For my final MGNPO paper, I’m tasked with writing a critical review of a book related to nonprofit management. The title that I chose is Managing Leadership Transition for Nonprofits: Passing the Torch to Sustain Organizational Excellence by Dym, Egmont, and Watkins (2011). The following is my outline of the material.

Table of contents

• Chapter 1 - What Makes Nonprofit Leadership So Challenging?
• Chapter 2 - Why Transitions Fail
• Chapter 3 - Mission, Vision, and Effective Leadership
• Chapter 4 - Leadership and Strategy
• Chapter 5 - Good Governance
• Chapter 6 - Alignment
• Chapter 7 - Creating a Transition Management Plan
• Chapter 8 - Managing During the Transition Period
• Chapter 9 - Managing the Search Process
• Chapter 10 - Using Interim CEOs During Transition
• Chapter 11 - Introducing the New Leader
• Chapter 12 - Succession Planning
• Chapter 13 - Leadership Continuity and Long-Term Governance

Chapter 1 - What Makes Nonprofit Leadership So Challenging?

• The question of fit is complicated by the variety of circumstances that set the scene for each transition—circumstances that affect the balance between welcome and resistance to new leaders.
• Here, then, is the picture of an astoundingly difficult job with surprisingly little guidance.
• Nonprofit CEOs are responsible to many, often entitled, constituencies.
• Attending to so many groups is hard enough, but reconciling their often conflicting interests makes the job much harder.
• nonprofits have two quite different customers: those they serve and those that pay the way
• Many talented leaders have learned to affirm this need to “lead from the middle” and have built a set of negotiating skills designed to weave many disparate people and ideas into a coherent vision. But even when they succeed, they succeed with much more effort and patience than they might have thought would be the rule.
• Transition teams and boards of directors must take on some of the burden of negotiation and consensus building among stakeholders. At the least, they must introduce new leaders with one voice and maintain a unity of purpose—publically and privately—with the leader during her initial efforts to get her feet on the ground.
• Few new leaders arrive on the scene with expertise in board development, finance, marketing, labor negotiations, and fund-raising. The learning curve is steep
• Working 12 to 15 hours a day, CEOs burn out.
• Experienced CEOs find ways to manage the demand. They become masters at dropping in on events and meetings for their specific part of the agenda without being trapped in discussions where they are not needed.
• carefully select actions that lead to small achievements, which over time can build on each other.
• seek places where they can serve as the catalyst for other leaders and followers to take up a challenge and carry it forward.
• coach team members, staff, and volunteers who can take on leadership tasks so the organization moves forward under a larger and stronger leadership team.
• The skills required to rise to the CEO position are often far more management focused than the leadership skills that are ultimately required once a nonprofit professional has attained this position.
• management skills that require a short-range focus on technical or programmatic actions.
• CEO position, she is expected to focus on the far horizon.
• CEOs who have led increasingly larger organizations observe that they receive higher pay but more importantly are blessed with senior leaders in every area of the work. It may take a budget of $5 million or more for the CEO to be at liberty to actually dedicate her time to vision and strategy, development of governance and policy, and organization-wide evaluation and innovation toward achieving the mission.
• CEOs are often isolated. Many of the issues they deal with cannot be appropriately shared with other staff or fully understood by board members.
• They have no one who “gets” the difficulty of their days, no one to give advice. Peer interaction, an exceptional board president, or an executive coach can make a huge difference
• group of closely held advisors should not be constituents involved in the organization. Rather, they should be selected for objectivity and a willingness to listen to ideas that are not necessarily completely formed and to speak frankly about their impressions and reactions without needing to see change.
• A community advisory panel may be utilized as a more formal system for helping the leader both test and expand her perspective.
• CEOs often come into their leadership role with significantly less experience on or with boards of directors than the board members with whom they partner.
• It is a difficult process for anyone to lead the group that hired you, evaluates your performance, and has the power to end your relationship with the organization.
• No matter how often the CEO reminds the board that “your only operations job is to hire, fire, and evaluate me,” boards inevitably express opinions and actively intervene in program matters.
• Some CEOs are new to their community. They don’t know the local culture, its values, and the networks of influence, power, and money. Yet they are required, almost immediately, to position the organization to make friends, raise money, recruit staff, nurture a volunteer corps, develop programs, and so forth.
• the CEO must develop a thick skin. For those who can’t, the job can be painful.
• CEO needs the support of senior staff and board members who “have his back.” These supporters need to speak out when detractors are premature or acting because of preference for an unsuccessful candidate for the job.
• Every CEO needs some leeway for growing into leadership of the organization and a learning process that includes forgiveness for early mistakes.
• needs to create a unified culture. Basically, any culture emanates from the way things are done in that organization.
• Whether the organization’s current culture is healthy or needs reshaping, the CEO cannot lead until he understands it.
• One of the most difficult organizational culture issues is how conflict is addressed.
• The skills and temperamental inclinations of an individual performer need to change to motivate others to work through and with them. Sometimes it is hard for new leaders to realize, “It’s not all about me.”
• If a leader is not cognizant of the organization’s culture or is not facile in reading her impact upon a group, initial misunderstandings may get in the way of winning over followers
• most people taking leadership of a nonprofit understand there will be limited resources, the extent to which this is true affects the CEO’s ability to lead. If all of the agency’s funding is short term and fractured into separated funds dedicated to individual programs, the leader may feel his hands are tied. It is difficult to have an impact in any meaningful way if every dollar’s use is designated
• The relationship between board president and CEO can change frequently. Both CEOs and presidents come and go. In some organizations, for instance, the bylaws mandate that the presidency turns over every two years.
• means that the CEO-president partnership undergoes constant change. At its best, the partnership is well negotiated, but, even so, there is a period of uncertainty
• the CEO must work with the president and governance committee to encourage continual learning on the part of the president and board if the organization desires to create a continual learning culture.
• On the other side of the experience equation, some board members have served on other boards and insist that each organization should be run the same way.
• Just as alignment with the organizational culture is essential to a successful CEO, experienced board members soon find that previous experience and ways of work are not necessarily portable
• Leadership in the nonprofit sector is not for the faint of heart.

