Healthy leadership is vital for nonprofit organizations

Recently, Fortune magazine named the “world’s greatest leader.” Upon hearing that he had beat out Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Pope Francis for that distinction, Theo Epstein, the president of baseball operations for the World Champion Chicago Cubs, said this: “I can’t even get my dog to stop peeing in the house. That is ridiculous.”

You got it right, Theo. Getting our heads around the concept of leadership isn’t easy. Thousands of books, articles, and yes, even columns have been written about leadership in our society’s economic sectors, including the nonprofit sector. Nonetheless, here’s my modest attempt to describe what leaders do.

First, leaders of organizations, especially nonprofits, articulate and advocate the mission of the organization through a variety of means ... education, communication with stakeholders, and building relationships with other community leaders and partners. Yes, that means showing up to events and gatherings on occasion; but, more importantly great leaders come to personify their organizations, reflecting and exhibiting their organizations’ values.

Second, leaders of organizations manage change, anticipate it and exploit its opportunities. We all know that change is hard; moving out of our own personal and organizational “safe spaces” is challenging for everyone. Managing change often means initiating change, through a planning process, an infusion

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of new ideas and often by encouraging and rewarding open communication and innovation. Initiating change, especially in the nonprofit environment, begins with conversations with other leaders, some who are like-minded and some who are not, quietly articulating a mission-driven vision for the future and making a case for change. Frances Hesselbein, the former CEO of the Girls Scouts of the USA, says that while nonprofit leaders in particular work within the context of a board of directors, leaders still have the power of inclusion, language, shared interests and coalition-building.

But there’s more. Once change has been approved, it needs to be implemented, in thoughtful, strategic and farsighted ways, and as Stephen Covey says, “beginning with the end in mind.” How that is effectively done deserves its own column.

And third, leaders of organizations are responsible for organizational health, often referred to as “organizational culture.” This term is thrown around loosely, usually by professional athletic teams when justifying a change of coaches. But organizational culture, as part of its overall health, is real and tangible. In fact, most of us have directly or indirectly experienced unhealthy work environments in which the “culture” is toxic, and we are quite aware of how that toxicity affects productivity.

Here’s an example. Once as an interim executive director I was asked by the board of directors to assess, report and make recommendations about the organization’s overall health. The previous CEO had been released for inappropriate actions; in addition he had kept the board in the dark about a number of important issues, including finances. The board also had some vague notion that there were, as they described it, some “staff” problems. Hmm ... there’s a tip-off.

Certainly my research discovered what needed to be known and divulged about the status of finances, technology, planning and marketing, key functions of the organization. But even the most well-intentioned leaders find it difficult to go beyond these measurable, objective and data-driven organizational functions. Fortunately my interim status made it easier to have subjective and awkward conversations with staff to discern the organization’s culture.

Through one-on-one “listening sessions” with all 75 employees (completely voluntary), I quickly discovered the former CEO had created an organizational culture of fear and intimidation. He used movie cameras in the main room where most of the staff worked with the agency’s clients to “spy” on staffers with whom he rarely interacted. He was unclear about performance expectations, plus distant, harsh and unrelenting in his criticism. Certainly not the picture of a healthy organization.

So while we clearly can identify the symptoms of an unhealthy organization, what are symptoms of a healthy organization? Patrick Lencioni, in his book “The Advantage,” describes five symptoms of a healthy organizational culture: 1) There is a minimum of politics; 2) There is great clarity and little confusion about goals and direction; 3) There is a high degree of morale among all staff; 4) There is a high degree of productivity across all organizational functions; and 5) There is a very low rate of turn-over of good employees.

Here’s Lencioni’s main point. Most organizations have enough intelligence, expertise and knowledge to be successful, but that’s not enough. Complete health requires a culture with a minimum of politics, absolute clarity about what needs to be accomplished and how, and a high degree of morale.

So in the long run maybe Fortune magazine was right. Maybe Theo Epstein, this bright, self-effacing man with vision and clarity of direction (the Cubs Way) who thoughtfully and strategically transformed the “loveable, losing Cubs” into World Champions, does deserve the accolade “world’s greatest leader.” In the very least, a World Championship for the Cubs, even for this life-long Giants fan, should give us all something to consider about leadership.