I recently finished a Leadership class at the University of Victoria with Professor John Kyle. It was a great class - I will take a lot of what I learned from John througout my career. On the last day of class back in April, he gave us a handout with some practical guidelines for people taking on a new leadership role. This applies equally to private, public and not-for-profit sector leadership roles.

John has given me permission to share this useful guide with you. There's some good stuff in here, I hope you enjoy it:

A GUIDE TO TAKE CHARGE LEADERSHIP

First steps…..

On appointment to a supervisory position which involves leading subordinates, ask the HR Department to review with you  the personnel file of each of your employees.

Ensure that you know the names of your subordinates ASAP, and become familiar with their backgrounds and experience.

Call a short meeting of your new staff as soon as it is practical. Begin the meeting by telling them about yourself, and explain that you will be asking many questions to become thoroughly familiar with departmental operations. Explain that you also will be meeting with each of them individually to learn about their jobs, any problems that they may have, and to find out how best that you can help them. Point out that this will be the first of regular meetings, both individually and as a group. Explain,  it is important that they have the opportunity to participate with you in the management and decision making of the department.

Your Communications Program…..

Monthly individual and group meetings will become the medium through which you will lead rather  than manage your subordinates. Through actions rather than words, your people will soon realize that you have taken charge of the work group and have assumed the accountability for the unit’s operations and results.

Whenever possible visit your people at their work sites. Lead by walking around, not by laptop sending them a barrage of unnecessary emails. Your role is to support their efforts and help them. Do not micro manage. Do not pester them with unnecessary telephone calls or emails. Let them manage their jobs without constant interference, but ensure they understand that you are available for assistance or counsel whenever you are needed.

Is your organization structure dysfunctional?.....

After your first few individual meetings with each of your subordinates, it may be apparent that your organization (the allocation of tasks in each position and their interaction with other positions in your department or others in the organization) needs some realignment or clarification. For example, there may be several people who are performing the same tasks, or there may be a misunderstanding as to who is responsible for what task, and to whom. When these or other organizational problems come to light, use the medium of your group meetings to make the organizational changes to fix the problems.

There must be a clear sense of direction for your department…..

Early in your tenure, discuss with all your subordinates at a group meeting what they believe the direction of the department should be. This should be firmed up with some degree of consensus before you discuss it at the “one on one” meetings with your subordinates.

At the individual meetings with subordinates, ensure that each person understands not only the direction of your department, but also has an appreciation of the goals and objectives of the overall organization.

The direction formulated for your department should support the overall vision for the organization. If there is no vision statement, find out what the overall direction and thrust for the organization is from the point of view of senior management. You need to know where the organization is going before finalizing your departmental direction.

Delegating effectively…..

Delegation is an essential skill, not only for leadership, but also for management. It is the first step toward empowering your people. Some people are uncomfortable to delegate. These people will never be leaders, and will become only mediocre managers. Managers who are constantly on the telephone to subordinates, barraging them with flurries of emails and constantly hovering in the background monitoring the task at hand, are unlikely to become leaders. Nor will this kind of manager ever develop future leaders because he or she will never give their subordinates an opportunity to make their own decisions and own mistakes.

It is easy to assign a task to a subordinate, but more time consuming to delegate one. Delegation requires a different approach. The following is suggested:

First, discuss, preferably face to face, what you want done. Encourage your subordinate to ask questions. Ensure that he or she has a clear understanding of what is needed.

Second, discuss with your subordinate how the task is to be monitored by you. The frequency of “check points” to keep the project on track will vary depending on the experience and track record of the individual.

Third, follow up with a written memo incorporating the main points of your “delegation” meeting. Once you have gone through this delegation process, get the hell out of the way and let your subordinate do his or her job. Do not develop into that management bird known as a “white shirted hoverer”. 

Make decisions…...

