Leadership in Focus: Paula Speevak-Sladowski
By Elisa Birnbaum
September 8, 2009
This month in our Leadership in Focus series, we feature Paula Speevak-Sladowski, managing director of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development (CVSRD). With more than 25 years of experience in the sector, including a stint as ED of Volunteer Ottawa, Paula has been tirelessly dedicated to building capacity and giving the nonprofit sector a strong, sustainable voice.
CharityVillage: What do you see as the main challenges facing the nonprofit sector today? Have they evolved over the years?
Paula Speevak-Sladowski: For one, there are many people who have a notion that there can be national leadership and that the sector has an interest in having a relationship with the federal government. While I do appreciate that, one of our challenges is the nature of the sector; most of the relationships that local community organizations (close to 70% of organizations) have is with their province or territory, whether with regard to funding or legislation. And, of course, locally they have relationships with municipal governments or other networks they're involved with. So I think the challenge has been a reluctance and a slowness on the part of certain organizations and leaders to recognize that that's where the action is for many organizations. Therefore, leadership needs to be more distributed than centralized.
Where I've seen progress is that I feel, over time, [the sector] has strengthened in provinces and territories. Networks of nonprofit organizations in provinces and territories have strengthened. Many leadership organizations in those places, while they may not be robust and some look small, are there and have presence. And I think what's exciting is their provincial and territorial government counterparts are really interested and acknowledging them. There have been huge strides in engaging government and government taking interest in deliberate relationships with the sector.
CV: When did you notice this evolution and what triggered it?
PS: I've seen a significant evolution over the past three years. There's been so much discussion about importance of place-based decision-making and involving local citizens in addressing their issues, and a lot of work [has been] done on asset-based community development. The importance of community, neighbourhood, and local has gained momentum so there's more confidence and recognition that people do live in neighbourhoods and communities. I think there's been more confidence and awareness and more research and public policy to support that. And, of course, there are global trends too. All over the world, there's talk about place-based decision-making and the importance of civil society. So I feel that's very positive and very authentic.
"I think those who are still focused on their relationship with the federal government and the importance of national organizations will perpetually be frustrated." |
|
I think those who are still focused on their relationship with the federal government and the importance of national organizations will perpetually be frustrated. Not to say that I think there's no relationship needed or that it's not important at all, but that's not where the energy is right now.
CV: Why is it so important to invest in sustainable leadership and what are some effective ways to pursue it?
PS: It's a challenge in our sector because we are trying to promote leadership organizations and sometimes there's a challenge between whether you promote an individual's profile or an organization's profile. That is a challenge in other sectors as well, but I think it's even more challenging in our sector because we have this mindset or this collective value of "we're in it for other people, not ourselves." People are so reluctant to adopt and support charismatic leaders who by nature have personal charisma. I think that creates some reluctance or discomfort with that kind of leadership and, yet, it's important that we have individuals who feel comfortable coming forward with that.
The other thing about our sector, when you work in an organization, it's your organization's name that you want out there. It's human nature that we can relate to individuals, but relating to an organization as a leader is more challenging. We don't have a parallel system that supports individuals in the same way as, say, the public sector, where the individuals in that sector are the leaders. In the nonprofit sector, it's the sector organizations that people want seen as leaders. But I think it's important to do both, for us to be comfortable supporting individuals who have vision, charisma and passion and feel comfortable that they're not being self-centred or egotistical, but are passionate and trying to create a vision that's engaging. We need to feel more comfortable with supporting that profile of leader, of individuals within our organization.
CV: What current policy or research projects is CVSRD involved in?
PS:
One of the things I'm really excited about is some work we did with the Red Cross Society of Canada, funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. It was on community resiliency and emergency preparedness. I'm excited about it because it really looks at the role of nonprofit organizations in community resiliency: how do we work together and help build assets, the natural strengths of people and places in local communities? [It's] by collaborating and by strengthening the sense of collective voices. When you look at what makes communities resilient, it's really being aware of what strengths they have and not being afraid to talk about their challenges and being able to voice it together.
We've created some products that communities can use. For example, there's a community resiliency activity book and Red Cross also has a framework on community resiliency. Just like businesses have a business continuity plan (what to do if there's an emergency), there are tools that look at service continuity for organizations. How can we, for example, serve meals on wheels or deliver life-preserving equipment, etc. When people think about the role of the nonprofit sector in emergency preparedness, the assumption was that certain organizations have a mandate, without thinking of the broader sector. But when we were doing asset mapping in the community, no one had the yoga centre on their emergency planning committee, and yet they have blankets and mats. So we started to see that organizations have assets that aren't only a value to continuing their own service but could be brought to bear in case of some kind of emergency response, if we were aware and able to mobilize them. You start to broaden the notion and start to be more holistic in your thinking about resiliency, preparedness and your response. I think that's exciting; we're really looking at all the assets and strengths.
