5 Key Actions To Take For Effective Leadership

It's important to remember that effective leaders aren't always perfect leaders. That's not what we're talking about. What we are talking about are key actions done consistently and with commitment. These actions are a key to being an effective leader leading an impactful organization. In episode 123 of the practice of nonprofit leadership, I'm Tim Barnes. Nathan is on the road this week, so I'm flying solo, as Nathan likes to say. You know, every so often, I think it's important to consider our leadership. How are we doing? Are we being effective? Why or why not? What makes someone an effective leader? I'm sure there are many characteristics that can be suggested, many things we could talk about today, but today I really want to focus on five key actions. Five key actions that have done consistently will help you be an effective leader. But before we do, nathan left a message about an important opportunity we are offering. We'll be right back.

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Okay, so let's jump into our discussion. The first key action is to foster a strong vision. It's crucial to have a clear vision for our non-profit, to ask the question what are we working towards? What will it look like if we are successful in carrying out our mission? I believe it's this strong vision that gets us through the tough times when things are burdensome, when so many things feel like they're coming at you. It's this vision of what it's going to look like if we're successful that keeps us moving forward. It should get you up in the morning. It should help you decide your next step or your next action, because it's where you're moving towards. It's what it's going to look like if we are successful in doing what our organization is made for. So I encourage you to invest time in crafting a compelling vision that aligns with your non-profit's mission, its goals and its values. It doesn't have to be extensive. It could be a vision board where you grab some pictures and some key words and you put it up there and keep it in front of you. You could have it on a napkin, even that you refer to often. But having that strong vision in front of you, looking at it regularly, pushes you, compels you, propels you further and further into this work that you're doing. So the first key action is to foster a strong vision for your organization. A second key point, key action is to embrace learning. I have to say that I believe, as a leader, my learning should never stop. I should always be growing. I'm never too old. I've never learned everything I need to learn. The world is changing so quickly and if I'm going to be an effective leader, I have to continue to embrace learning. There are some ways that that happens. One that I think of often is just reading books. Having a book in front of you, having a book on your desk or on your nightstand on a regular basis, even if you put it in your schedule to take 30 minutes every day, maybe 15 minutes a day, and read a chapter, but continually feeding your mind on things that are happening in our world, ideas, thoughts and reading is a great opportunity. Always invest in some books. I'm a big fan of podcasts, as you can probably tell, and you must be as well if you're listening to us today. The podcasts are something that when I'm doing my exercise, when I'm taking my walk, whenever I have an opportunity, I have a few minutes. If I'm on a plane or I'm driving somewhere, I will tend to put on a podcast and I keep a list of podcasts, again around leadership, around topics that are impacting our nonprofit, or just areas that I want to grow in podcasts videos. I would also encourage you to look for opportunities to attend workshops or conferences. Those are really back in full swing again. Even online there's all kinds of workshops you can show up for among topics that you are interested in. That will help you grow. Or gather with some of your peers Maybe it's other nonprofit directors in your area. Get together and share what are you experiencing, what are you learning and learn from each other. Maybe you can be a catalyst for that. Maybe you could reach out and say, hey, let's get together, I'll come to my office or let's go to this coffee shop and let's just sit and talk and learn. I would encourage you. Here's another thing I would encourage you to embrace learning and look for experiences outside of your nonprofit world. Maybe it's a business conference, maybe it's a topic that you wouldn't even think about studying or looking at or learning about. I've been reading about our medical field and the medical healthcare system. It's something I'm interested in. It's not in my nonprofit world, but it's something that I have a lot of interest in, so I've been reading and trying to study and learn about that. I think it will help me be a better leader in the life I lead. Look for those experiences. I recently went to a two-day conference on leadership with a group of people that are outside of my nonprofit world, but I got so many insights and things that will help me be a better leader in my nonprofit. So ongoing learning helps me grow as a leader and it helps me make informed decisions. Learning to learn provides a well that you can dip into when you need it. I would encourage you to keep notes, reflect on what you're learning, keep a journal and keep those ideas nearby. When something hits, you, write it down so you can refer to it either. Make learning a key part of who you are. It will bring fruit in just the right moment as you continue to grow. So embraced learning is the second action. A third action is to build strong relationships. Hear me when I say this A nonprofit is only as strong as its relationships. Let me say it again A nonprofit is only as strong as its relationships. It's important to build strong connections with those people who are in your world, your team you know it could just be you and some volunteers, or it could be whoever is part of helping you move forward in this nonprofit, but you need to build connection with them. You need to build good relationships so you can walk together. Of course, we talk often about your board. You need to build good, strong relationships with your board so you can have trust, so that you can work together. Your donors you need to be communicating with your donors and building good relationships, knowing what they care about, finding out about them Nathan's been talking so much about them but strong relationship with your donors and with your volunteers, those who give their time freely to help you move forward and I would also say good, strong relationships with people in your community. Take time to get to know people. Take time to show up in a coffee shop and talk to people and show up in events in your community. Be known and get to know people. It will help you be a stronger leader and will benefit your nonprofit that you lead. These relationships are so key in expanding your reach and your impact in the