Funders and nonprofits alike are increasingly aware from published research and documented experience that the period after the departure of one leader and before the arrival of the next is too valuable to waste “standing still” in a holding action. This webinar will discuss the factors that every nonprofit needs to examine during the transition period – respecting the past, examining the present, and planning for the future, in order to complement the role of the Executive Search Consultant and prepare the way for a truly exciting next chapter in the life of the organization.

1. Don’t Leap To A New Leader!
Chris Dame
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3. Today’s Speaker
Chris Dame
President and Founder,
Non-Profit Transitions
Hosting: Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership
Assisting with chat questions: April Hunt, Nonprofit Webinars

4. Using Leadership Transition to
Improve Your Nonprofit
Beyond the Search Consultant
© NPT LLC

5. Today’s Webinar is about
• Making Transition Time more effective
• Improve ED Hiring
• Prepare for future success
• Improve Board’s understanding of
Leadership Needs
• Create excitement - next chapter
• Help new ED - “taking care of business”
© NPT LLC

6. Leadership Transition is like
climbing a mountain
•Need Map
•Need Guide
•Need Tools
•Need Teamwork
•Need Plan
•Need Luck
© NPT LLC

7. Why is Leadership Transition
Time Important
© NPT LLC

8. All nonprofits experience
leadership change
• Voluntary
• Involuntary
• Choice = drift or
advancement
© NPT LLC

9. Special Challenges
• Founders & long
term leaders
• Confusion – leader
w. mission
• Emperor’s Syndrome
• Fired Leaders
• Recovery – focus on
mission
• Attention to deficits
© NPT LLC

10. National Studies
• Annie E. Casey Foundation
• NE Executive Trans. Partnership
• Takeaways:
– many ED’s leaving soon
• ~10%/yr
• 66-71% w/i five yrs
– Boards need to be ready
– Np’s do not mentor well
– Weak bench strength
– No back up quarterback
© NPT LLC

11. Planned transitions are rare
• Large number of
non-profits (NCCS)
– 29 k in MA
– 1.5 m in US
• Every organization
changes leaders
© NPT LLC

12. Executive Leadership is
needed
EVEN during transition
ESPECIALLY during transition
© NPT LLC

13. Interim periods stress every
organization
Staff
Board
Stakeholders
© NPT LLC

14. The Board is busy
Focused on future & leadership
Operations = distraction
Transition influences future
© NPT LLC

15. Transition Period ≠
Stagnation
• Assessment
• Introduce change
• Strengthen Leadership
• Build the Base
• Look to Future
© NPT LLC

16. Search Consultant is NOT
enough
• Focus = Build Bright Future
• Untouched:
Daily Operations
Organizational Changes
Middle Management Leadership
• Relationship = Board only
© NPT LLC

17. Smart Nonprofits seek new
INSIGHTS during transitions
© NPT LLC

18. Questions at Several Levels:
• Board
Do we just need another “Harry ”
What does the ED job REALLY entail
What is OUR mission tomorrow
What does that mean for leadership needs
How do we attract an exiting new leader
© NPT LLC

19. Questions - Staff
Who’s in charge?
What are we really about?
Is this FINALLY time to address
old problems?
Who cares about US(the staff)?
Is the Board really listening?
© NPT LLC

20. Kinds of transitions
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21. Planned
– Retirement
– ED Promotion: Gradual transition to new job
– Merger & consolidation of 2 agencies
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22. Unplanned
– Death of ED
– ED involuntary sudden departure
(Firing/Forced resignation)
– ED’s voluntary rapid departure
(greener pastures)
© NPT LLC

23. Special Case – The
Founder/Emporor Syndrome
– Long tenure = difficult transition
– Legacy issues
– Loyalties (div btw old and new)
– Board leadership (can be lacking/old friends)
– Legacy threats (perceived and lead to:)
– Sabotage
© NPT LLC