Do not procrastinate. Seek input and advice, especially from your subordinates. But, remember that the buck stops with you and that once you make the decision, everyone after their input must support that decision, regardless of whether or not they agreed with it.

In certain circumstances, consensus decision making may be appropriate. But often this process ends up with the quality of the decision being pulled down to the lowest common denominator, and  valuable time being lost. 

Do not postpone making a decision because you feel that you need more information. There are instances when this may be a legitimate excuse for delay. And, sometimes it may be appropriate for your decision to be “no decision”.  But keep in mind the observation of the late Dean David of the Harvard Business School – “Business consists of making irreversible decisions made with inadequate information.”

Building a team….

Successful leaders are team builders.  “Putting the right people on the bus, getting the wrong people off the bus, and getting the right people in the right seats” must be a top priority. It takes time to evaluate your people and make the tough people decisions – but it must done. Do not hesitate, indeed try, to surround yourself with people who are brighter than you. Properly led they will enhance the department’s performance as well as your own.

Teams require sound leadership. Your team members need to be monitored “loosely”. And you must learn to trust them. They need to know what you are thinking. Empathy for their trials and concerns is essential.

It is your job as team leader to ensure that they understand the “big picture”, and are clear about your objectives.

Do not hold back your praise. Always let them know when they have done a good job. Building a trusting team environment is vital, because only in an open and trusting environment can mistakes be corrected.

Teams require high quality leadership. Self directed teams are only effective in certain unique situations, such as in  a university research center or a high tech environment. The danger of self directed teams is that they lose sight of their mandate or satisfy their own agenda, disregarding the task set by the organization.

The exercise of power and people relations…..

You must demonstrate by your personal actions that power must be used very carefully, and with a great deal of humility and compassion.

The development of your people skills is essential to your growth as a leader. There are three acts which constitute principled people leadership:

Firstly, honour and respect all people. Without a consistent respect for all persons, leaders cannot lead and managers cannot manage.

Secondly, encourage and support others. Give praise generously.  Ensure that your criticism is just and constructive. Get to know your people – watch, coach and develop them. They are your most important asset. Remember - “praise in public, discipline and criticize in private”

You need to convey “I need you, I am proud of you, and I will always be there if you need me”.

The power of encouragement is great – ignore it at your own peril.

Thirdly, do not hesitate to challenge wrongs. Challenging wrongs is very demanding, but necessary. It involves discerning right from wrong, and acting for what is right regardless of risk. Stop wrongs in oneself, and challenge wrongs in others. Follow through so that wrongs are not repeated.

Integrity…..

Peter Drucker, world renowned expert on leadership, maintained that leadership personality, leadership style, and leadership traits do not exist, but he insisted that integrity was the one absolute trait of leadership. He added that “without integrity, leadership disintegrates into a farce”.

No leader can exist in the long term without integrity which is a composite of several things. Of all the composites of integrity, trust stands in the fore. The key to establishing integrity is TRUST which translates into:

- complete honesty  in dealing with your colleagues – both superiors and subordinates

- putting your beliefs into practice, that is lay everything out on the table, then be sure that you “walk the talk

- always be consistent, that is “do not move the goal posts”.

Do not forget that “Trust takes a long time to earn and is lost in a minute of thoughtlessness”.

Screw up trust, and your credibility is “toast”. Loyalty to you and the organization will become a historical footnote.

Lastly, you are always individually accountable…..

You are accountable for

-  the operations of your unit, department or organization - regardless of whether you or your subordinates screwed up.

-  the results expected of your operation - performance with inadequate results is not organizationally acceptable’

-   the welfare and wellbeing of your workforce

-   providing ethical and principled leadership. This is not an option, it is an absolute.    

“LEAD, FOLLOW, OR GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY”.   Harry S. Truman, President of the United States, 1945 – 1952.

John D. Kyle Ph.D.

