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Leadership in Focus: Vic Murray
By Elisa Birnbaum
March 3, 2008This month in our Leadership in Focus series we feature Vic Murray. As director of the Voluntary Sector Management Program at York University, he developed several of the first certificate and masters level courses in that field. Currently an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria’s School of Public Administration, he is also the driving force behind the Voluntary Sector Knowledge Network. An active consultant, volunteer and researcher, Vic is the author of more than 100 books, articles, and papers in the fields of organizational behaviour and nonprofit management.
Charity Village: Do you think being a leader in the nonprofit sector differs from leading other sectors?
Vic Murray: Not in the sense that the same kind of skills and abilities are needed but, yes, in that the number and kinds of issues and challenges are different. There are a number of ways that leadership in the sector is different, making it more difficult. First, this sector is more driven by mission and values. Right at the very centre of a nonprofit is the cause or the main mission of the organization, whereas in the business sector there’s an equally big piece, which is the bottom line, the profit motive. So, in the nonprofit world what’s driving you is, “I want to save the world, I want to cure cancer, help the homeless.”
Second, in achieving the mission, there are often multiple vague and difficult-to-measure objectives. So the mission might be to help people with cancer, but how are you going to help them? You can educate the public or put an emphasis on helping people with cancer, or you can focus on research to end cancer. And it’s tough to measure just how well you’re reaching your goals because they are so vague. Whereas in the business world, the bottom line is: did you make your financial targets or didn’t you?
Third, there’s the lack of a bottom line in the way of a market driven business. Fourth, there's the fact that a lot of organizations have to work with volunteers who are not getting paid, don’t have an employment contract, and are sometimes hard to manage. And fifth, nonprofit boards are difficult to manage. Most business boards are made up of people with some expertise in the industry, but most nonprofits boards are made up of well-meaning volunteers who love the cause, want to help, but as for having any expertise in running a hospital or providing aid to the third world, they don’t.
CV: What can organizations do to better foster future leaders?
VM: I think there are really two questions here: what is desirable to do and what’s actually feasible? I can list a bunch of things that are desirable but nonprofits can respond and say, “I have no time, I have no money.” So the two things that are desirable and feasible and are not done enough, in my opinion, are mentoring and executive director networks. A few places in Canada are slowly figuring out that if you can bring a group of executive directors together and sit them done and ask, ‘what’s on your mind, what do you need, what are your concerns?’ and then work to help bring them resources when they do have a consensus, that helps a lot. It’s a lonely job and they don’t usually have people they can be close to and talk to about their problems. As for mentoring, a coach or a mentor is not judging them in any, is not in any position of authority, but is wise and experienced. So an ED can share with them their frustrations and concerns and have someone who can listen and help them explore.
Beyond that, selecting people with the right training and experience is great and desirable. But feasibly, there are so few programs in the country that provide that training. So you can get someone with a lot of experience, but other countries are doing so much better in providing programs that give some kind of systematic training to future leaders.
CV: Why do you think so few are willing to step up and identify themselves as leaders?
VM: It’s difficult to find satisfactory candidates. There are so few places for people to go to prepare themselves. Most who come into this sector do it because they’re committed to a mission, but they don’t have any experience in managing. And the nonprofits know they need leadership but don’t know how to get it. The other thing is there is so little succession planning and intra training and development available, mostly because of the lack of money. Bigger and well-resourced outfits probably do it but it’s a matter of opportunity and resources.
There are some schools with nonprofit management programs, but not many. York University has it within their MBA program but there are fewer than a dozen graduates a year. And Toronto’s Ryerson has a program, as does Calgary’s Mount Royal College, but you can almost count them on the fingers of one hand. If the sector was better organized they could have an umbrella organization that really stood out and could make noise.
CV: How has the nonprofit sector evolved over the years and what are the main challenges it faces today?
