You’ve Gotta Have Heart: Achieving Purpose Beyond Profit in the Social Sector

CHAPTER 7

INSPIRING THE

BEST WORK

Managing Nonprofit Employees

Once you have a great team on board, how do you inspire, lead,

and manage them to achieve all that they are capable of? Managing in a

nonprofit environment is an art comprising some for-profit techniques,

some personal development on the part of the manager, and some good,

solid common sense. The challenge and the opportunity of being a man-

ager lies in the fact that we do this job in a constantly changing environ-

ment: people, situations, and outside forces can change on a dime and

our employees look to us for consistent leadership through it all.

Unfortunately, many nonprofit workers have fallen into manage-

ment roles without giving much thought to what that responsibility

entails. Or, as is increasingly common today, other nonprofit managers

come from for-profit backgrounds and have not adapted their style and

skills to the nonprofit environment. Fortunately, management is a skill

that can be taught, learned, and improved. The only prerequisite is a

desire to improve.

ANATOMY OF A GREAT

NONPROFIT MANAGER

Over the years, through my work and observations of staff members at

all levels, I have found that one of the most powerful ways to lead is by

example. No matter what the size or mission of your organization, you

cannot expect others to do what you are not willing to do yourself. And

your attitude sets the tone—positively or negatively—for the people

you manage. This does not mean that you have to be a superhero and

always be perfect. It means that the more attention you pay to your own

personal and professional development as a leader, the better your

team will be.

Leading—whether you currently have direct management oversight

of other people or you aspire to that type of position—means modeling

the behaviors you want your team members to have. According to Bill

George, author of True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership,

“[Authentic leaders] lead with their whole selves—their hearts as well

as their heads. They don’t get pulled off course by seductions and pres-

sures. Every leader who has failed, that I’ve seen, has not failed to lead

other people, they’ve failed to lead themselves.”

1

Recommended Resource

True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, by Bill

George, with Peter Sims (Jossey-Bass, 2007).

Leading by example includes several important elements of inspir-

ing and managing others. Here are the characteristics nonprofit man-

agers need to cultivate and display:

•

Passion. The more passionate you are about the mission of your

organization and the work that you are accomplishing, the more

other people will be inspired to feel the same way. Passion is con-

tagious. People can see it, feel it, and perhaps even taste it. They

want to see passion and energy on the part of their leaders and

coworkers, particularly in nonprofits because they are focused on

a cause. Passion can give employees and colleagues a sense of

urgency that is required to make difficult decisions and constantly

raise standards. Don’t be afraid to show your enthusiasm and share

your excitement or frustration about issues affecting your organiza-

tion or cause.

•

Approachability. In busy, understaffed nonprofits it is too easy for

workers to bury their heads in work and not take time to talk to the

144 Cass Wheeler