Why Executive Directors Need L&D to Execute a Smooth Succession

Article In Brief:

  • The Problem: Talent and leadership are vitally important to the sustainability of the nonprofit sector. Without implementing a learning and development system (L&D), organizations cannot be confident they have a talent management strategy that will serve the organization well.
  • The Context:For nonprofits, hiring isn’t just about filling one current opening; it’s about building a team of professionals who can lead and take accountability for the results produced by your organization. Nonprofits today need staff to have skills in collaboration, communication, time management, critical thinking, and managerial skills.
  • The Solution: This article presents the author’s approach to building L&D at her nonprofit and how it creates the conditions for smoother leadership transitions and uninterrupted operations.

In the nonprofit world, leadership is everything.

According to an analysis by Korn Ferry, 174 nonprofit and government sector CEOs left their posts in the first six months of 2022, a 39% jump from the same period in 2021. With the nonprofit sector witnessing a rise in leadership exits, the key is to start planning for the inevitable to prepare your organization for the future with a competent successor at its helm.

Of course, the search for a new Executive Director (ED) or CEO can often be a dizzying experience for everyone involved—staff, board, even volunteers. It can also be an awkward conversation for the sitting CEO to get comfortable with. The good news is that you can eliminate most, if not all, of the awkwardness and confusion with sound planning and proper implementation. After all, you’ve likely spent many years devoted to realizing your organization’s mission. You can probably agree that you’d feel better off leaving knowing that you’ve established processes and systems for your departure.

In this article I will review what makes a good talent management strategy, how to develop your staff for leadership roles, and why learning and development (L&D) is key to a successful leadership pipeline.

Strategizing Talent Management

 In general, companies with effective talent management strategies are more adaptable to change, more productive, more innovative, and better able to retain their talent. Across the board, effective talent management strategies include recruitment, performance, career development, and L&D. In my experience, however, nonprofits often decide on a new hire and then consider filling only that role. Little attention is paid to what talent is needed to achieve future business goals.

Instead, you might approach recruitment from a more holistic standpoint. You should, of course, consider your talent needs as well as the requisite skills and abilities necessary to lead the organization successfully. However, you should also ask yourself what behaviors embody your organization’s values, starting your recruitment with those behaviors in mind.

For nonprofits, hiring isn’t just about filling one current opening; it’s about building a team of professionals who can lead and take accountability for the results produced by your organization. Strategy requires you to think long-term to help cultivate and retain talented people.

Combating the Talent Gap through Development

Today, technical skills aren’t good enough. People need what have long been referred to as “soft skills.” These include collaboration, communication, time management, critical thinking, and managerial skills, to name a few. According to a white paper by the Association for Talent Development, 83% of organizations report having a skills gap, and “almost three-quarters say that the skills gap affects their organization’s service delivery, customers, or future growth.”  When contemplating who is next in line, these numbers cause concern. However, this data also means you should consider what resources and opportunities your organization offers to close these critical skill gaps as well as the measurement necessary to track progress in these areas.

Imagine that you are a new hire. As you take a position in your new organization, they provide the right training in the right way, specifically for how you learn best. This sends a message to you that the organization and its leadership takes talent seriously—and they (and you) should! Having a baseline on a team’s current skills as well as the means to track their performance and growth helps to ensure the team is growing with the organization.

To these ends, I’ve introduced psychometric or job profile assessments (Currently, I’ve been using the 5 Voices Assessment for in-house staff profiles as well as Big 5 with clients outside of my current role) as part of the onboarding process at my nonprofit, which also help new hires hit the ground running in their first few months on the job. These assessments allow me to personalize how I onboard talent so that I can tailor my on-the-job training to the individual’s needs and style. In addition, they also provide valuable information about how an individual views and interacts with the world, which further helps me connect with them and, in turn, deepens their bond to our organization.

