Leadership IS most important after all

I ran across a report today which identified leadership as the most reliable indicator of a nonprofit organization’s sustainability.  This falls in line with what I’ve experienced, though I am always thrilled when my gut aligns with evidence!

I had the opportunity to speak for a couple of minutes at my MBA commencement, and I spoke to some of the lessons I had learned about leadership.  I thought it might be nice to share these ideas with you all, to see what else you would add!  So here’s an excerpt from my speech.

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I’d like to share some of the things I learned through my Ross experience that I suspect will be useful for the rest of my life, and hopefully will be beneficial to you too.

First, realize that the job of a leader is not to come up with the best ideas. It is to recognize the best ideas in the room. Although it can be difficult, try to use the same level of skepticism on your own ideas that you willingly apply to everyone else’s. At the end of the day, your success will be judged on the final product – not where it came from.

Second, never doubt the potential of the people around you. Brilliance will never be limited by race, gender, education or salary grade. Grant everyone the opportunity to discover a potential above and beyond their own expectations.

Third, recognize that there will be tradeoffs. You will never have an opportunity to do everything you’d like to, or be able to implement things perfectly. Recognize the tradeoffs you make, and be sure they don’t compromise your values or your dreams. At the end of the day, you have to be able to live with yourself.

Fourth, get involved. There will be many opportunities for you to add value to your workplace and to your community. Truthfully, you will likely get far more from this experience than you ever put in. Don’t wait until you have the time, money or status to do this. Start now; your community needs you.

Last but not least, be flexible. As business students, we are, in general, very goal-oriented people. Life, however, is rarely as straight-forward as we plan for it to be. Be willing to make the left turns when they come. Make sure you take time to laugh, enjoy the present, and give thanks even in the toughest of times for the many blessings you have been given.

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So what would you add?  What would you alter?

And so a new adventure begins…

I am beginning this blog as a nonprofit professional seeking to learn new and better ways to create social change, believing that others might find it useful for their own professional development.

My experience with the nonprofit sector began as a volunteer at the Boys & Girls Clubs.  Let me be clear: I am not one of those people who loved kids and so sought out the nearest afterschool program.  I was asked to volunteer, and my first response: “I don’t really like babysitting.”  That was being mild; I loathed babysitting.  Nonetheless, I gave it a try and by the time I graduated from college, I had volunteered more than 500 hours and accepted a staff position with the organization.  I had come to see firsthand that Boys & Girls Clubs save lives – every day, one child at a time.

Over the course of several years, I was promoted to the position of Unit Director, where I was responsible for opening a new club location inside of an area public school.  This meant taking responsibility for everything from developing the budget and raising the needed funds to managing staff and measuring program outcomes.  This was a tremendous experience, which demonstrated to me both how much I was capable of doing and how much I had yet to learn.

At this point, I decided to pursue my Masters in Business Administration (MBA).  I wanted to find new ways to (1) better retain and build the talent within the sector, having found the people to be the sector’s most significant asset, and (2) better market the work being done, thereby mobilizing greater financial resources for these efforts.  Through the program, I also received instruction on the basics of running a business (such as finance, operations and accounting).

What I didn’t expect from this experience was to develop a love  for the city of Detroit.  You’ve read about the city in the news, no doubt, as it struggles with a shrinking population, corrupt politicians, and an education system that fails its students, – not to mention the troubles with the auto industry.  What you don’t hear often enough, though, are those people committed to defining a new Detroit.  The city’s motto is “Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus” or “We hope for better things; it shall rise from the ashes.”  There are so many stories of people who are taking what seems like an insurmountable problem and finding immense opportunity.  To those people, I say: Count me in!

And so I begin this new chapter of my life, this new adventure filled with hope and challenge, and I look to make myself the best person I can be so that I can do the work that is so badly needed.  I hope you find the golden nuggets within this blog that help you to do your own work better, and that you’ll challenge me a long the way, pushing me to find a better version of myself.