we integrate what is known in the literature about best practices within nonprofit leadership while exploring practical strategies to ensure the efficacy of your leadership practice. It is important to know what works and how your practice is grounded in what is written about effective leadership as you strive to support the people you serve and the organizations you work for.
Together we work through the lessons learned with an eye toward supporting the development of your leadership practice. Chapter 2 identifies the importance of building your practice, not only for yourself but also for those around you. Contrary to the traditional Western Cultural lens, leadership is not a lone wolf activity where a single actor ensures a successful outcome but rather an activity that, when done well, requires processes that engage the skills of the individual, the entire team, and the overall organization.
In Chapter 3 we explore some key leadership models that you can use to identify your own leadership approach. This is a 1,000‐foot flyover and could be a book in and of itself. The goal here, however, is to provide you with some sense of where your leadership practice either lives or will live as you grow into your leadership style and approach. You will also read about some classic conceptual frames for leadership that I have found to be extremely helpful. Like our box of tried‐and‐true leadership tools, many of the classic frames for leadership practice have true value as we develop our skills and capabilities.
In Chapter 4 we delve into strategies for impacting organizational culture. Here we encounter the conceptual frame of simplexity where many of the strategies are at once “simple and complex.” As in the earlier chapters, Chapter 4 will provide you with an opportunity to enhance your leadership practice as well as the practice of those around you within the organization. The organization's culture is critical to the success of any nonprofit agency and so we give the importance of establishing a positive organizational culture its due in this chapter, returning to these important ideas as appropriate throughout the book.
Chapter 5 explores the practice of Generative Leadership, where leadership development is achieved through leadership in action. Generative Leadership provides you with a way to advance your own, your team's, and your organization's capacity to grow effective leadership. In many ways this becomes the secret sauce for you and your organization's continued success, so be ready to make use of the strategies that are imparted here.
In Chapter 6 we underscore the benefits that can come from engaging our most precious resource: our employees. Through performance management and employee engagement we unlock more of the strategies that have proven to be extraordinarily successful when working to advance leadership practice within and across the organization. Simplexity abounds here as well, particularly when you consider how simple yet critically important the ideas are for ensuring your team or organization's ability to achieve its nonprofit mission.
Chapter 7 explores the use of effective systems to realize desired outcomes for your organization. Thoughtful development and use of systems are critical to ensuring that you can achieve the goals and objectives identified as part and parcel of your organization's purpose, mission, and vision. As you read this chapter, you will see the importance of ensuring that you have built a dynamic and thoughtful set of systems that complement your structure and the values, beliefs, and vision that you hold essential to achieving the organization's mission.
I would be remiss if this book did not also explore the topic of change and the importance of establishing a leadership practice that has the capacity for change management. Chapter 8 does just that by discussing various strategies to ensure effective change management. In today's complex organizations, having a leadership practice that is equipped to manage and guide your team and organization through change is essential. We take time to ensure that the capacity for change management is multilayered by going beyond the prowess of the individual leader to change management at the team and the organizational level.
In addition, do not forget the importance of conflict management, which is explored in detail within Chapter 9. Conflict is a part of everyday organizational life and when it's managed well, it can become a source of growth and development for you, your team, and the entire organization.
In Chapter 10 I share some of the techniques and strategies I have used to engage and advance my team. Many of the strategies here are drawn from years of experience supervising and motivating team members to be their best. Your ability to lead effectively is directly connected to your capacity to develop a strong team. Given this, I think you will find this chapter quite helpful.
In Chapter 11 we explore the world of leadership that lives just outside the metes and bounds of your own organization by helping you to understand the nature of strategic alliances, how they can benefit you, and what opportunities they represent. It is important, as you develop your leadership capacity, to consider how your leadership practice engages with those who are outside the internal activities that typically draw attention and cry out for your focus. Knowing how to exercise your leadership practice with external stakeholders will provide you with new and interesting opportunities to help advance the work and mission of your organization.
Chapter 12 is an effort to bring it all together, knowing of course that each chapter in and of itself will become a resource for you. Within this context I recommend that you take time to read this book from cover to cover, yet also feel free to move between the chapters in a way that serves your current context and interest. In this way the book can become like a home‐repair book. If you found one morning that your pipes had burst (Chapter 4 in our imaginary home‐repair book), you would not start reading from Chapter 1, would you? With the water pouring down I am confident that you would jump straight to Chapter 4 and realize that step one is to cut off the water. Feel free to use this book in the same manner. For example, when I walked into my first leadership role, now more than 40 years ago, I would have turned to Chapters 4 and 6 before reading Chapter 1.
As you will see in the Appendix, I have also included several tools that relate to specific topic areas within the various chapters that you can use to assess your own, your team's, or your organization's leadership and management practice. Each tool is connected to what is explored in a specific chapter and as a result the tools can be used to support as well as advance the information in the related chapter. For example, the Employee Engagement and Performance Assessment tool can help you to operationalize what is discussed in Chapter 6, not only for yourself but also for your team. Each tool has been tried and tested in my own leadership practice and has played a role in advancing effective leadership practice at the individual, team, and organizational level. I think you will find that these tools serve you well as you work to move from theory to practice and implement the various strategies shared within this book.
2 Leadership as Practice
Malcolm Gladwell (2008) is credited with