Another ongoing major project of ours is the Charities File: On Board. Funded by the CRA, it provides training for rural charities' boards [to help comply with the ITA]. The other project we have is an exchange program with Europe, Canada, Mexico and US with students and faculty around civil society studies. The European exchange started last year but the trilateral one has been going for about five years; it's going very well. And we have a new third-year graduate course in nonprofit and voluntary sector management and governance, offered in June through the School of Public Policy. We condense it all into seven days. It really creates this executive-style training where we have practitioners and graduate students studying together. There's this magic that happens when people in the sector can share their experience with those who are looking at theory and literature. (This year the class filled up in an hour and 20 minutes)
CV: Can you name a major partner with whom you've worked regularly?
PS: In terms of distributive leadership, our key partner is the Canadian Federation of Voluntary Sector Networks. We serve as secretariat for the federation and it's been a real privilege. It served to sensitize us and make us acutely aware of those strengths across the country and the importance of distributive leadership.
CV: Do you think being a leader in the nonprofit sector differs from leading other sectors?
PS: I would say that one of the benefits leaders in the nonprofit sector have that perhaps our counterparts in the public sector don't, is that we are mostly small organizations so we can be flexible and responsive to community needs that change, to some degree (dependent on funding etc.). Many people who've worked in other sectors and have come to our sector say, "Wow, I can be creative. I can really see and make a difference in a short period of time." It's very motivating, unlike in large bureaucracies, particularly in the public sector, where people may not see their individual contribution or its impact.
Also, leaders in our sector need to establish relationships with leaders in the public and private sector. But because many leaders don't necessarily have experience in other sectors, they don't necessarily fully understand the culture and language of those other sectors. So that has been a challenge too, though I think we've come a long way.
CV: Do you feel organizations are doing enough to foster young leaders?
PS: I would say we have a lot more to do. Our organizations and our structures haven't embraced some of the new ways of communicating and engaging people in a more open way. I think we're stuck between, on one hand, this push to be more professional, more accountable, to have stricter and firmer business practices so we can demonstrate that we are being effective, efficient and accountable. That requires structure, guidelines, rules and regulations. On the other hand, what we need to be attractive to younger leaders is to be flexible and more organic and to make space for people to make a difference in our organizations. I think there's some tension between those two things. And though we're being responsible in carrying out the risk management we need, sometimes it's conveyed in a way that is off-putting and unwelcoming and lacks excitement. So there needs to be better balancing.
CV: What is your leadership style or philosophy?
More about Alain Pineau... |
First nonprofit job: Project Genesis in Montreal
Education: Masters of Management in National Voluntary Sector Leadership, in the McGill-McConnell Program
Annual budget of the organization you oversee: $650,000
Number of employees: In the centre itself, four (but we contract with different organizations across the country to help with our projects).
|
|
|
PS: I would say that I'm an egalitarian personally and that probably influences my leadership style. I believe in team leadership and distributed leadership. So I would see my role as a leader as someone who would facilitate and mentor and convene leaders to do work. Whether that's geographically distributed or distributed in a team, I definitely think distributed leadership is closest to my style.
CV: What makes a leader effective?
PS: An effective leader is able to recognize the strengths and unique gifts of the organization or its contribution to society. That has to be very clear. What is our contribution and what are we called to do in this community or society to make it better, and how do we do that? There is clarity of purpose and clarity of the individual strengths of people in the organization who contribute to that. A leader is able to first articulate that purpose and be passionate about it, and then recognize they don't own it themselves. A leader must recognize everyone's leadership qualities and allow space for everyone to lead in their own way.
CV: Do you have any mentors who've inspired you over the years?
PS: Pierre Elliot Trudeau: someone who was able to combine brilliance, passion and vision. And, without question, he was able to articulate what the vision was and had the courage and intellect to see a way forward. Not everyone agreed with him but I do find his absolute clarity and combination of passion and brilliance to be very inspiring.
My Aunt Sylvia: She believed that there was no problem that couldn't be solved over a cup of tea. And I think she was right. Just sit down calmly with a cup of tea and talk about it. She also talked about how women would call people up and say let's have a tea, but somehow having a cup of tea together was a way of offering each other's presence and possibly talking and solving.
Martha Parker: an abundance thinker. She probably didn't invent that term but she certainly lived it, with her work in the sector. There's a sense of not putting boundaries on what you can do. Believe you can do it and then go do it.
Elisa Birnbaum is a freelance journalist, producer and communications consultant living in Toronto. She is also president of Elle Communications and can be reached at: info@ellecommunications.ca.
Next week:
The role of executive coaching in the nonprofit sector.
Click here to learn more about
upcoming cover stories.
