From weathering economic changes to continuously improving service offerings to finding new talent, it might feel like your nonprofit constantly moves at a hundred miles per minute. With so much on your team’s plate, it’s natural for your efforts to get derailed without the right guide at the helm.
That’s why a strong leadership team can make all the difference in achieving your mission. Along with official leadership positions, such as your executive director, you might find leaders who can help you achieve your goals in your staff, board of directors, or even your supporter community.
If you feel your current leadership approach isn’t fully aligned with your values or you aren’t seeing results, it’s time to step back and refine your approach. In this guide, we’ll review easy ways to improve your nonprofit’s leadership and secure your organization’s longevity.
1.) Assess Leadership Qualities in the Hiring Process
Some team members are naturally predisposed to being a leader. If you’re looking to foster great leaders in your nonprofit, start from the beginning of every team member’s journey with your organization: the hiring process. Optimize this process to hire candidates who can grow into leaders by:
- Creating purposeful job descriptions. Appeal to leaders in their very first interaction with your nonprofit: viewing your job description. Speak specifically about what leadership traits you value, what leaders do at your organization, and how you support leaders’ growth. Depending on the job posting platform, you might be able to add tags related to leadership to your posts so they reach the right audience.
- Asking interview questions about leadership. If a candidate has indicated their interest in a leadership role, gauge how they’d approach hypothetical situations in the interview process. Ask questions such as, “What is your approach to conflict?” “What’s your biggest strength as a leader?” and “As a leader, what would you do to help our organization flourish?”
- Involving other leaders in the process. Gain a well-rounded point of view of candidates by involving other leaders in the hiring process. For instance, you might record the interview and share it with the candidate’s prospective team lead.
- Tracking leadership-based key performance indicators (KPIs). You likely already use software to capture relevant hiring KPIs, such as candidate retention and application completion rates. However, you can also collect additional hiring metrics specific to leadership, such as the percentage of candidates who eventually became organizational leaders or the department with the highest leadership conversion rate.
2.) Foster Transparent Communication
The secret to any effective team is open and honest communication. It allows you to grow as an organization and directly convey expectations to your team.
To cultivate transparency, try a tiered management style and meeting format. Depending on your team’s size, you might have multiple tiers of staff leaders, such as middle and upper management. Having direct reports meet with their managers regularly can make the feedback process more approachable, encouraging directs to communicate openly. Then, the middle manager can reduce time and redundancy by conveying pertinent information to upper management.
Also, remember that digital communications require unique strategies. Standardize email communication by asking employees to use labels in email subject lines so the recipient knows exactly what’s expected of them (i.e., “AR” for action requested or “NRN” for no response needed). You can take your efforts a step further by coaching employees on writing effective emails and providing constructive feedback when needed.
3.) Prioritize Leadership Training
Great leaders are shaped by their unique experiences and perspectives, meaning your nonprofit has to support them on their journey. That’s where training comes in.
Leadership training can accelerate employee growth into leaders. Here are some smart ways to invest in leadership training:
- Create a mentorship program. Nobody understands how your nonprofit operates better than a loyal, seasoned team member. Ask for employee leaders to volunteer as mentors. That way, the mentors can lead by example and pass on their knowledge to mentees.
- Sponsor professional development courses. Between conferences, internal lunch-and-learn meetings, and educational resources, there’s a world of learning opportunities for aspiring leaders. Provide a stipend for employees to pursue and strengthen their understanding of leadership-based topics.
- Provide real-world leadership opportunities. The best way for employees to learn is by trying different techniques. Allow them to plan and lead their own small internal initiatives, such as professional development workshops, team event planning, or projects within their own department. Then, debrief with them afterward to see what they learned and how they’ll apply that knowledge going forward.
4.) Recognize and Reward Hard Work
With one of the highest burnout rates across the general workforce, nonprofit work can take a toll on employees and volunteers alike. Fortunately, leadership can mitigate burnout and keep employees and volunteers motivated by acknowledging their hard work.
Make an impact and brighten an advocate’s day by:
- Awarding prizes. Whether gifting a small physical memento, an extra paid day off, or an unforgettable experience, Unwrapit suggests thanking volunteers and employees with meaningful gifts.
- Formally and informally recognize high performers. There are merits to both formal and informal recognition, so make room for both in your recognition strategy. For instance, formal recognition might come from leadership as an employee of the month plaque, while informal recognition may take the form of peer-to-peer shout-outs in the monthly All Hands meeting.
- Host recognition events. Celebrate the passion of employees and volunteers by hosting an event in their honor. For instance, you might host a quarterly Employee Appreciation Day event or a catered lunch that happens when you hit a quarterly goal.
Regularly ask employees and volunteers for feedback on your appreciation efforts and act on feasible suggestions. After all, your appreciation efforts will only make an impact if they resonate with recipients, so change your approach to align with their preferences over time.
Leadership isn’t just about achieving your objectives—it’s also about supporting your employees’ growth and developing your nonprofit’s future leaders. As long as you lead with empathy, respect, and openness to new ideas, you can cultivate a culture committed to learning and leading.
Stephanie Sparks, Director of Content Marketing
As Director of Content Marketing & Social at Employ, Stephanie leverages 17 years of marketing and communications experience, and her master’s degree in marketing, communication studies, and advertising, to craft compelling content across the JazzHR, Lever, Jobvite, and NXTThing RPO brands. She is a thought leader for the HR technology and talent acquisition space.