L&D and the Leadership Pipeline

The pandemic has prompted many leaders to reexamine their organization’s values and workforce models, with talented employees championing for greater flexibility and purpose in their work. As such, it makes good business sense to invest in your talents’ learning and development to provide them with the skills they need to excel in both their current and future organizational roles. By upskilling talent and connecting L&D to their organizations’ overall talent management strategies, EDs can expand their impact.

Much like tailoring your onboarding process, L&D signifies that you value continuous learning as well as investing in your talented employees’ personal and professional development. L&D also helps you identify which individuals are eager and ready to step into new roles, helping you fill your leadership pipeline. In order to achieve these goals, you might consider building internal development programs—such as coaching, mentoring, or leadership programs—that help talent learn the skills that your organization needs to accomplish its mission objectives.

But the benefits of L&D for your organization do not stop at helping to create talent. Rather, investment in L&D makes sure that your organization retains that talent as well. Data provided by the Saratoga Institute indicates that “at least 9% and possibly as much as 32% of an organization’s voluntary turnover can be prevented through better leadership skills.” In an analysis of similar data, Leigh Branham, an authority on employee retention, identified that “trust, hope, worth, and competence are at the core of most voluntary separations.” It seems that when employees cannot fulfill their needs in these critical areas, they start looking elsewhere, meaning that your organization could lose valuable, talented people as well as their institutional knowledge.

And far from reducing productivity, studies indicate that L&D might actually lead employees to be more productive in their roles as well. For example, a study involving 300 managers and 1,200 direct reports of financial service companies found a 5 to 12% increase in productivity among employees of managers who attended development training and then immediately began to apply the new skills learned. With numbers like these, it is easy to see how employee retention, productivity, performance, decision-making, and innovation are direct consequences of successful employee L&D.

Creating Training at Small and Mid-sized Nonprofits

While small and mid-sized nonprofits may have limited resources and staff, there are several efficient and cost-effective ways they can incorporate L&D for their staff and volunteers. Here are four specific ideas:

  1. Online learning: Nonprofits can use online platforms such as Udemy or LinkedIn Learning to provide learning courses to their staff and volunteers. These kinds of platforms offer a wide range of courses on various topics, and many of them are free or low-cost.
  2. Peer-to-peer learning: Encourage your staff and volunteers to share their knowledge and expertise with one another through peer-to-peer learning sessions. This can be done through lunch and learns, group discussions, mentoring programs, or shadowing.
  3. E-learning modules: Create e-learning modules on specific topics related to the nonprofit’s mission or organizational goals. These modules can be created using various free or low-cost e-learning authoring tools.
  4. Guest speakers: Invite experts in the field to give presentations, workshops, or facilitate programs on topics related to the nonprofit’s mission or organizational goals. This can be done in-person or virtually.

Overall, it’s important for nonprofits to identify their learning and development needs and prioritize their resources to provide the most effective training for their staff and volunteers.

Let’s Talk Hypotheticals

Imagine two organizations: one implements a continuous L&D employee strategy, and the other does not. In both organizations, the sitting ED has announced her retirement.

In the first organization, there isn’t the typical chaotic frenzy triggered by the announcement. Instead, the sitting ED presents her board with a vetted list of internal candidates who have undergone proper leadership development training. The board is pleased that much of the work is done, and they spend their last two board meetings drilling down on which well-qualified candidates are the best for the position. Within six months, they identify their new ED from the internal list and begin the transition process. The sitting ED then spends her days transferring institutional knowledge, setting up the new ED for success. The staff and board are supportive because the process has been transparent and smooth from start to finish.

Unfortunately for the second organization, the announcement instead raises uncertainty as the ED failed to put the appropriate processes and systems in place prior to her retirement. With the board in a deadlock over governance, dissension ensues with everyone in the organization becoming embroiled in the dramatic search for a new ED. People form perhaps antipodal allegiances, and the sitting ED is overwhelmed with managing the clashes between the board and dealing with staff disengagement. The uncertainty and drama then cause some staff to consider switching jobs (a few of whom do end up leaving). At all points, focus is drawn away from the mission of the organization, most likely resulting in the failure to deliver services (and even potential loss of funds).

