Exploring Leadership in Nonprofits

1. Exploring Leadership in Nonprofits

2. Goals for the afternoon • Gain an understanding of the model in The Leadership Challenge and its component parts • Introduce another contemporary way of exploring leadership: “emotional intelligence” • Apply these to our nonprofit settings and experiences • Orient to the first assessment tools “The danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it but that it is too low and we reach it.” - Michelangelo

3. Learning Groups • Provide a smaller experience within the larger cohort • Deepen the feedback and learning • Will involve: • Small group discussions during the sessions • Online dialog in between sessions

4. Suggested Group Commitments Please turn to the Emerging Nonprofit Leaders, “Suggested Group Commitments” handout in section 1 of your notebook

5. What is Leadership? “the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations.”

6. Learning from “best leaders”(15 minutes) • Think of one of the best nonprofit leaders you have known. Talk with one other person: • What led you to select this person? • Describe a time when he or she was at his or her best as a leader? • What are their key pathways to success? • What did they do to get other people involved? to get others to stretch to reach goals? • What key lessons about leadership did you learn from the experience? • Agree upon about 5 characteristics or behaviors that are most important in making these people effective leaders. Write each on a separate sticky note.

7. The Leadership Challenge Model • Based on research regarding how ordinary people accomplished extraordinary things • Gathered “personal best leadership experiences” from more than 2000 managers • Found that leadership is a pattern of behavior, things that leaders do, not something we are “born” with.

8. Practices of Exemplary Leaders • Challenging the Process • Searching out opportunities to grow, innovate and improve • Experimenting and taking risks and learning from mistakes • Inspiring a Shared Vision • Envisioning an uplifting future • Enlisting others in a common vision by appealing to values, interests, and dreams • Enabling Others to Act • Fostering collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust • Strengthening people by sharing power, developing competence, and delegating

9. Practices of Exemplary Leaders (continued) • Modeling the Way • Setting the example by behaving in ways consistent with values • Achieving small wins that promote progress and build commitment • Encouraging the Heart • Recognizing individual contributions to the success of the project • Celebrating team accomplishments regularly

10. Activity: Exploring how our experiences fit with the model • With your partner, review each of the behaviors you identified as a key to exemplary leadership • Discuss which (if any) of the 5 categories this behavior would fall into • Place the sticky note on the appropriate flipchart

11. Partner Discussion(please switch conversation partners) Review the handout describing the 5 practices. Please discuss: • To what extent does this model describe the type of leader you aspire to be? • What fits well about it for leaders in nonprofit organizations? • Which of the practices seem most critical for YOU in your organization right now? • Which might others see as a strength? An opportunity for development?

12. The Assessment Component Aims to Help You: 1. Learn about your leadership style through: • assessing yourself (MBTI, Step II and LPI 360 for now) • obtaining feedback • comparing self-evaluation with the feedback 2. Identify key strengths and areas for growth 3. Develop an action plan that uses your strengths as a means of attaining your performance enhancement goals

13. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Step II • A personality self-assessment tool widely used in team building and leadership development • Offers an appreciative framework for examining similarities and differences that affect communication and productivity • The MBTI consists of four preference scales • what gives you energy/drains your energy • how you filter information • how you make decisions • how you deal with the external world • Step II breaks down each of the four preference scales into five facets, resulting in a deeper understanding of type

14. Completing the MBTI, Step II • An on-line assessment that takes about 15 minutes to complete • You will receive instructions for accessing the assessment site via email • You need to complete the assessment by mid November • Respond to the questions as you truly are, not as you wish you were

15. ENPL uses the model of leadership from The Leadership Challenge for its 360 360 feedback (aka multi-rater feedback) refers to the information gathered about your leadership from multiple sources. Board Your Leadership Peers Staff Self

16. Key Points About the 360 • The results are for your professional development • Results are confidential. • Your coach will also have a copy of your results. • Raters’ scores (except for supervisor’s) are averaged. • You choose the raters. • Follow-up is critical to success.

