Leadership Skills and Knowledge of Leaders Qualities of leaders - - PDF document

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Leadership Succession Planning

Agenda

• Introductions
• Several Paradigm Comments
• Why Succession Planning?
• What do we ask leaders to do?
• Skills and Knowledge of Leaders
• Qualities of leaders
• FourThings to Implement Right Away
• Conclusions

Conservation Consulting Group

• Founded in 2009 as a partnership of friends
• Guided Organizational Assessments
• Strategic Planning
• Accreditation Preparation

Conservation Consulting Group

Nancy Moore, Managing Partner

• More than 30 years of experience in nonprofit leadership

and management

• Nonprofit consultant for more than a decade
• Senior Examiner for The Lincoln Foundation of Illinois
• International adventure travel expedition leader
• Board member of Big City Mountaineers.

Conservation Consulting Group

David Allen

• 30 years raising money by asking

– 13 with TNC Chapters in OR, TX, and WI – 10 with Sand County Foundation

• Membership Systems to $18MM Capital Campaign
• Consulting PT since 2004; FT since March 2009

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Job Responsibilities of a Board Director

• Governance
• Management
• Fundraising
• Celebration

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Board Roles

• Strategic
• (Boundary) Management
• Fiduciary
• Resource Acquisition
• Represent the Public Interest

Staff Roles

• President/Executive Director

(Day-to-Day Management)

• Land Acquisition
• Preserve Management/Easement Monitoring
• Newsletter/Communications
• Membership Management
• Grant-writing
• Volunteer Management

SHIFT

Staff roles are often filled by volunteers who are not paid. This fact alone does not make them Board roles.

Why Succession Planning?

• Make Conservation Work Permanent
• Assure that the Board’s collective talent

and experience is always sufficient to meet the changing needs of the

• rganization

Succession Plan means that when leaders leave, everyone else knows what to do regardless of the degree to which the vacancy is anticipated.

What do w e ask leaders to do?

• Organize productive work experience for

everyone else

• Assure engagement
• Assure the group moves forward as a

group (nobody left behind)

• Facilitate discussion and even debate as

needed to make good decisions

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Skills and Know ledge

• Good with People (Fundraising and

Communications)

• Knows the Business of Conservation
• Knows the Organization
• Good Facilitator

Qualities

• Authentic interest (passion) for the mission
• Generalist
• Strategic Thinker
• Critical Thinker (Good analytic skills)
• Good judgment
• Sense of humor
• Curiosity (Not afraid to ask questions)
• Listens well

Four Things

• Rethink the Recruitment Process
• Rethink the Orientation
• Become a Standard Bearer
• Board Evaluations

1 Rethink the Recruitment Process

What do Board Members Do?

• Board Directors

– Attend all board meetings and events. – Serve on at least one committee. – Give money. – Raise money. – Advocate. – Adopt major gift prospects to cultivate. – Know the projects. Know the finances. – Go on a monitoring visit each year.

Remember

• Recruit from your existing supporters
• Recruit LEADERS- people others will

respect, take seriously, and follow.

• Board service is a major gift – for the

donor

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Remember

• The people you need most are probably

not available to you right away.

• They need to be introduced to the idea,

wooed, and ultimately solicited. (Sounds like donor development)

2 Rethink the Orientation Re-Think

• Re-Think in terms of showing new board

members what you want them to know.

• Re-Think in terms of helping them practice

enough to get proficient.

• Re-Think in terms of helping them create

the story they will tell others.

Checklist Items

• Sit in on one meeting of each board

committee,

• Serve for a year on the Finance

Committee,

• Visit a project site,
• Develop and practice an “elevator

speech,”

• Call a donor to say thank you,
• Get to know a set of donor prospects,
• Attend an organizational event.

2A Serve on the Finance Committee for the first year 3 Become a Standard Bearer

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Job of Standard Bearer

• One report on a land trust standard at

least every four years.

– Are we compliant? – Are we consistent? – Do we know what to do? – Are we sustainable?

Job of Standard Bearer

Without reservation, I believe this

• rganization is compliant with both the letter

and the spirit of the standard. The By-Laws, mission, plans, and policies are all internally consistent, and I have seen evidence that we apply them consistently as needs and

• pportunities present themselves.

4 Board Evaluations Four Things

• Rethink the Recruitment Process
• Rethink the Orientation
• Become a Standard Bearer
• Board Evaluations

Conservation Consulting Group Nancy Moore, 608-630-8553 David Allen, 608-239-5006

• Strategic Planning
• Board Development
• Assessments
• Coaching and Mentoring