Know and Leverage Your Nonprofit’s Leadership Style
Different Styles of Leadership require Different Strategies
By Libby V, Nonprofit Consultant
Nonprofit executives come in different shapes and sizes, and they have different abilities and strengths. Some leaders excel at providing and driving an organization’s vision, while others focus on the operational side, implementing processes and systems to keep an organization running smoothly. A select few nonprofit leaders have some of both characteristics or modes of operation, but they’re typically stronger in one area.
The Visionary Leader
Visionary, strategic leaders combine strategic thinking and inspiring leadership to drive a nonprofit organization toward fulfilling its mission and creating a lasting impact in their communities. These leaders are often relationship oriented. They excel at inspiring excitement within the organization, the board, and the community. While many leaders are visionary and strategic in their approaches, they may not have the ability to manage the everyday details of an organization.
The Operational Leader
Operational leaders can integrate all the pieces together and think in systems and processes. They excel at performing day-to-day team and financial management, and execution of their organization’s functions. They provide organizational efficiency, program delivery, stakeholder engagement, compliance, and decision-making. Their role in translating mission and vision into tangible actions and outcomes cannot be understated.
Balancing Your Strengths
The key to balancing those leadership styles is to have another individual in the organization who can play a complementary role. Both roles, visionary and operational, are critical for a thriving organization that fulfills its purpose and positively impacts the communities it serves.
Balancing the strengths of both visionary and operational leadership styles is crucial to the success of nonprofit organizations.
But a lot of nonprofits just keep going with what they’ve got, and they probably aren’t cognizant of how important it is to identify what kind of leader they have and then ask, “How can we leverage their strengths and augment their weaker areas? Where are our gaps?”
Many nonprofit executives migrate to the top of an organization because they’re visionary, and they make inspiring leaders. They may not have the ability or inclination to manage the day-to-day details of an organization. On the surface, they might not appear to be “getting work done,” but they’re busy building relationships with community leaders, board members, and external stakeholders, inspiring the board, staff, and potential or current supporters.
I see a good number of small-medium nonprofits that function in an entrepreneurial start-up mode for years. They typically have somebody at the top who is a visionary, and since most nonprofits are under-resourced, they often don’t invest in an operations person. That, in turn, can mean they haven’t implemented the systems and processes they need for efficiency and effectiveness, so they miss out on key functions that help a nonprofit flourish. And that is a barrier to them moving their organization to the next level and increasing their impact.
What’s the Solution?
If you have a visionary leader, you need someone who has their eyes on the operational functions of the organization. Someone who is organized and structured, and who is detail focused. This person needs to make sure processes and procedures are in place, and that everyone knows and follows them. An organization without processes and procedures is inefficient. It wastes a lot of time for each staff to be doing things in whatever way they think they should. Having processes and systems in place is key to getting out of “putting out fires mode” and being more efficient. A good operation manager has the ability and inclination to put the structures in place for the organization to run more smoothly.
When you have an operations-focused executive at the helm, they need someone alongside them who is a visionary. A board chair or other staff leader may be the answer if they have the capacity and inclination to act in that role alongside the executive. A lot of great things can happen when the right balance is struck.
Nonprofits benefit from leveraging both styles of leadership. An organization can limp along without one or the other, but it’s not sustainable in the long run. Balancing the strengths of these leadership styles is crucial to the success of nonprofit organizations.
Brady Ware Nonprofit Advisors want to help you fulfill your mission with financial health and compliance services and a network of nonprofit consultants who specialize in strategic decision-making.
Libby Villavicencio
Nonprofit Champion
Libby V & Associates
About the Author
Libby V knows strong communities and great organizations don’t happen by chance. They have strong leadership in place, a definition of the impact they want to have, a clear path for achieving their impact and the right people on the bus and in the right seats.
She helps communities and organizations line up everything they need to achieve stronger results than ever before. She is nationally respected for her work with communities, government, higher education, nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.
With many years of leadership experience, Libby fully understands communities, government, higher education, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. She is also experienced in public-private partnerships through consulting roles with initiatives in Atlanta, Baton Rouge, New Jersey, Raleigh-Durham, Massachusetts, Chicago, California, Seattle, and Ohio.