17. The “LPI – 360” • An online tool that takes no more than 15 minutes. • Made up of 30 statements, 6 for each of the 5 practices • You’ll rate yourself and others will rate you on the 30 items • You’ll get scores for the overall practice and for individual items • Includes 4 open-ended questions: • 3 adjectives which describe your leadership • Greatest strengths • Opportunities for development • Something others think you may not be aware of

18. Assessment Timeline

19. On the Observers • Categories • Manager (your direct supervisor) • Co-workers (at least 3 peers in your organization) • Direct Reports (if you have 3; if not, consider committees, other staff members, etc.) • Others (at least three. Consider peers, board members, professional associations, committees, etc.) • Write observers by Nov2 to request participation. • Points to stress include: • the 360 is for your professional development • is confidential • observers are relatively anonymous • substantive responses to the open-ended questions are especially useful.

20. Setting up your LPI-360 • You’ll receive an email next week • Register and log on as a Leader • Complete survey for yourself • Enter Observers’ names, email addresses, and relationship (Manager, Coworkers, Direct Reports, Others) • Keep record for yourself of the type of person in each category • Track responses if you like

21. Where to Get Assistance • LPI Help Desk for any technical issues: • 877-591-7762 • Susan Wilkes for questions about the 360 process and coaching: • susanwilkes@comcast.net

22. Break Please return in 15 minutes.

23. Emotional Intelligence • Assesses a person’s ability to manage his or her own behaviors and to “read” and interact with others. • Proposes that “EQ” is just as important (if not more so) than “IQ” • Related to positive outcomes and success measures • Primal Leadership applies these ideas to leadership, asserting that “great leadership works through the emotions”

24. About Emotional Intelligence • Many studies show the impact of EQ at work: • When measuring ingredients for excellent performance, EI proved to be twice as important as IQ across organizational levels • Emotions determine 50-70% of the workplace climate • EQ grows with age (maturity) • Training, support, and feedback aid in more rapid development of EQ

25. Comparing EQ Scores of High and Low Performers on “Benchmarks” 360

26. Daniel Goleman’s EI Categories “If your emotional abilities aren't in hand, if you don't have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can't have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.”

27. In his own words • Daniel Goleman speaks about emotional intelligence and the new brain research on social intelligence… • For more, see the video of Goleman speaking at the Google authors conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hoo_dIOP8k

28. Self Awareness and Management • Self Awareness • Noticing internal thoughts and feelings, especially around stress and change. • Knowing strengths and weaknesses • Self Management • Avoiding the “amygdala hijack” • Lessening reactivity • Choosing wise action • Buffering stress and “overwhelm” • Channeling emotions in useful ways

29. Exemplary Self-Management “I do not believe that what happened divided us into winners and losers; instead, I believe that the University of Virginia will be the winner. But it will also be necessary for us to pursue reconciliation with those with whom we differed, to repair relationships that have frayed, and always to let civility replace hostility. To the extent that I am able, I will lead this effort by example.” ~ Terry Sullivan, UVA President, Letter to faculty, July 2012

30. Stress and Performance

31. Social Awareness and Relationship Management • Noticing and understanding the emotional signals of others • Realizing our impact on others • Interacting in constructive ways • Moving the emotions of others in positive directions

32. Recent examples of EQ in action“great leadership works through the emotions…leaders with social skill build rapport with others to move them in desired directions”

33. Small Group Discussion • To what extent do you think “emotional intelligence” is important in the nonprofit sector? • What are a few specific examples of where “EQ” would be important in your agency? • What impacts have you noticed from EQ in leadership (or impacts from lack therof)?

34. Next Steps • See you at Challenge Discovery at 9:45am. Bring your lunch! • I’ll send you the articles on EQ to read prior to the December retreat • Make plans to have your dog, kids, email, etc. etc taken care of for Nov 29 & 30 • Work on getting the LPI 360 set up with your raters.