Читать книгу Joan Garry's Guide to Nonprofit Leadership - Garry Joan - Страница 5

I could have killed my development director.

And I don't mean it the way you think.

Julie arrived at a quarterly board meeting. She didn't look quite right. It was hard not to notice that there was something protruding from her blouse.

A heart monitor.

She had flown from Los Angeles to Chicago and I had flown in from New York. We had not seen each other in a few weeks.

Maybe she mentioned something about a doctor's appointment, but come on. I was leading a nonprofit trying to save a portion of the world. Who has time for the health and well-being of staff?

Clearly not me.

I'm sure you're wondering. Julie is fine. Today, she is a clinical psychologist who no doubt helps clients contend with Type A, oblivious bosses who drive their employees to heart problems.

Oh, also, in case you are wondering, the board meeting was a big hit. Julie and I were impressive and on our game – as we usually were. I did get a few comments at the breaks, like “Hey, how's Julie?” or “Julie looks like the job is taking a toll on her.” “No worries,” I said. And went on to get an A+ on our board meeting presentation.

But wow. Who was I? Why did I not tell Julie to turn on her heels and take the next flight home to Los Angeles?

I am not insane. I swear. I would never intentionally try to put Julie (or anyone else for that matter) in harm's way.

But nonprofits can cause a person to transform into someone they don't recognize.

Why?

Because nonprofits are messy.

It's inherent in the formula of the unique beast we call a 501(c)(3).

A. A poorly paid and overworked group (staff) that…

B. Relies on the efforts of people who get paid nothing (volunteers) and are overseen by…

C. Another group of volunteers who get paid nothing and are supposed to give and get lots of money (board)

All of this is in the service of something that every single one of them cares passionately about. Wow. Now that is a recipe for messy. And that organization you care so deeply about can get messier still if not led and managed well.

I learned the messy lesson the hard way.

What did I know? Fifteen years in corporate America and then poof! I'm running a nonprofit (more on the “poof” part in a few).

I felt ever so well equipped with my financial skills, my management skills, and my understanding of how to manage a budget and to deliver results.

I had never met “messy” like this until the day I sat down at my desk at GLAAD (formerly, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and now just the acronym), one of the largest gay rights nonprofit organizations. Or so I thought.

It actually was large by reputation but “large” was not the first word that came to mind when I saw that we had only $360 in the bank. Large was not at all the word that came to mind.

It was really bad. And I'll admit it here – I felt like a bit of a fraud, soon to be unmasked as having neither the grit nor the skills to dig us out.

There was one very bad day the first week on the job. I remember it well.

I was at my computer, writing a solicitation letter to a lapsed donor – trying everything to drive cash in the door. I was pleased with the letter. I sent it to print on the serviceable printer, reviewed it, and found a typo.

And with that I burst into tears. It may have been my predicament but I think it was singularly focused. I knew we could not afford to reorder another letterhead.

Then there was this other day.

I was in Los Angeles meeting with donors (and praying they would pick up the tab) when my phone rang. It was my deputy director in New York. He calmly said that it might be time to look for office space he knew we couldn't afford.

There was an inch of snow on his desk when he arrived for work.

Very, very messy.

I'm not sure I knew what to expect when I left corporate America for this job. I'm not sure I did a lot of thinking. My move from the corporate world to the nonprofit world was more of a “heart” move than a “head” move.

I was not unhappy in the corporate world. Hardly. I had hit the corporate jackpot. In my first job out of college, I landed on the management team of MTV.

Yes, working at MTV in the early 1980s was just as cool as you can imagine. I also learned a ton. I learned about the pace, intensity, and thrill of being a part of a start-up (more on that later). I learned how to innovate when I wrote the business plan for the MTV Video Music Awards. And my Harvard MBA boss bought me an HP12c calculator (the calculator that allows people to assume you have an MBA) and taught me about budgets and balance sheets.

From MTV, I moved to Showtime Networks. There, I became a very good manager of people. I became a team player. I learned what it meant to be a good corporate citizen as one of the early gay poster children when Showtime began to walk the walk on diversity. We gave money to worthy causes and I found myself in the early 1990s advocating for corporate sponsorship dollars from Showtime to gay organizations.

While I was there, we built a new business, a now-dinosaur that we called pay-per-view. And it was there that I learned about boxing.

Yes, boxing. Like that thing big, sweaty guys do with gloves on in rings.

I learned that people pay a lot of money to watch boxing on TV. And that if you get really good seats at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, the flying sweat…well, it flies.

The most important gift Showtime gave me was the recognition that I had a voice. I became another kind of poster child – essentially an employee advocate for better communication and transparency from the senior leadership. This work, which included hosting a full-staff (800) town meeting, was transformative.

I found my voice as an advocate for the employees at Showtime.

I found my wheelhouse.

Now what? I had no idea. I just knew a change was in the offing.

There was no “aha” moment for me. There was just a conversation. Eileen, my now wife but then spouse, partner, longtime companion, (enter other euphemisms here) came home from work and told me that the executive director job at GLAAD was open.

I casually remarked, “You know, somebody like me ought to have a job like that. We have three kids, I drive a minivan, and we really do have a white picket fence. That would shake up America's picture of a gay-rights activist, huh?”

