How to Develop and Sustain Leadership in Nonprofits
By Sarah Todd Savannah Morning News Sept. 8, 2007
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The retirement of the baby boom generation will create a significant leadership shortage in U.S. organizations over the next 20 years. Trends show that major leadership transitions may only be five years away for up to 78 percent of nonprofits. But nonprofits can take action now to lessen the impact.
For Georgia nonprofits to respond proactively, two areas are key: identifying the organizational characteristics that will attract high-quality nonprofit professionals to your nonprofit, and acting now to identify and groom potential leaders working in your organization.
Marna Lewin, executive director of Hospice Savannah, has a strong leadership succession plan already in place. "We're also in the process of developing an education plan for my direct reports, to get them ready for the next level of leadership. It's a huge concern and we have to be prepared for it," she said.
Identifying and developing leadership traits have been the subject of hundreds of books, articles and training sessions. Nonprofit leaders can certainly nurture key relationship and communication skills in their potential leaders.
"Leaders," by Warren Bennis and Bert Nanu, provides a valuable checklist of leadership skills in these areas:
Knowing and showing yourself enough.
Taking personal risks.
Being able to impact the context in which challenges are encountered.
Remaining authentic but conforming enough.
Managing social distance.
Communicating with care.
"Generation Change and the Leadership of Nonprofit Organizations," part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Executive Transitions Monograph series, can be downloaded for free at www.aecf.org/initiatives/leadership.
