Business author Jim Collins, in his monograph Good to Great and the Social Sectors identified getting the “right people on the bus” as a core attribute of highly functioning nonprofits.
Of course, once you get the right people on the bus, there are many elements that go into turning them into an aligned, effective team that advances your mission.
I was recently asked to summarize some of my past writing on nonprofit leadership as a guide for Executive Directors who’re building staff teams. At a high-level, here are five lessons that I believe every nonprofit Executive Director should take into account when building their team.
Lesson 1: Prioritize building on strengths instead of mitigating weaknesses
All employees have areas of strength and areas that, for lack of a better term, are weaknesses when it comes to delivering on their intended role. Instead of focusing on mitigating weaknesses, my experience has been that identifying strengths and adapting work to take advantage of those strengths better maximizes team performance and results in higher job satisfaction for employees.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t identify weaknesses or blind spots with employees that can be worked on. But more of your time and energy should go into aligning the work with employees’ inherent talents.
Lesson 2: Foster Autonomy and Mastery as Motivational Tools
By and large, the nonprofit sector more than the for-profit sector can rely on the nonprofit’s mission as a built-in motivator for employees. Almost always those employees motivated by money or status could better achieve those in the for-profit sector.
Yet, even with the mission as motivator, I’ve seen huge differences in nonprofit employee satisfaction.
Dan Pink has written and lectured about motivation in a broader context and highlights the concepts of autonomy and mastery as key. Nonprofit leaders should keep these in mind when thinking about their own staff supervision. (Here’s a video for more background).
Autonomy: Employees who have freedom to make decisions within the a broad strategic framework are more likely to be motivated than those who are continually constrained to simply implement decisions made by others.
Mastery: Employees who have the opportunity to develop and exercise expertise are more likely to stay motivated than those who feel like they’re able to go through the motions.
Lesson 3: Building and Sustaining Relationships
Strong interpersonal relationships are vital for effective staff management. People are more likely to respond well to those who they like and trust and to dig deeper to help a team with which they feel a sense of community.
That can all emerge spontaneously, but leaders who nurture relationships are more likely to succeed. That means not neglecting regular activities that are designed to further the relationship, including both one-on-ones in the workplace and opportunities to engage beyond the workplace. That doesn’t mean you have to become “friends” with those you supervise. It does mean consciously working to draw connections within your staff based on open communication and opportunities to engage in informal activities.
Lesson 4: Time Management Matters
Time is a precious commodity in any organization as most nonprofit staff could probably work twice as many hours as they’re being paid for without running out of productive things to do.
To address that, choices need to be made as to where to prioritize time, preferably by looking at a strategic plan or other functional plan that identifies goals and top strategies for achieving them.
Even within those choices, too many nonprofits waste time and fail to adapt tools to save time.
Several time wasters relate to meetings:
- Overly long meetings that could be done in half the time if there was a clear agenda, active facilitation, and a willingness to call the question rather than allow people to drone on.
- Unnecessary meetings that could be eliminated with a few short emails and/or shared document editing.
- Meetings that involve several people that really only need 2-3 participants.
- Executive Directors who feel compelled to be the organization’s face at every partner/allied organization meeting when they should be delegating that role to others.
There are also tools to save time that many nonprofits fail to use. Mostly these fall into the area of technology. I’ve been amazing that in this day and age some nonprofits are still having multiple people edit Word documents sequentially rather than adapting to tools that allow for multiple people to collaborate at the same time (such as GoogleDocs). Project management tools (like Asana, Trello, etc.) and communications platforms (like Slack) can also allow for a lot of project planning and task list accountability in ways that cut back significantly on the need for drafting/reading/responding to emails and meetings.
Lesson 5: Embrace Strategic and Functional Planning
I’ve seen too many nonprofits whose staff are frenetically doing lots of things, but those things are not strategic and thus not advancing goals. While this can bring temporary satisfaction to a team, it rarely does so over the long haul.
While they serve other purposes as well, do not underestimate the value of strategic and other forms of planning as a staff management tool.
- They are a means of honing your staff’s thinking, to the extent you involve staff in this planning.
- They are way to bring your staff into alignment (with each other and with the board), so their work is less likely to be at cross-purposes.
- They produce products that are invaluable as orientation tools when you have staff transitions.
What do you think?
If you have a high-level staff management lesson you’d like to share with my readers, please comment away! Or shoot me an email for me to incorporate in an updated post.