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Reflections on Leadership: My Top 5

Posted by on April 28, 2015 in Random Posts | Leave a comment

Like you, I’ve attended many leadership trainings and retreats, and read tons of articles on the characteristics that make leaders great. In each, I’ve learned something about my leadership style.

This article summarizes my Top 5 Takeaways from a specific leadership experience that I had serving as Board President and Acting Director for a nonprofit organization. This article seeks to summarize what I learned (translation – the things I did right and those I did wrong) in the hopes that you can use them if you are leading a committee, a project team, or even organizing your friends for a trip to the beach (yes, I use these tactics on my family when organizing our summer vacation, but I’ll save that for another article).

My Top 5

1.) Engage Individuals

I am a big fan of lunch and coffee dates. When my tenure started, I met with each of the team members individually. I shared my vision for the organization and my personal and professional aspirations to open the dialogue. I was able to engage individually with people on the team to understand their motivations: Why were they on the Board? What did they hope to accomplish? What made them excited? I also learned about their personal and work aspirations. No answer was off limits. Making these connections helped to build trust and empathy (I would need both). It also helped me understand where best to plug individuals in where they would thrive and drive results for the organization.

This really came in handy when I had a board member who suddenly seemed disengaged. Her behavior did not match our one-on-one discussion. I learned that she had some changes in her personal and professional life that would temporarily impact her ability to serve on the committee. We were able to work out a temporary leave and today she is leading one of the keystone programs for the organization.

This is time-consuming but well worth it. The individual engagement laid the foundation for my entire presidency. 

2.) Embrace Conflict

Conflict happens. I am actually a fan of conflict. A trusted advisor once told me that better relationships engage out of conflict. So I don’t shy away from it; I embrace it.

We had an organization with diverse backgrounds, which was fantastic for brainstorming creative and innovative solutions to challenges, but was challenging in everyday communication. It was often not what someone said, but what they didn’t say. And I would get the call “what did so-and-so mean when she said that?” Many thanks to one of my (great) former managers, I learned that it was best to encourage the team members to resolve this on their own. This was where I did most of my coaching as a leader – coaching and encouraging committee members to communicate with each other effectively, even when it was uncomfortable.

This was not easy. At times, things got worst before they got better. It was hard to watch some disengage. No one was ‘happy’, but I was thrilled to watch individuals push past their comfort zone and grown into their own leadership style. 

3.) Build a small committee of trusted advisors

There was a lot to accomplish. And I had ambitious goals.

I needed a group of champions. Leaders who could take responsibility over strategic initiatives and deliver results. And my Executive Committee was born. I was lucky to have a mix of people with legal, HR, and accounting backgrounds, as well as strategic and tactical thinkers. At 5 people, we complemented each other well.  They became my Senior Leadership Team – my groups of trusted and invested individuals.

During my tenure, we developed a 5-Year strategic plan for the organization and found us a new (less expensive) location for our programs. They were also the group that I consulted when we had major issues arise (think HR and Legal). I also used this group as my change agents. I ran ideas by this group before the entire board to build consensus for strategic changes.

4.) Model a Healthy Balance

Well, I didn’t do this one so well. It is hard not to be in “the buck stops here position” and not think about the organization 24×7.

But I needed to set an example for ways that Board Members could stay engaged without devoting every hour that they had into the organization. We were a working Board and our commitment should have reflected that. However, the expectations that I set were unsustainable and could (and did) burn people out.

I think at times I found a “better” balance.  I set boundaries for myself. I took vacation and would sometimes make myself unavailable, prioritizing time with my family. I also made it a goal to blend the work we did with our families. We had some family-friendly events. We celebrated personal and professional milestones. And we enjoyed each other’s company before and after Board Meetings and at Happy Hours and at our fundraising events.

No matter how much you are doing now, I would recommend doing more of this.

5.) Find your voice

I found that I was comfortable with not being everyone’s best friend, but I found my voice centered around my integrity and my ability to make sound, timely decisions. I operated under the guidelines of being transparent and building consensus. I was authoritative when needed.  I took risks and made mistakes. Together, we did some amazing things for the organization and the women we served.

I spent so much time in my career meeting with female managers to understand and learn from their leadership style. I would try to adopt some other masculine traits to mimic what I thought leadership looked like.

Along the way, I found that my leadership style what what I could own. Leadership is something that you own in good times and bad times. Authenticity is key when finding your voice.

So, what did we accomplish?
We developed a 5-year strategic plan and began to execute on the organization’s strategic goals – financial stability, strengthening relationships with community partners, delivering quality programs, and developing human resources. In addition to the restructuring and organizational activities, I led the organization to increase fundraising revenue 125% from 2012 to 2013, implementing and executing on a fundraising plan that included heavier focus on corporate a grant funding and signature events such as “Champions for Success” and “Shop for Success Atlanta”. We also implemented various technology solutions, including Salesforce for Nonprofits to track program outcomes, volunteer management, and donor management.

Let me know what you think. What are your Top 5?