Eileen, who knows how to shake things up in just the right way, casually responded to my casual remark. “Well then, somebody like you should apply.”

I never in a million years thought they would hire me. No nonprofit experience and I had never asked a soul for money before.

But they hired somebody like me. A lot like me. So me it was me. As my good friend Amy says, “Well, slap my fanny!”

I guess I should have asked more questions before I took the job. That said, it probably would not have mattered. The board didn't have the answers either. The GLAAD brand may have been big but the problems were way bigger. I impressed myself with a tough salary negotiation that proved meaningless because all they could afford to pay me was $360. But just a one-time payment. That was the sum total in the GLAAD bank account.

How did I manage? Well, nobody handed me a book – that's for sure. I don't even remember anyone telling me that everything was going to be okay. It was my job to tell everyone else that everything was going to be okay.

There was so much I didn't know. Like everything, it seemed.

I wish there had been a book – one with practical advice about how to untangle all of this mess written by someone who had stood in my shoes. Written by someone who would be my advocate, help me realize that I was not alone and maybe even make me laugh about sobbing over a piece of stationery.

So I decided to write the book I wish someone had handed me.

Because my experience as a nonprofit leader and then a board member and major donor and today the principal in a nonprofit consulting practice has taught me a great deal that I believe will help you as a nonprofit leader become more effective at your jobs and remind you of the joy you can find in being underpaid and overworked to save even the smallest part of the world.

Maybe you are wondering how I untangled the knots at GLAAD without a book.⌣

We did indeed dig it out. I left the organization eight years later with a $1.5 million cash reserve, an $8 million budget, and a staff of over 40. But that's not what counts.

We made an impact. Long before marriage equality, GLAAD put same sex couples on the wedding pages of every major newspaper in America. Starting with the New York Times.

If you think there are too many gay characters on television, give it to me right between the eyes. Our work at GLAAD brought us there. If the name Matthew Shepard, the young gay man murdered in Wyoming in 1998, is familiar to you, it's because GLAAD shaped that into a national story, ensuring that any discussion about hate crimes expanded to include sexual orientation. A lasting legacy for a young man from Laramie.

How did we do it?

The recipe is not unique to my leadership or to GLAAD. There are universal constants.

Between my own personal experience and working with hundreds of board and nonprofit staff leaders, these constants are critical to either digging out, stabilizing, or taking your organization to a place of even greater impact.

You need to rely on the strengths and power of those around you and see your varying stakeholder groups as a village, each with a very important role to play in the success of your organization.

Then there is the mission. Your passion for it and your ability to articulate it, why it's important, and what impact it is having on the world. (I continue to be stunned by how infrequently leaders get this right.) You have to cultivate your storytelling skills and in so doing, you will cultivate your fundraising prowess.

Recognize the skills and attributes of your staff and manage them with compassion and accountability (now that is a delicate balance). You have to be transparent and authentic with both successes and challenges. Recognize that you are slightly more like a tribe than a staff.

See the board as a resource and invest time and energy in building a committed and diverse group. Be an active member of the board recruitment committee from Day One. And seek out strong co-chairs and consider them partners. Avoid the “yes” folks. Strong chairs will give you great advice and ask tough questions. Try not to get defensive and this pushback will make you a more effective leader.

Once your organization stops teetering (see the preceding steps), budget money annually to build a reserve. Once you are able to pull your nose out of the cash flow worksheet, you can actually think ahead. So get to it. Where are the gaps? Are there constituents you are not serving that no other organization can serve as well as you? These conversations can lead to smart and bold strategies and fundable plans for the future.

This is how to dig out, how to stabilize, how to thrive. This is the core of my advice to many of my clients, to the thousands who visit my blog weekly and to the dozens who write weekly with questions. And this captures the spirit of the advice I hope will be valuable to you.

But the single most important attribute of a nonprofit leader – board member or staff leader – the attribute that is most critical in helping you to untangle knots and the one that can move your organization from good to great – is joy.

The single most important attribute of a nonprofit leader – board member or staff leader – the attribute that is most critical in helping you to untangle knots and the one that can move your organization from good to great – is joy.

In my own experience as a staff leader and a board leader along with work with all of the clients I have had through the years, it is this attribute that creates standout leaders. They get it. It is a joy to be paid to advocate, feed the hungry, to change laws, to raise money, to create a strong infrastructure – all in the service of others.

I believe deeply in the power of the nonprofit sector to change the world. In ways large and small. If you have raised your hand to say, “I want to help. I want to work here. I want to volunteer. I want to raise money for you,” you are, in my book, nobility.

Your work says something important about your character, your spirit, your commitment to a fair and just world, your integrity, your courage, your grit and perseverance.

Not everyone makes this choice. Far too many people with time, connections, and capacity sit on the sidelines.

You made a different choice.

Your feet are firmly planted on the high road. And know that you are admired.

By many. Including me.

I speak from experience. Traveling on the high road isn't easy and it's messy but if you love your organization, it's worth every minute.

Nonprofits are messy. Not enough money. Too many cooks. An overdose of passion.

Leading nonprofits isn't easy.

I'm here to help.