competitive environment in which we exist, and it will get more competitive. We need inspired nonprofit leadership if we are to emerge as the best option, one that not only has outstanding results, but also champions the humane and empathic values so important to the viable and egalitarian society we cherish.