Whether your association, charity or not-for-profit staff or board is on autopilot, or whether you are just stuck in a rut when it comes to coming up with an effective and creative way to address an opportunity, challenge or niggling problem, here are a few approaches you could try at your next meeting or board retreat.
Applicants for a job will recognize that common interview question: “Why did you leave your last employer?”
In my consulting work I have discovered a number of valid reasons why one should consider moving on from a job. Years ago I did research on why good employees get fired and heard from executives on reasons why they should have left a job sooner. I’ve continued to talk with individuals who have exited a role because it was no longer the right job for them.
Here is a suggested list of factors that may point to the need to get on with that next chapter in your professional career.
Most associations seek member feedback. Many take this feedback into account in their planning activities….but if this information doesn’t get back to members, all that hard work will have been for nothing. This in mind, there are a number of effective ways to communicate your association’s strategy as an ongoing means to keep members in the loop about what is happening and how their needs and priorities drive the agenda…
Like many folks, you probably do a lot when it comes to gathering stakeholder feedback: You see and make a point of talking to members at association events. Perhaps you make it a habit to pick up the phone or drop in on members periodically to talk to them one-on-one. Maybe you even survey or poll them internally on their satisfaction with events, programs or new issues coming down the pipe.
These are all very important tools to keep your association connected to members on an ongoing basis…but what about when it comes to your planning activities? Typically, member feedback is used as a peripheral driver of the process, if it’s used at all.
The value in planning is not in creating strategy but in implementing it. The purpose of planning includes seeing the positive, tangible results accruing to the organization by instituting and achieving strategic change.
Yet too many organizations see their planning process fail. The strategic plan sits ignored on a bookshelf; the volunteers and staff involved lament the wasted money and lost time in a failed process, understandably reluctant to repeat the same experience again.
Outstanding leaders in the not-for-profit sector have common characteristics. Certainly they must be aligned with their employer’s mission and be a compelling advocate who engages others in that mandate. They must be effective communicators. Leaders engender confidence. What else are not-for-profit boards seeking in staff leaders?
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