Eventually, this organization’s board might have to hire an executive search firm, whose candidates might be completely unaware of the breakdown in organizational culture. Despite being sharp and eager to lead, any new ED would probably be stressed once they learn how fractured the culture of the organization is, and they might even begin to regret taking their job.

While this second hypothetical situation might seem apocalyptic, it is not difficult to see how a lack of planning on the part of the ED can have drastic consequences, even with the best intentions (note how no one at the second organization is trying to make things difficult; the situation just snowballs). And so it would seem that strategically investing in talent garners only a potential upside. In fact, it is necessary for the longevity of your organization.

Final Thoughts

Providing employees with the skills, tools, and support they need to perform at their best is the key to crafting a high-performance work environment. In this environment, you will attract the best, retain them, and fill your pipeline with capable and competent leaders, making your transition out of the organization a smooth one for all involved. At the end of the day, your board and staff will thank you for it. After all, you’re a mission-driven leader, and it’s your job to see your organization is in the best possible position to advance that mission.

Overcome Negativity and Past Failures

As you grow in personal leadership, the excitement you experience in achieving new goals is so fulfilling that you will never want to give up the rewards of this way of life. The gratification you receive from exercising personal leadership makes it hard to believe that it would be possible to live any other way. But new habits and attitudes require alert monitoring to ensure their continuity. Old habits and attitudes still lurk in the recesses of your subconscious and will reassert themselves if you are not vigilant. Two motivation blocks that stem the natural tide of creativity are so frequently encountered that it is good to have a plan for dealing with them should they occur.

Negative habit patterns.

Negative habit patterns arising from negative thinking often cause a motivation block. Some children grow up in an atmosphere where every suggestion or request is met with an automatic negative response. As a result, it becomes natural to concentrate on why things cannot be done instead of how they can be done. The result is procrastination or making excuses. Remember that there is always the danger of unconsciously slipping back into the habit of thinking negatively and blaming circumstances for lack of progress. Remain constantly aware of how you respond to suggestions, ideas, and new experiences. If you realize that you are responding negatively, let this awareness strike the emotional chords needed for making the desired personality changes instead of acting as a motivation block. Set up a strong program of affirmation, and you will gradually replace negative habit patterns with substitution. As your new attitudes grow stronger, they dominate your pattern of thinking, and the old negative responses gradually subside. Success is the inevitable result. Associate primarily with people who think and live positively. Read material that feeds your mind with positive ideas. Listen to personal development and self-improvement CDs or webinars. The real key to growth is confidence and belief in your ability to change yourself and your attitudes.

Reliving past failures.

The second serious motivation block often encountered is the practice of reliving past failures. Failure is relatively unimportant. History’s greatest progress has been achieved through trial and error by individuals who dared to fail and try again. Failure is tragic only when it is allowed to create a motivation block to the future effort – when it becomes so emotionally laden with embarrassment, fear, or doubt that it affects the total personality. Mistakes are neither blemishes on your record nor indications of weakness. As you develop personal leadership, you learn to view mistakes as an inevitable part of life, an opportunity for growth, and a part of the process of maturing. You can enjoy analyzing a mistake to find all its potential good. It then becomes a victory and an opportunity for growth. Face life realistically and without fear; refuse to deny life, to shrink or hide from it.

These two motivation blocks to personal leadership are most quickly overcome through the practice of goal setting. If you know where you stand and where you are going, you can quickly destroy the effect of either of these motivation blocks because you have already fashioned the necessary tools in your plan of action. The combination of challenging goals, a vigorous program of affirmation, and the ongoing practice of visualization give you quick mastery over motivation blocks.

