By Jean Lobell - The talk about succession planning tends to be fraught with some anxiety, some confusion, and some misconceptions. My experience is that this can be avoided or at least minimized, if we got clear about three things: Read more >>
News & Views
A blog for those interested in what affects, motivates and drives the New York City Nonprofit Sector — written by CRE’s crackerjack consulting team. We hope you use this space to share your thoughts, ask questions and engage in conversations about our city, social justice and the nonprofit sector.
Three Key Issues In Succession Planning
One Size Does Not Fit All Boards
By Valyrie Laedlein, CRE Co-Director - The recent publication of Daring to Lead 2011, the national survey of over 3,000 nonprofit executive directors about their organizations and experiences in leadership, makes plain the nature of the challenge in getting a Board of Directors to make a solid contribution to the nonprofit it governs. The small to medium nonprofits participating in the survey (roughly 2/3 of respondents had organizational budgets of under $3 million) face a particular set of constraints. Read more >>
Managing Staff Performance In Real Time Avoids Difficult Conversations
By Pavitra Menon - Supervisors are often uncomfortable when the time comes to have that “difficult” conversation with a staff person who has been performing poorly by the supervisor’s reckoning, but who self assesses their performance as quite stellar. How do you tell someone that they are totally missing the mark when they are really expecting a raise and not a reprimand? I think it’s much easier to adopt certain practices at the beginning of an employment relationship that can nip these issues in the bud. Read more >>
Managing Co-Leadership
By Holly Delany Cole & Valyrie Laedlein, CRE Co-Directors - In July 2010, the two of us wrote a blog post speaking to the decision that our Board of Directors had made to appoint the two of us to the roles of Co-Directors of Community Resource Exchange. Read more >>
Preparing for Succession
by Valyrie Laedlein-A search on the internet on the topic of succession planning yields considerable guidance and commentary for and from the corporate sector. Just this week, Forbes.com ran a story on the Chief Information Officer for Equinix, who has been with the company since 2008 and is already preparing his successor, even though the CIO has no intention of leaving anytime soon. Raising questions related to who will follow the CEO, the COO, the CIO or any other company’s leader is not considered impolitic in that sector. Indeed, it is expected and seen as exercising good business judgment. Grooming rising talent for executive positions is not disrespectful of those currently holding those positions. Failing to do so is considered irresponsible and short-sighted. Read more >>
Becoming a Strong Board Chair
by Valyrie Laedlein
Have I got a job for you?
Role:To lead a group of under-available, over-committed volunteers responsible Read more >>
Are You a T-Shaped Manager?
By Jean Lobell A brief article in the Human Resources Magazine – The Future Manager is T-Shaped -- captured my imagination for the second time. Read more >>
What Makes a Difference in Leadership Development -- A View from the Field
by Mohan Sikka - Last month, my colleagues Jean Lobell, Carolyn Sauvage-Mar and I published an article on CRE’s Leadership Caucus in The Nonprofit Quarterly. Read more >>
Handling the Unexpected
by Holly Delany Cole - In the lives of nonprofit leaders, there probably isn’t a day that goes by when something ‘unexpected’ doesn’t happen – some welcome, some that present additional challenges. These may be matters such as a valuable Board member calling to say they are taking a new job in another city and will be resigning from the board, to a funder calling to say that they will move the consideration of your grant to an earlier (or later) Board meeting, to learning that a building in which you rent space for some programs has been sold and the new landlord wants you out as soon as possible. This is the world of nonprofit leaders, but there’s evidence that most are pretty good at managing it. Read more >>
Is the Nonprofit Sector Missing an Opportunity to Leverage the Talents of Gen X and Gen Y Leaders?
by Richard A. Brown, Vice President, American Express Philanthropy - Today's emerging leaders are the best educated, the most diverse and the most technologically savvy generation in our nation's history. Generation Xers & Yers are committed to serving in the nonprofit sector, are passionate about the mission-driven organizations where they work, and many have been actively serving in the sector as community volunteers since a very young age. Their commitment to "do something" is evident in the associations they have created to organize themselves, the organizations they have established to tackle intractable social issues, and the hard won achievements they have secured supporting established nonprofit organizations. Read more >>
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