Chapter 2 - Why Transitions Fail

• Leadership transition is a defining moment in an organization’s life, a time to review what the organization is about—
• transition fails when it does not further long-term strategic aims, when it leads to a brief, unproductive tenure, when it does not unite the organization around future development, and when organizational problems that led up to the leader’s departure remain more or less intact.
• Leadership transitions, even successful ones, are rarely smooth.
• Pitfalls during the transition process generally can be classified as issues of the following:
  • Leadership and governance
  • Organizational characteristics
  • The external environment
  • Planning and execution
• Resisting the pent-up demand for action and requests from a line of staff at the door on a variety of issues requires patience. Not acting soon enough has equally negative consequences.
• Hopefully, the culture changes as an organization grows; but often the time lag is significant.
• redefining organizational signs and ways of work are necessary to successful transitions.
• Change can threaten vested interests and make people anxious. It poses a threat even when it means leaving behind painful or dysfunctional ways of operating.
• When people know that change is inevitable, they can support it and see a benefit from changing. As a result, a learning organization is created.
• Leadership transition is generally seen as the change from one CEO to another, but in fact it involves the introduction of an individual into a system with many processes and series of relationships.
• it keeps happening each time a board president completes his term.
• realization that there will be continual transitions should lead the board to put processes in place to make them go smoothly.
• Often the relationship between the CEO and the board president influences organizations more than either of them does individually. When the two are at cross purposes, ineffectuality, crisis, and turnover are likely.
• important to think of leadership transitions not in individual but in partnership terms.
• Even the best CEO or board president is only as good as the fit and partnership they have with one another.
• Many new organizations want and expect their CEO to be all things: inspired leader, orderly manager, brilliant strategist, great fund raiser, and community builder.
• Rarely can one person “save” an organization.
• It’s imperative to establish clear and reasonable expectations of our leaders and of ourselves. Leadership is not a person. It is a collective action in which the “leader” and the “led” meet challenges together.
• give people time and resources to succeed, observe how they do, and regularly adjust our expectations and support
• A careful strategic planning process is a good antidote for crisis orientation.
• Commitment to planning can give perspective and distance that allows the organization’s horizon to shift
• Time and care continue to be needed after the hire. Exhausted by the greatly increased burden of work created by the transition, the transition team may hand the leadership reigns over to the new leader before he is reasonably integrated
• When the work of the transition is slow to start or goes on for many months, anxiety can become a part of the organizational culture.
• Sometimes board members assume that the CEO will always know what to do.
• New CEOs often express surprise at learning information that wasn’t obvious (or was even hidden) during the hiring process.
• adherence to a disciplined process of developing a strategic vision of the future, assessing the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as addressing the root cause of the most recent departure sets a sturdy framework for a successful transition process.

