Next week I will be teaching a two day course on Leadership Succession for NeighborWorks America (www.nw.org) in Atlanta. A few years ago the leaders at NeighborWorks – a national network of organizations which work to provide affordable housing across the country – realized that their local organizations needed to be prepared for the inevitable retirements of Baby … [Read more...] about Your Leadership Pipeline
leadership
How Are You Listening?
Do you want to be an empowering leader and colleague? Then I suggest you monitor how you listen to others. Notice I am saying “how” you listen, not “how well.” There are two general categories of how you can listen to people. You can “listen to respond” or “listen to understand.” When you “listen to respond, ” it is like you are in a debate. You listen for the flaws in … [Read more...] about How Are You Listening?
The Power of Constructive Conflict
When I teach seminars on teamwork, I usually break people into small groups and give them a few minutes to come up with what they think are the five most important aspects of a high performing team. What would you say? Usually groups come up with lots of good ideas, but almost never do they list the importance of “constructive conflict.” Yet, the research on teamwork … [Read more...] about The Power of Constructive Conflict
The Four Fundamental Questions
If you want focused, effective, coordinated action from the people in your organization, then every one of them should be able to answer these four fundamental questions: *Why are we here? *What do we stand for? *Where are we going? *How are we going to get there? Why are we here? This is the mission question. But we don’t need to make people memorize the mission … [Read more...] about The Four Fundamental Questions
The 2nd Deadly Sin of Nonprofit Strategy: “Insular Mountaintop Planning”
It can be good for a strategy planning group to go to the “mountains” to get away from distractions to do work together. But, before you go, gather input regarding the organization’s future from stakeholders – and check in with them when you get back for more input before you publish the plan. I get push-back on this, because it can take some time. When a CEO asks me why … [Read more...] about The 2nd Deadly Sin of Nonprofit Strategy: “Insular Mountaintop Planning”