 

Fight Fires Calmly and Effectively

The most productive individuals are those who have mastered the art of taking care of emergency situations, unexpected and unplanned, that require immediate attention to prevent serious consequences. “Firefighting” is the usual term for handling a crisis. “Firefighting” ranges from such relatively simple problems as soothing an unhappy customer to solving a major emergency production or personnel problem.

Obviously, true emergencies must be handled immediately. This often means pushing aside planned activities and rearranging schedules to take care of the emergency.

The ideal, of course, is to prevent emergencies. If you suspect you are spending too much time “firefighting,” keep notes over a period of a week or a month describing the various situations that require emergency action. Identify the location of the fire and what is lost. Who is the arsonist? Who is usually the firefighter? Is psychological reward being sought by either arsonist or a firefighter – or both? List the causes, the actions taken, and the results of each crisis handled. Then compare the circumstances to find any pattern that exists. Decide how you can best prevent future crises. Consider instituting necessary training, giving appropriate feedback, setting up proper controls, or delegating appropriate responsibility. Design new procedures, perform necessary maintenance, or install new equipment – whatever your analysis indicates is needed.

Even the best planning and training fail to prevent an occasional unanticipated situation that must be handled on the spot. When vital machinery breaks down, key people are sick or hurt, or outside circumstances affect your work, adjustments must be made. When a crisis occurs, minimize lost time by following these suggestions:

Stay calm. 

The existence of a crisis implies that something is out of normal control. If, in addition, you lose control of your emotions, it becomes difficult to make rational decisions that meet the needs of the moment. Tell yourself, “I’ve solved harder problems under pressure. I can solve this one, too.” Your calm, matter-of-fact acceptance of the situation and the assumption that it can be handled keep both you and other people calm and able to bring the situation back under control.

Isolate the major consideration.

When a crisis arises, something will probably be lost because of the situation – either time, money, or materials. Decide what loss can be tolerated and what loss must be avoided. Isolate the root problem so you can immediately respond to the real issue. Your objective is to solve the problem and regain control without a critical loss. For example, perhaps a breakdown occurs that will cause a delay in the production of a component needed to fill an important order. You realize that a time delay would represent a substantial loss for this important client. Failure to meet your obligations to this customer is a loss you cannot afford. You would be well advised, therefore, to authorize overtime for repairs and production or to shift the critical component to another production line and delay work on a less critical job.

Return conditions to normal as soon as possible.

The objective in crisis management is to take personal charge of the situation for only as long as you are needed. Suggest, act, give the instruction, and then step out; let the person who is normally in charge complete the job. Offer only the necessary help and trust your people to carry through.

Learn something from each crisis.

The handling of each crisis should make a direct contribution to future crisis prevention. After the excitement is over and the situation has returned to normal, hold a debriefing session to discuss the crisis with those involved to determine how a similar emergency can be avoided in the future. Make this a training opportunity and a planning experience — not a “place-theblame” session.

 

Open the Door to Effective Communication

Anything that hampers listening sets up barriers that prevent understanding and closes the door to the goal of communication – producing constructive action. Barriers to listening are found in physical situations, in attitudes, and in behavior. Awareness of barriers allows you to take appropriate action to keep the door to communication open.

Physical Barriers

Environmental barriers are the easiest to overcome. You can close a door to reduce distracting noise. You can schedule a conversation at a time when interruption can be controlled. You can arrange to be in a comfortable physical environment before attempting an important communication session.

Perhaps the most difficult physical barrier to overcome is the rate of speed with which the human mind thinks. The average conversation proceeds at approximately 125 words a minute – less if the information is complex. But you can think at a rate of 400 to 600 words a minute. The listener’s brain has quite a bit of leisure time available; as a result, the listener’s mind may take a side trip and fail to get back on track in time to capture the presented information. The speed at which the brain generally processes information presents a significant physical concentration and attention barrier.

