The Three Phases of the Nonprofit Executive Succession Timeline

by

Executive director succession — the process of managing turnover in a nonprofit’s chief executive position — involves a range of decisions, actions, and events that unfold over a year or more. The process begins with the incumbent executive’s decision to leave (or the board’s decision to make a leadership change) and doesn’t conclude until the successor has settled into the role.

A well-planned executive succession involves three phases: sustaining, transitioning, and onboarding & support, as shown in the graphic below. The timing of these phases can vary based on the executive’s departure circumstances, the organization’s size and condition, whether a successor is waiting in the wings, and other factors.

Read more

Webinar Replay: Nonprofit Succession Planning Made Easy

by

In this 60-minute webinar offered by GRF CPAs & Advisors, Trevor W. Williams, CPA and Don Tebbe cover: The three approaches to executive succession planning and their application What succession planning can do for your organization and which type would be best for your situation/needs The key steps to put “Succession Essentials” in place: a board-adopted … Read more

What You’re Not Doing About Employee Retention May Be Costing You

by

Nonprofits need to get serious about employee retention. That’s the takeaway message from an important recent study by Nonprofit HR.

The 2019 Talent Retention Practices Survey chronicles staff retention strategies and practices in over 350 organizations from across the US (and some from Canada). Respondents were evenly distributed across the spectrum from small employers (fewer than 10 employees) to large (more than 500 employees), and across budget sizes, from less than $1 million to more than $40 million.

The report is one of the first (if not the first) to identify and quantify the challenges around employee retention in nonprofits.

Read more

Developing Nonprofit Leaders

by

I’m delighted to be Mary Hiland’s guest on Episode #23 of her podcast, Inspired Nonprofit Leadership. Our topic is nonprofit leadership development. Here are the points that we cover: The three big myths about leadership development. The 70-20-10 model of learning and development and how you can use it. “Owning” your career versus “renting it,” … Read more

The time to start planning for leadership succession… is NOW!

by

It’s unavoidable. Your nonprofit’s executive leader will leave sooner or later, maybe even sooner than you think. And yet, if your nonprofit is like most, a succession plan has not been discussed.

Fewer than 20% of nonprofits have a succession plan in place for their chief executive position, even though there’s a 100% chance the executive will leave the role eventually.

Too often considered an awkward or uncomfortable conversation, many choose to avoid the topic. While ignoring the subject leaves the organization ill-prepared when the inevitable happens, preparing for succession opens up a whole range of dialogues that lead to a stronger, more resilient organization.

This article addresses how to prepare for a smooth transition regardless of how or when your executive leaves.

Read more

Review – Joan Garry’s Guide to Nonprofit Leadership

by

When was the last time you read a book on nonprofit leadership – or a book on leadership of any kind, for that matter – that made you laugh out loud, tugged your heartstrings, and compelled you to keep reading? Maybe never, right? That’s about to change if you pick up a copy of Joan Garry’s Guide to Nonprofit Leadership (Because Nonprofits Are Messy).

You’ll be treated to over 200 pages of wisdom, wittily written. Here are my chapter-by-chapter takeaways:

Read more

Leadership Transitions: How to Avoid the Mess

by

Don Tebbe is Joan Garry’s guest for Episode 29 of her podcast, Nonprofits are Messy. Here’s the link: Leadership Transitions: How to Avoid the Mess. Join Don and Joan for a lively discussion that covers:

  • Recent trends in leadership transitions in the nonprofit sector
  • How to create a WRITTEN succession plan (and why it’s critical)
  • The single biggest mistake boards make in succession planning
  • The three things a board needs to do when confronted with a transition
  • Pros and cons of hiring internal candidates
  • What to do if you think you made the wrong hire

Read more

Developing Leaders, Developing Successors

by

There are two pervasive myths – false assumptions – that are holding back the development of leaders in the nonprofit sector.

The first myth is that leader development is too complicated and too expensive, which makes it the exclusive domain of the “big guys.” In other words, it’s for those mythic “other” nonprofits. You know, the ones with unlimited resources, lots of staff and plenty of time to do things… Just, not us.

The second myth is that organizations develop leaders. Behind this myth is the idea that leader development is something that the organization provides or does to its people. Unfortunately, this myth is causing many people to postpone leadership development actions that they could be taking today because they’ve bought into the false belief that it’s up to their organization to provide some sort of program or send them to a course that will magically turn them into a leader.

This case study interview dispels both of those myths. We will be talking with Allison Bogdanovic, who is executive director of Virginia Supportive Housing (virginiasupportivehousing.org) in Richmond, Virginia.

Read more

Six Nonprofit CEO Succession Readiness Questions

by

In preparing for nonprofit CEO succession, too often timing gets confused with readiness. A prior post (“Three Phases of the CEO Succession Timeline”) makes a distinction between timing and readiness, pointing out that they are different but related things. For succession purposes, timing has to do with the sequencing of events while readiness has to do with the willingness to change and the preparation to navigate change. If you are a nonprofit CEO planning to retire, succession readiness involves preparing yourself and your organization for the transition process leading up to your departure as well as preparing for what’s on the other side of the departure threshold — for both you and your organization.

Read more

Five Barriers Between You and Your Life’s Next Chapter

by

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s been impossible to avoid the media stories about the massive wave of baby boomers heading towards retirement. But underlying these stories are some striking facts that signal a major change in leadership in enterprises and institutions throughout the country. The median age for an S&P 500 CEO is 55. Three-fifths of senior federal executives are, or shortly will be, eligible for retirement. And, it’s estimated that two-thirds of our nation’s nonprofit leaders are age 60 or older.

As these leaders head towards the traditional retirement threshold, the situations and opportunities they face are dramatically different than those faced by any previous generation. For a host of reasons, traditional retirement is not the choice of many Boomers, nonprofit leaders included. Here are a few of those reasons:

Read more