VM: There’s no question it’s grown over the past 20 years. It’s become more competitive in the sense of competing for funds, and has experienced a greater demand for accountability from stakeholders, government, foundations, and even clients groups. And it’s more professionally managed. In sub-sectors like social services, there is a greater demand for services due to government devolution - governments everywhere have stopped delivering services and contracted with nonprofits to do it. And demand has grown, but not necessarily the money, so there’s a pressure to meet demand with limited resources.
The challenges are: meeting competition; getting better at fundraising; learning how to do evaluations; assess the performance of organizations; finding enough staff, volunteers and management - because there are shortages in all those areas; and trying to hammer out a better partnership with government. In Britain, for example, the Charities Commission has a much stronger voice vis-à-vis government and they put their problems in a more unified way and get a better response. The same commission works hard at keeping the sector efficient too.
CV: You’ve been involved in a lot of research in the nonprofit sector, most recently revolving around board chairs. What has your research said about the specific personality traits or qualities that make them effective or ineffective leaders?
VM: When we asked EDs, the most common thing they said about excellent board chairs was, 'they took time with me and they listened.' [EDs] could lay out their concerns and when they did, the chairs made suggestions, never orders. Ineffective leaders were either of two kinds: passive, going through the motion, “I’m just here to chair the board, don’t bug me” or “do what I say, here’s the answer.” So they were egotistical and dictatorial on the one side or just way too introverted and passive on the other.
In terms of personality traits, effective board chairs had a certain charismatic quality and magnetism that most people could identify with. And they were usually pretty outgoing, calm, sharp, and exuded a trustworthiness. They think about the big picture; they can see beyond the details and see what’s going on. And many of them were seen as having a sense of humour.
But there were some occasions where, in spite of having all that, the chair still couldn’t have a lot of influence because either the CEO was too dominant or some boards don’t turn over very often. A new chair may say they want to shake things up but the old board [members] are digging in their heels, often quite passively, but you can tell they’re sitting with arms folded.
CV: That said, do you think board chairs can truly influence an organization and, if so, how can organizations improve their chances of choosing effective leaders?
VM: They can, but they’re not always successful. A chair’s role has no inherent power on its own. A chair can bring something up with the board and try to persuade it but there’s no authority. But if they are really good, chairs make their biggest impact in an informal way, through their interactions and behind-the-scenes work.
As far as improving their chances of choosing effective leaders, we’re still researching this question but logically, yes, there are a few things they can do, though it’s like improving the chances in a lottery. It’s still a bit of a crap shoot but you can improve the odds. One: get a proper job description for the job of the chair and try to identify the qualifications you want in a chair and be more explicit about it. Two: develop a succession plan. Make sure the next board chair gets good exposure to what’s required when they eventually take over. Three: evaluate the board’s own performance, which a lot of boards don’t do. In the process of doing that, the group should be asking themselves who should be encouraged as a future chair. And four: when you recruit regular, everyday board members, try to pick them with an eye to their future leadership potential.
CV: Who are your leadership mentors?
VM: There are some that everyone is aware of as leaders, famous people such as Churchill, Ghandi and Mandela. Then there are mentors on a personal level. There’s a professor at York, Mel Moyer, to whom I dedicated my book. He turned me onto this sector. All through his life he was active in this sector and he started the idea of providing some kind of nonprofit leadership training.
And then there’s Wayne Stewart, executive director of the Calgary Homeless Foundation. Over the past 15 or more years since he retired from Shell, he pumped that organization up from a few million in assets to multimillion in assets. He’s an inspirational guy.
CV: What books or resources about leadership would you recommend to others?
VM: My book, The Management of Non-Profit and Charitable Organizations in Canada, has some chapters dedicated specifically to leadership. The other resource is the one I have put together over the past number of years called the Voluntary Sector Knowledge Network. It’s an effort to put, in one place, links to the best websites on leadership and other topics in managing nonprofits.
Another book that is explicitly about leadership skills, like managing conflict and communicating better, is a textbook called Developing Management Skills, by David Whetton and Kim Cameron.
Elisa Birnbaum is a freelance journalist, producer and communications consultant living in Toronto. She can be reached at: esbirnbaum@gmail.com.
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