area that you find yourself. Now you might be someone, probably like me who is not super outgoing, who isn't naturally the life of the party. In fact, maybe it's really a challenge to put yourself out there. Can I say that's okay, you can still do this. What I would encourage you to do is to learn to ask good questions, to listen well and to engage. Get out of your head and be you. Don't be anxious, don't hold back. Put yourself out there, ask a question, Listen, follow up and engage in a conversation with people. I was talking to a friend recently about an organization that unfortunately is shutting down and we've used, about some of the challenges the organization faced and the difficult times organizations were facing in general. But then a comment my friend made really grabbed me. He said this, talking about the leader of that organization that was shutting down. My friend said he wanted to run the organization from his office and what I picked up from that was my friend was saying that that leader needed to get out of his office. He needed to connect with people, he needed to get out there with the donors, he needed to walk alongside his team, he needed to be known and to get known, but instead he wanted to manage everything in his office and not get out there among the people, and I think that's a contributing factor to why now the organization is struggling. So I would just challenge you an action to take on a consistent basis is to build strong relationships. Look for those opportunities that will bring such benefit to your organization. A fourth action is to promote transparency. As a leader, we need to make sure that we are open and honest and transparent in our operations of our organization. This builds trust with our team and with our stakeholders. Transparent communication needs to happen about our successes. It's okay to say, hey, we're doing well, we've had this impact, we've seen lives change, we've seen lives saved, we've seen lives get better because of our work. We're making a difference in our community and our people need to know that, and so it's okay to communicate clearly and not be afraid of talking about the good things. But we also need to be transparent about the challenges we face. Hey, things are tough. We're having a hard time finding staff. We're not being able to raise as much money as we hoped we had. We didn't get permission to do what we wanted to do. That grant didn't come through. We're really struggling and we need to be transparent about that. It does no good to try to hide things, to try to make us seem better than we are. We just need to be honest and transparent about where we are as a person and as an organization and about our challenges, and I think we also need to be transparent about our needs. Where do we need help? People want to know how can they get involved. Where do you need financial help? Where do you need volunteers? Where do you need staff? What kind of decisions are you wrestling with that? You would be good to have some input, and so being transparent about that gives people an opportunity to say, hey, I can step in, I can help. If we try to stay closed all the time, if we try to make ourselves look better than we can, then we are. We don't give people opportunity to actually contribute and to make a difference. Fostering an environment of transparency allows trust and collaboration to take place. I can't emphasize enough how much this transparency helps when a project or initiative doesn't go as planned, and it's important to openly discuss that with your board. Don't try to hide things from your board. They're there to help you. They're there to encourage you. Don't make it better than it is. Be honest and talk not only about where things are, but what things need to happen, what would make it better? It's important to openly discuss those challenges and to learn from our mistakes and work together to turn the situation around. So promoting transparency is really important. It's an action that, as a leader, you need to take. Promote transparency about the organization and about yourself as well. Where do you need encouragement? Where do you need help as well? The fifth action and final action is to practice resilience. We've said it before on this show leading a non-profit is not without its challenges. It's one of the toughest roles. I think that exists for a lot of reasons. There will be setbacks. What is important? To have a sense of resilience, to not being willing to give up, and I think it goes all the way back to the idea of having a strong vision. If you're fostering a strong vision, if you are committed and passionate about this organization and about your mission and what you're trying to do and what you want to see happen, that helps you have resilience. Because you go back to that, that we're doing really important work, we're doing impactful work and I'm not willing to give up. And so you yourself need to dig deep inside. You need to find that core that keeps you moving forward and that, when things are really tough, you have those mechanisms in your life that bring hope, and it gives you the opportunity to keep moving forward. And I've found that resilience is contagious. When your team sees you navigating the challenges transparently, but with determination, with an unwillingness to just throw in the towel, it inspires them to do the same. They look to you, they feed off your energy, they feed off your resilience in that case. And so resilience, grit, the ability to just keep on going because it's worth it is so important. So taking that kind of an action is so important to the impact and the effectiveness of you as a leader and as that of your organization. It doesn't mean we don't get tired. It doesn't mean we don't take a break. It doesn't mean we don't have down days but we don't give up. We stand another day and we keep fighting through this. We take care of ourselves, we eat right, we sleep right, we take care of our ability, we grow, we do all those things that help us be a better leader, but we keep going. We exercise that resilience in our life. So we need to foster a strong vision, embrace learning, build strong relationships, promote transparency and practice resilience. Remember, being an effective leader is not about being perfect. It's about continual growth, strong relationships and resilience. I hope these ideas will inspire you to take these actions and to lead your nonprofit to effectiveness, to growth, to impact. Until next time. Keep growing, keep learning and keep making a difference. Thank you for listening today. We're glad that you've chosen to listen to the podcast and we hope you'll consider joining the practice community, where you receive extra content and also have opportunities to connect with Nathan and myself to talk about the challenges you're having, to learn from each other and to grow. You can go to the link in the show notes and sign up and become part of the practice community. Well, that's all for today. Until next time.