Two excellent tools are available to overcome this physical barrier and focus the brain’s processing power: • Organizing. Everyone whose work involves more than one basic task is accustomed to organizing activities, ideas, and objects. Apply this same skill to listening. Mentally organize what you hear as you listen. Follow the speaker’s logic, taking notes if that helps your concentration. • Analyzing. As you listen, analyze the ideas you hear. Compare them with information you already know; look for logical cause-and-effect relationships.

Attitude Barriers

Attitudes that block communication are often easily detected, but sometimes they are not all that apparent. Sometimes it is possible just to look at certain people and say that they are only pretending to listen or that they feel no real concern for the topic. In contrast, some people convincingly pretend to be interested when they have already made up their minds and are closed to new ideas. Other similar attitudes lead to tuning out the speaker, discounting the worth of a speaker based on appearance, voice, or other external attributes.

One of the most prevalent attitude barriers in communication is selective listening. Because we would like to hear only what pleases us or fits into our preconceived plans and ideas, it is easy to discount or filter out messages we find unpleasant or disagreeable.
Because selective listening is so devastating to relationships, become aware of any areas in which you practice it. Devise a plan for changing your attitude and, as a result, your behavior.

An attitude barrier that is just as devastating as selective listening is overreacting. Making snap judgments, losing control of emotions, and other inappropriate reactions – especially when they occur before the entire message has been delivered – destroy any hopes of mutual understanding and cooperation.

The best tools for overcoming attitude barriers to communication are a strong, secure self-image and a belief in the worth of other people. Recognize that communication is more than sending; it is also receiving. Explore strategies for strengthening your self-esteem and put them into practice. Decide to treat others with respect despite what they may say, think, or do. Demonstrate genuine empathy in all your interpersonal relationships. These commitments promote understanding and result in constructive action.

Behavior Barriers

Behaviors that reduce the power of communication include both verbal and nonverbal actions that cut off listening. One of the most frequently observed listening barriers is interrupting the speaker. When people interrupt the speaker, their actions may be perceived as a lack of understanding, impoliteness, or rejection.

Other verbal barriers to listening include criticizing and attempting to control. Habitual criticizers stop the flow of creative ideas from others. Nonstop talkers and those who attempt to manipulate or control other people and situations send the message that they consider communication as one-way – from them to everyone else. They do not stop to ask themselves or others, “What do I need to know?”

Nonverbal behavior barriers to listening are often seen in the posture. Slumping down in a chair, avoiding eye contact, obvious preoccupation with other matters, and nervous handling of objects all telegraph the message, “I’m not listening, and you can’t make me.”

Actively Listening

Effective listening is active, not passive. Listening demands conscious activity and concentration; it is more than maintaining a polite silence while mentally rehearsing what to say at the speaker’s next breath or silently searching for flaws in the speaker’s ideas that you can attack. Like any important skill, effective listening requires adequate preparation, careful execution, and continual monitoring. This means that preparation for good listening begins with adopting certain attitudes that support effective listening.
One of the basic attitudes for listening is a readiness to learn or understand. Closely allied is a willingness to learn from a particular source. Those who believe they already know everything of importance are functionally unable to listen.

A second important attitude for listening is belief in the value of others as individuals and in the possibility that they have ideas and information worth hearing. This attitude is expressed through empathy – the ability to communicate that you value other people even when you do not necessarily agree with or condone their attitudes and actions. Empathy is the ability to understand what people feel, to acknowledge their right to feel it, and to communicate for win-win solutions even though you differ.

Listening also is being alert not only to the actual words spoken but also to what is not being said. Listening is being acutely aware of the attitudes of others, their viewpoints, their body language, and their emotional states.

Fortunately, listening is a skill that can be learned. Listening opens the gateway to personal and professional success through the vast dividends it pays. Listening does the following: • Keeps communication channels open • Provides opportunities for learning • Enhances relationships • Increases productivity by saving time and effort • Reduces friction, misunderstandings, and conflicts • Alerts you to opportunities • Enlists the support and favorable responses of others • Develops insight into people’s needs and desires so you can communicate better.

