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Hiring the Senior Executive: tools and resources for every organization
February 10, 2003
By Louise Chatterton Luchuk
President and CEO. Executive director. Administrator. The senior executive title changes from organization to organization. The constant, however, is the importance of hiring the right person to lead the organization. What skills and competencies do today’s senior executives need to possess? How does an organization plan for an effective hiring process? What tools and resources are out there?
The leadership potential
"First and foremost, look at leadership. We need leaders who can take us from one place to the next." These words of counsel come from Gerry Davies, a founding principal of the firm Davies Park, executive search consultants based in Edmonton and Calgary. Davies has been involved for close to 30 years in recruiting senior executives for both the private and nonprofit sectors. He and his colleagues firmly believe in giving back to the community and sit on the boards of many nonprofit organizations including the Alberta Lung Association, the Edmonton Art Gallery, the Alberta Alzheimer Society and the United Way. Davies notes that although the skill set required by today’s senior executives is much different than 10 years ago, many nonprofits are still hiring "the same old, same old but that doesn’t get you the same level of creativity. With so many nonprofits vying for funds and volunteers, organizations need the edge of a creative leader."
The most crucial step in finding the creative leader
Before any job ads are placed or interviews conducted, Davies says that boards of directors must identify the issues they face, the goals they need to meet and the challenges they need to overcome. He encourages boards to look ahead and identify where they want to be positioned. Essentially Davies says, "You said you want to go there; therefore, you need someone to take you there." Develop a profile of the position and the right person to fill the position from these discussions. This is the most crucial step because the profile guides the entire hiring process. For instance, as Davies points out, interview questions need to be developed against the profile. And when conducting reference checks, the profile shapes those questions, too: "This is what we want accomplished, have you seen the candidate accomplish this?"
How long does it take to develop the profile and then attract candidates, short list and interview, check references and make the offer to the preferred candidate? Davies says that organizations need to set aside a realistic amount of time, usually three to four months.
Hiring an organization’s very first senior staff person
While Davies works with larger nonprofit organizations, the importance of pre-search planning is just as crucial for smaller organizations. In August 2001, after a three-month hiring process, the Learning Disabilities Association of Windsor-Essex hired its very first senior staff person (prior to receiving Trillium Foundation funding, the group had functioned for close to ten years on the strength of a committed group of volunteers).
The board consisted of people with a strong sense of the organization’s mandate and therefore "a very clear sense of what needed to be done and what would be a good fit," explains Janis Dominato, board member at the time of the hiring process and current board president. The association was also fortunate to have board members with relevant professional experience with regards to hiring. They divided up the pre-search planning so that board members did not have to work alone and weren’t overwhelmed with work. Dominato recommends this approach to any organization doing this on the strength of volunteer commitment and time.
Leslie Reid, president during the hiring stage, points out that the difference for organizations hiring for the first time is that there can be a lot of logistical considerations to simultaneously contend with: searching for suitable office space, purchasing furniture and equipment, setting up the office and hiring part-time support staff. Therefore, it’s very important to allow adequate time for the process.
Skills and competencies
Small or large, emerging or well-established, all nonprofit organizations will benefit from the research and tools being developed by the National Learning Initiative, headed by the Coalition of National Voluntary Organizations (NVO) in partnership with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges and supported by the Voluntary Sector Initiative. The project plans to address the lack of information available in the voluntary sector about skills and competencies for leaders and a similar lack of information about education and training opportunities. Bev Suderman, a senior project manager at the NVO, enthusiastically explains, "This is the first time the voluntary sector is driving a process like this. Others have done it for us in the past."
Organizers made a call for nominations in summer 2002 to identify exemplary leaders who were paid staff in the voluntary sector. More than 390 nominations came back. Suderman and her colleagues then sent invitations to 1001 leaders from across the sector for a series of two-day focus groups. In five sessions across the country, the participants identified experiences where they felt strongest as leaders and then analyzed what skills and competencies were required.
Currently, the research phase is wrapping up and the Towards a Framework of Competencies for Leadership in the Voluntary Sector report is slated to be released in early March.
Practical tools
The next phase of the project involves developing a sample self-assessment tool for those looking to move into leadership roles within the voluntary sector. Sample job descriptions based on the core competencies as well as a performance appraisal tool are in the works, too. In cooperation with the community college system, there will also be specific learning outcomes developed to enhance the quality of education and training available to voluntary sector leaders.
The Towards a Framework of Competencies for Leadership in the Voluntary Sector report affirms that today’s organizations and their leaders "have an expanded focus on leading effective social change, they are accountable to many more groups, they must collaborate more, relationships are more complex, and funders are shifting their focus and priorities." To accomplish these responsibilities, nonprofit organizations need to be hiring the right people with the right leadership skills. The resources and tools developed by the National Learning Initiative should play an invaluable role in supporting nonprofit leaders and the crucial planning conducted by organizations looking to hire them.
Louise Chatterton Luchuk is a freelance writer and consultant who combines her love of writing with experience at the local, provincial and national levels of volunteer-involving organizations. For more information, visit www.luchuk.com.
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