This BoardSource blog post tackles the issue of proactive succession planning. Learn more about the board's role in preparation, leader development, and planning for the future of your organization.
Strategic Planning
Everyone agrees – well-led organizations do more good in the world than organizations that aren't well-led. But what about leadership change, how does that fit into the picture? Executive Transition: Trauma or Transformation? (©2011 Common Ground, North Carolina Center for Nonprofits) will give you practices that reduce risk and boost positive change, even transformation, during transition.
The job of the nonprofit executive is one of the most rewarding. It's also among the most challenging, requiring a deep passion for the work and the ability to juggle competing demands, sustain multiple relationships, and manage a very possibly under-resourced infrastructure. Failed executive transitions often cause repeated executive turnover, loss of organizational focus and momentum, and extended periods of underperformance. This resource outlines how to approach executive transitions intentionally and mitigate these negative outcomes.
Nonprofit executive directors often wonder if it's the right time to leave. Maybe the demands of the job seem ever more burdensome, or the board seems increasingly dissatisfied, or the ticking of the retirement clock is getting louder.
Leaders are often in denial about when their effectiveness is losing its edge and when is the appropriate time to leave. "The Importance of Linking Leadership Succession, Strategy, and Governance" offers an overview of the challenges and three common dilemmas in leadership succession. (Nonprofit Quarterly)
Why Boards Don't Govern, Part 1 by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services: "In the aftermath of every “nonprofit mismanagement” news story is the question: Why didn’t the board do something? Yet the boards of the nonprofits recently headlined with scandals did not do any less than most nonprofit boards. The reality is that most nonprofit boards are ineffective in their governing function. Only when gross mismanagement occurs does a failure at governance come to the fore."&nbs
In Why Boards Don't Govern, Part 2 (CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, 2006), Jan Masaoka and Mike Allison advocate for board to receive at least part of their information from someone else besides the Executive Director, how to improve board meetings, encourage question asking, and qualities to look for when recruiting. See also Part 1 of the Board Café series on Why Boards Don't Govern.
TCC Group's original briefing paper, Ten Keys to Successful Strategic Planning for Nonprofit and Foundation Leaders, offered ten keys to successul strategic planning, explored what strategic planning is and isn't, and outlined the components of a successful plan.
Does your organization need a strategic plan or a refresh of your current plan? Use this framework for a basic strategic plan from Free Management Library to craft a goals-based document.
Network 180's request for proposal for a strategic planning consultant provides a sample you can adapt for your own organization.