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Heather Carpenter has served as a Nonprofit Manager, Consultant, Speaker and Trainer to nonprofit organizations in California and Illinois for over 6 years. She earned her Masters of Management in Nonprofit Administration from North Park University in Chicago, Illinois and is currently pursuing her PhD in Leadership at the University of San Diego. 
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I attended CompassPoint’s annual conference last week–Nonprofit Day. The key note speaker was Jim Collins, author of, “Good to Great,” and “Good to Great in the Social Sectors”. He is so inspiring and he is an academic!! I aspire to be like him because he presents his research findings in relevant terms to nonprofit and businesses alike.
Jim challenged to strive for greatness in our organizations. He spoke about the difference between good and great organizations. He said great organizations have leaders who are disciplined, they focus on the who first and then the what. They have passionate ambition, and humility!! These leaders focus on building a great team of people around them and placing the right people on their bus.
I love the analogy Jim used about how we need to do clock building in our organizations so the clock will be able to run when we are no longer there. I’ve seen too many organizations struggle or almost fail because the founding Executive Director or a key leader left the organization. As a result, I am a strong advocate of putting systems and people in place so organizations can continue and be great without me. Turnover is so prevalent in the nonprofit sector!
Jim said that great leaders are able to reflect on how far they have come but also realize where they need to go. These leaders never unwaiver in their faith even with all the obstacles and time constraints they face. So, for all of us who love our to do lists, he encouraged us to create a stop doing list. This stop doing list will help us deal with our greatest issue of not having enough time.
One of the top companies that Jim writes about in his book, “Good to Great and the Social Sectors,” is Southwest Airlines. In a time when the majority of airlines are struggling, Southwest shows amazing greatness which goes beyond the airline industry. On a personal note, My husband is currently a pilot at a commuter airline and his dream job is working for Southwest. I asked him the other day why he though Southwest was such a great company to work for. He told me Southwest is great because they put their employees first. By putting their employees first, Southwest has happy employees and as a result happy employees are great at their jobs!
As I reflect on Jim’s talk, I realize many authors have written books about what the qualities are of great leaders, however unfortunately the majority of organizations and companies we come into contact with on a daily basis aren’t great, they slide by with their mediocre work environments and bottom line numbers. We need to stop this mediocrity and create, as well as run great organizations. A leading expert in the nonprofit sector recently wrote on his blog, “We need less non-profits, not more.” I would rather him say–we need less mediocre nonprofits and more great organizations, because great organizations have happier staff and are more effective at their work!! Phone cards
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I like the idea of putting systems (and people) in place so that there is not just one person guiding a team or organization.
I’m a big fan of structure. I think this often gets lost in todays fast-paced flat organizations. Yes, peopl eneed to learn to adapt. Yes people need to think on their feet. But without some underlying structure to guide them, mass confusion and fear is the result. You need standards and procedures. You don’t have to live-or-die by them, and they can’t be written in stone, but they should at least be written on paper. Then people can use their creativity and flexibility to adapt the existing structure to each situation without having to always re-invent the wheel.
I’ve seen too many motivational speakers and too many motivational books say that it all abbout “attitude”. They seem to say that if people have the right attitude then they will be motivated and sucessful. They say that if you make your employees happy, then they will perform well. It’s actually the other way around. If you give them the tools and training to perform well, then they will be happy.
A great book to read is “Why Employees Don’t Do What They’re Supposed To Do And What To Do About It” by Ferdinand F. Fournies. He provides 16 different reasons people don’t do their job, and what you can do about it.
If you put a structure in place that addresses each on of these 16 reasons, then I bet you’ll have a great company.
Scott, there is definitely truth in what you say. Giving tools and training to perform well can make employees happy. However, if I’m a manager I could care less if my employee is happy and underperforming. The only incentive managers have to keep employees happy is that they will perform at a higher level. Tools and training are important, but effectively managing your employees is the key to keeping them happy, and in turn performing at a higher level.
I guess I’m framing this as a substance-over-style sort of argument.
People are generally happier when they can do useful work. If a company gives them the opportunity to do good work (places them in the right job position, gives them the tools and the training, consistently applies the rules, gives clear instructions, etc) then they will perform well, and therefore be happy. This is the “substance”.
If a company tries to make people happy with parties, inane gifts, team luncheons, silly team building retreats, then it’s not going to work. People still have to go back to work afterwards. And if the work related issues aren’t addressed, making them ‘happy’ for a while won’t make them better performers. This is the “style” side of the argument.
I was confused by your last sentence. Isn’t providing tools and training pretty much what a manager does? Maybe I’m defining ‘tools’ too broadly. For example, having a process where goals are clearly defined (like a good performance review process for example) could be defined as a tool, because the employee can use that tool to focus his work.
Going back to topic of the original post: once you have these tools (structure, procedures, etc) in place, then you have a company that ‘runs itself’ without too much dependency on one person.
Agreed, parties, gifts and fake praise don’t work because people know they are phony. Important and meaningful work on the other hand will keep employees happy and productive.
When I discuss managers needing to “manage” rather than just provide tools and training, I am talking about the human aspect. Managers need to create a relationship with their subordinates that goes beyond tools and training. Good performance reviews are nice, but the best managers go above and beyond the typical, company mandated processes.
That being said, structure and procedures are completely neccesary to create the decentralized environment that needs to happen. Just don’t forget to manage.
Good points.