24. William Bridges - Managing
Transitions: Making the Most of
Change
(2nd ed. Da Capo Press, 2003)
© NPT LLC

25. Bridges says
• Old paradigm
– Beginning – middle – end
• Bridges - Flips
– Endings (saying goodbye) leads to
– Middle - the neutral zone (unfocused
wandering), leads to
– Exciting new beginnings
© NPT LLC

26. Bridges lessons for
nonprofits
• people grieve – let them
• don’t skip the neutral zone
• help staff EXPERIENCE change
– THEN get excited about new growth
© NPT LLC

27. So What’s Needed?
• Change leader – wilderness
guide
• Challenge to GROW
• Caring, not caretaking
© NPT LLC

28. How long is transition?
• Depends
• Matches search process
• Six months
© NPT LLC

29. Why caretaker is wrong
• Caretakers are blind
– loyalty to past
– protect the status quo
• No movement thru Bridges zones
• Missed change opportunities
• No re-examination of mission &
leadership needs
• Standstill means to fall back
– LaPiana – competition is reality
© NPT LLC

30. What Makes Effective Interim
Leader?
• Objectivity
• Flexibility
• Judgment
• Future focus
• Thick skin
• Humility
© NPT LLC

31. Objectivity
See things as they are, not how people
want to describe them
Speak truth to power
© NPT LLC

32. Flexibility
Fast learner
Overcome roadblocks
© NPT LLC

33. Judgement
How much change?
How fast to change?
© NPT LLC

34. Future focus: 3 “E’s”
Excitement
Energy
Enthusiasm
© NPT LLC

35. Thick skin
Anger focus
Slings and arrows
© NPT LLC

36. Humility
Self effacing
Say “Good-bye”
Stay away
© NPT LLC

37. Who Should Be the Interim
Leader?
© NPT LLC

38. 1. Existing employee
– Pros:
– Knows agency – fast start
– Employees know
– Reassuring to public
– Link to the “golden” past
– Link to Board – high trust
– Cons:
– Temporary promotions stir jealousy
– Caretakers become candidates
– Peter principle
– Retrograde difficult
© NPT LLC

39. 2. Board member
– Pros:
• Quick & easy & maybe cheap
• Knows organization (or thinks so)
• Keeps leadership team intact
• Organization knows him/her (or thinks so)
• Good board rapport
• strong link to search
• high trust level
• Continuity to outsiders (appearance)
• Familiar with mission
© NPT LLC

40. 2. Board member
– Cons:
• Governance skills ≠ executive skills
• Conflict – search vs. operations
• Possible Time constraints
• Board Power dynamic shifts
• Search consultant
• Retrograde difficult
• new CEO inherits critic & comparison
• ED/Board relationship complicated
• Unfair comparisons set up
© NPT LLC

41. Professional IED
– Pros:
• Experienced in transition
• Deliberate change agent
now is different from then
change is uncomfortable but good
encourage rising expectations
• Sets the stage for an empowered ED
• Offers new insights to the ED
• Reassures stakeholders
• Delivers bad news to Board
• Makes hard & unpopular decisions
© NPT LLC

42. Professional IED
– Cons:
• An unfamiliar role to
Staff
Board
Stakeholders/clients
• Can be more costly
© NPT LLC

43. What Does Interim Leader Do
© NPT LLC

44. Leader & CEO
Theme maker – what are we about?
Operator, hands-on – attend to business
Movement agent - keep organization
moving forward
Troubleshooter - meet problems that
come up
© NPT LLC

45. Counselor & Therapist
– Listen to staff tell stories
– Avoid he said/she said situations
– hold up a vision of the whole
• the mission
• possibilities for the future
• the need for teamwork
– Recognize noise as necessary
– Meet emotions with confidence & vision
© NPT LLC

46. Link or transition figure
• between the staff and the Board
• between the staff and the search
consultant
• between the past and present
• between the present and the future
© NPT LLC

