2 | What Is Leadership, Anyway?
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Marilyn credits much of the success to honesty
and trust. She says, "People need to trust you for
the organization to be successful." That means
sending the tough messages and being straight
with people, even when it's difficult. Employees
appreciate the honesty and work harder knowing
they can trust their leaders to tell them the truth.
Underlying the practice of being truthful and
honest is a tendency to consider people. The
business comes first, and leaders need to make
good decisions to support the business, Marilyn
explained. But those decisions can also be
good for people. For example, Marilyn and her
leadership team found opportunities during the
closure process to promote people, broaden
their skill bases, and provide them with learning
that they wouldn't have otherwise received. The
opportunities made it worthwhile for many of
employees to stay with the company. They also
showed employees that their leaders cared about
them. As one walked out the door on the last day,
she told Marilyn that she was leaving the best job
she had ever had.
Build Trust in Your Leadership
• Always tell the truth and be straight with
people even when it's difficult. Not only can
people handle the truth, they'll be thankful
to have it.
• Look for opportunities for business
decisions to benefit people. Even in the
most difficult circumstances, it's possible to
find an opportunity to help someone grow,
learn, or succeed.
• Don't solve problems yourself. Engage
others. It builds the team and increases their
commitment to results.
Leadership Is Alignment
Leaders of nonprofit organizations have a specific
challenge: work within limited budgets to engage
a broad range of stakeholders around a common
cause. Charlie McDermott is Deputy Director
of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state
agency that supports hundreds of nonprofit
cultural organizations in Massachusetts. He talked
about how leaders succeed through alignment.
For one thing, leaders must be able to align the
highest vision and goals of an organization with
the details of day-to-day operations. Says Charlie,
"Leaders see the through-line. They keep the big
picture in focus, but they are rigorous in assessing
what resources are needed to advance their goals
- and dogged in securing those resources."
But alignment isn't just about resources and goals.
It's also about people. "It's important for there
to be alignment between constituents," Charlie
explained. Especially in nonprofit organizations,
there are often gaps between the perspectives
and priorities of staff and board. The leader's
job is to help bridge those gaps, encouraging a
common direction despite differences.
Create Alignment Through Your Leadership
• Articulate the common vision and spread it
throughout constituent groups.
• Find the common thread between
constituent groups: what do they all care
about?
• Connect tactics and tasks to the big picture.
Make sure that all activities align with the
vision of the organization. If not, reassess
whether the activity is necessary.