Listening is one of the highest forms of appreciation anyone can show another person. When people feel appreciated, when they sense an attitude of respect, and when they know that others are trying to understand their situation and how they view it, then they tend to reflect these same attitudes of appreciation and respect. This, in turn, fosters mutual understanding and cooperation, both essential for reaching professional and business goals.

Live Each Day as a Lesson in Progress

Anything that shapes one’s thinking or behavior is a conditioning influence. A conditioning influence may originate either internally or externally. The three most common conditioning influences are the family, the social environment, and personal attitudes toward mistakes and failure.

Family

We sometimes overlook the fact that we are most often conditioned by influence rather than by some overt act or pressure. Fathers, mothers, older brothers, and sisters – all influence us during our childhood. Not only by example but by words – advice, arguments, or persuasion – we form an idea of what to expect of ourselves, and unfortunately, those ideas are sometimes limited in scope.

Family influence encourages some people to try a little harder, to be better, more successful, and to achieve greater things than anyone else in their family has yet accomplished. Sadly, family influence convinces others that they can never match the achievements of parents or older brothers and sisters, so they feel no motivation even to try.

A natural love for our families makes us loyal to their teachings and causes us to cherish family traditions and heritage. That can be good, but it is not always good. Such influences should be weighed in the balance of our own values, needs, and desires and subjected to our own freedom of choice.

You are the architect of whatever life you choose to build. If you are brainwashed, accepting without question the ideas and demands of others, it is only because you use your freedom of choice to allow it to be so.

Social

No one is an island. The adult, as well as the child, is subject to conditioning by outside influences and by the family. Youngsters are affected by interpersonal peer relationships, and teachers influence their thinking, their conduct, and their personalities. As they grow older, the scene changes and the names change, but social influences continue to bombard them. Ever since primitive people learned to band together for strength and protection, they have been conditioned by their environment and by society and its institutions. This, too, can be good. Without Examine What Shapes Your Attitudes, such as conditioning, humanity might well have failed to survive.

Too much conditioned conformity, however, tends to cast all individuals in the same mold, and they become average – fitting their talents and abilities into a mediocre model that everyone can match. Over-conditioned people lose the motivation to be what they were intended to be.

What is important to your personal leadership development is the determination of which conditioning influences are good and which are bad. You must learn to live in a society of compromise without being compromised. Recognize your unique possibilities. Make your own decisions about who you are and what you will become rather than passively submit to the imprint of your environment.

Mistakes

There is a third conditioning influence to which all people are subjected – that of their own experiences. Because we are not born with a knowledge of the world, it is natural that in the learning process, we make mistakes and experience failures. Learning proceeds by trying, failing, adjusting, and then trying again. Children learn to walk and talk that way. It is nature’s way.

But the needs for both social acceptance and self-respect cause mistakes to be embarrassing. Failure can be shattering, particularly if the early environment places stress on perfection. A parent, a teacher, or even the boss in an early job who places extreme emphasis on the gravity of mistakes may cause leadership development to be restricted. We freeze up for fear of making another mistake. The fear of failure breeds timidity and causes hesitation to accept a challenge.

Failure itself is unimportant; your attitude toward it is crucial, for it can strengthen or destroy you. If you regard each mistake as a setback in your quest for achievement, that is exactly what it will become. When you look at mistakes as signposts to guide you in the adjustment phase of the learning process, failures strengthen you. Thrust a defiant chin at failure instead of turning a trembling back.

No one enjoys making mistakes or suffering defeat. But mistakes mark human progress. You can accept a mistake as a failure or as a lesson in progress. You can accept it as a challenge or as a chastisement. There is more to be feared in not making mistakes than in making them.

To develop a healthy attitude toward mistakes and failure, see them as opportunities to develop your personal leadership skills.