47. Detective:
• Why is the organization here – what am
I seeing as its needs
• What needs am I not seeing – what’s
not revealed yet
• Where does the organization have to go
© NPT LLC

48. Change Agent – ask
questions like
– What needs to be done TODAY?
– What change can wait?
– How do I get people excited & moving
toward the future?
– What do stakeholders need to know
about?
– What does the new ED need to know?
© NPT LLC

49. Whip
– Hold people accountable
– Be firm - fair & consistent
– Move toward performance standards
– Align to best practices
– Cut the “fat’
– If you don’t do it NOW the new ED will have blood
on his/her hands
© NPT LLC

50. Mentor/advisor
– Advise Board on impacts to search
– Prepare the Board – set expectations
– Brief the new permanent leader
– Be available for consultation
© NPT LLC

51. What the IED is NOT!
• Miracle worker
Financial expert
Instant fund raising resource
Magnet for funders & regulators
• Staff buddy
• Disconnected from governance
• Substitute for strategic plan
© NPT LLC

52. IED’s Challenge - “H-E-L-P”
“H-
• Honor the Past
• Examine the present
• Look for (reasonable) change
• Plan for the future
© NPT LLC

53. H = Honor the Past
© NPT LLC

54. Honor the Past
• Trash talk is unproductive
• Don’t point fingers
• Staff know the issues - better
• Staff can help or hinder
• Attitude set by how they observe
others treated – including former staff
© NPT LLC

55. Honor the Past
• Staff invested in agency’s past
• Want their story to positive
• Want jobs to have meaning
• Bad story demeans their investment
© NPT LLC

56. Few basic rules:
• Tell at least one good story about past
• Help people say goodbye to the past
• Link past to present & especially the
future
• talk up the promises of the future
© NPT LLC

57. E = Examine the Present
© NPT LLC

58. Examine Mission
• Clear mission statement
• Reality match rhetoric
• Circumstances changed mission
• Impact of Leader’s departure
• Stakeholders needs & resources
• View of mission by:
– Outsiders
– Staff
– Board
• Use in ED recruitment
© NPT LLC

59. Examine Finance
• Paying bills – why not
• Collecting revenues – why
not
• Board fully aware of finances
• What elements need change -
pace
• New revenue sources
• Steps needed TODAY
© NPT LLC

60. Examine Stakeholder Relations
• Organization performing to
expectations
• Compliance standards met
• Stakeholders view OUR future
– same
– reduced
– potentially enlarged
• What stakeholder needs NOT
met?
• Is movement TODAY appropriate
© NPT LLC

61. Do Organizational Assessment
• Does structure match mission
• Are managers equal to positions &
funding
• Can organization afford current
staffing
• Changes needed - costs & benefits
• Are there legal considerations
• Timing for such changes – best early
• Complete changes and empower the
new ED
© NPT LLC

62. L = Look for Reasonable
Change
© NPT LLC

63. Ask questions like
• Old skeletons needing attention
• Staffing changes needed TODAY
• Financial operations improvements
• Stakeholder relationships - sound
© NPT LLC

64. P = Plan for the Future
© NPT LLC

65. Take Action to
• Strengthen Governance – to help
new ED
• ID important Stakeholder relations for
new ED
• ID most important challenges for the
new ED
© NPT LLC

66. Take Action to
• Crystallize Staff view of future
– Briefing book
– Dreams
• Clarify Mission Impact of
change
– Focus for new ED
– Board considerations
© NPT LLC

67. Conclusion – Remember
• All nonprofits change leaders
• Interval = opportunity for positive
change
• Board & the staff need self examination
• ACT to make change in the interim
• Key = objective interim leadership
• Interim Leader should H-E-L-P
• Set the stage - bright new chapter
© NPT LLC

68. THE END
© NPT LLC

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Chris Dumas
Chris@NonprofitWebinars.com
707-812-1234
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