Photo Credit: Lumaxart on Flickr

This series of posts looks at leadership through the lenses of a number of people who are making a difference in the not-for-profit sector.  To kick things off, I thought I’d keep things close to home - This first post will be about Val Green, the Executive Director of Volunteer Victoria.                                       

With VV since 1989, Val has played a major role in making Volunteer Victoria a true go-to organization for Victoria’s growing not-for-profit community.  Loved by her staff and highly regarded by professionals and volunteers across the region, it is obvious that Val must be doing something right where leadership is concerned.

Val was asked to kick off the inaugural Emerging Leaders Network lunch last week.  This is a brand-new initiative to fill a growing need in our community for resources and support for young non-profit professionals as they make their way through their careers and eventually lead the sector in the not-so-distant future.

Here are some of my favourite tidbits from the many sage words of advice she had to share:

Don’t be afraid to try just because you don’t know in advance where all the pieces will fit: Learn, grow and put the puzzle together as you go. When you inevitably make mistakes, take some time to write down what you have learned.

Trust your staff and rely on their knowledge and experience: You can’t be good at everything...and that’s OK.  Recognize the strengths of your team to help you excel in achieving your organizational goals.

There are as many leadership styles as there are leaders: As a result, understand that coming in as a new leader often means a culture shift within the organization. While spearheading change is one of the most challenging roles a leader will take on, it is essential because, as Val explains “If you don’t grow and change, you become stale and move backwards.

Leaders don’t have to wear a suit: You will see better results if you are who you really are not who you think you ought to be.

Put work 'back in the box': Val feels the typical 50-60 hour work-week of many ED’s is an unfortunate legacy that Boomer-era leaders have left to the next generation.  Younger leaders need to learn to “put work back in the box,” particularly seeing as many are starting families later in life and/or are caring for aging parents while balancing challenging careers.

Don’t listen to the lizard: The lizard is a prehistoric creature dominated by fight or flight impulses. It is easy in challenging situations for people to react using these prehistoric tendencies. Taking a moment to ensure you address situations in calm and measured way can help you to make the right decisions and to not do things you might later regret.

Do you know of someone who has an interesting view of NFP sector leadership whose lenses would be worth looking through? Drop me a line...

It seems to me that everyone has a different view on leadership.  There are too many books to count, each with their own view on the characteristics and habits of leaders, and what makes a truly great leader so hard to come by.

I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘lenses’ lately, particularly in the context of NFP leadership. So much so that I’ve decided to develop a series of posts here that look at this elusive topic through the lenses of different members of the NFP community who have contributed to leadership in different ways.

Here is why I think this will be interesting:

You would think that good leaders would be even harder to find in the not-for-profit sector, where so many are vastly overworked, underpaid, under-resourced and in many cases under-appreciated for the work they are trying to do. 

In fact, I think the opposite is true. The more I work with non-profits, the more outstanding leaders I see...in all kinds of different places. 

So what is it that I think makes not-for-profit leaders so great? 

I think that in many cases, the challenging NFP environment itself is what breeds a growing number of great leaders across the sector.  If their associations or causes are to survive, you better believe that these people need to have clarity of vision and a commitment to creativity in order to achieve that vision despite the many obstacles in their path.

Even more important, in my opinion, is passion. 

In the private sector, leaders have a hand-up when it comes to getting people on-board with whatever it is they are trying to accomplish because they are usually being paid or otherwise stand to benefit financially for their contribution.

But non-profit leaders don’t usually have the advantage of this particular carrot-and-stick.  As a result, they not only have to care about what they are doing, but their energy has to be contagious enough to convince others to roll up their sleeves to help them achieve their mandate...in many cases by volunteering their time or donating their hard-earned dollars.

So I guess it all comes down to survival – leaders in our sector have to be pretty darn good at what they do, because the very existence of their organizations are all too often at stake.

So if you or someone you know has an interesting perspective on NFP leadership, let me know – I’d love to take a look through your ‘leadership lense.’

Photo: Milivoj Sherrington