Chapter 3 - Mission, Vision, and Effective Leadership

• The fundamental challenge for all leaders is to align their organizations in the service of their mission and vision,
• These “soft” disciplines steady, orient, and drive the leader. When taken seriously, they provide discipline, inspiration, and guideposts for everything organizations do.
• The mission defines what the organization is all about, its reason for being, and what it stands for.
• vision is an idealistic and realistic picture of the future, a declaration of where you and others want to be and believe you can be in five or more years.
• Everything a leader does becomes an expression and an extension of the organizational vision.
• Dedication to mission and vision ennobles leaders,
• “Starting with the mission and its requirements may be the first lesson business can learn from successful nonprofits,”
• a sincere mission statement, if it is kept vividly in mind and invoked with great frequency, provides coherence and discipline
• Missions communicate the basic philosophy upon which an organization is built. A great mission effectively communicates the direction that the organization is headed to
• begins to frame the culture and ethics of an organization.
• The mission should provide a touchtone for decision making at all levels
• essential that the mission statement be revisited at the beginning of transition.
• The organizational vision is just that: a picture and a story. It is more evocative than analytic.
• underlying purpose of visions is to imagine and name the fundamental change required of organizations to realize their missions.
• changes are twofold:
  • First, there are concrete changes
  • Second, everything we do will be infused with the values and spirit of the mission
• organizational processes will mirror, teach, and amplify the power of these values
• organizations motivated by missions and visions aim to transform the organizational culture, and by changing the culture they change the way people think and feel about themselves and the world around them.
• paradigm shift is the ultimate aim of organizational missions and visions.
• people want three things from their leader: direction, trust, and hope
• vision statement is comprehensive.
• breaks the more abstract vision into concrete, realizable objectives, and it demonstrates what kind of strategies will bring the objectives to realization.
• Too many mission and vision statements are so general or grandiose that people within the organization don’t relate to them and customers don’t notice.
  • One reason these statements are easy to ignore is that they are carelessly done.
  • Another is that they have no bite.
  • third reason that mission and vision statements fail is that they are often inward looking. Instead, the point of focus must be outward, on what the organization produces for its customers.
• John Kotter has outlined the practical characteristics of an effective vision.
  • Imaginable
  • Desirable
  • Feasible
  • Focused
  • Flexible
  • Communicable
• three more qualities of an effective vision:
  • Authentic
  • Broadly owned
  • Leads from strength
• three questions that need to be answered in formulating a mission:
  • What is our business/mission?
  • Who is our customer?
  • What does the customer value?
• visions must be owned by those who rally behind them and carry them out.
• John Kotter has provided a tidy listing of the “Key Elements in the Effective Communication of Vision:”
  • Simplicity
  • Metaphor, analogy, and example
  • Multiple forums
  • Leadership by example
  • Explanation of seeming inconsistencies
  • Give and take
• more often than others, great leaders live their mission and vision.
• Their action is or appears to be today what the organization aspires to be tomorrow.
• Revisioning
  • Whereas mission statements often hold for lengths of time, vision statements do not. They must be adapted to new circumstances.
  • some circumstances that commonly require or call forth the revision of the organizational vision.
    • Leadership Transitions
      • all leaders must reshape vision statements to fit their own goals, character, style of working, and values, but the change can range from small to radical,
    • Lack of Alignment
      • Signs that the organization is out of alignment include moving without purpose, being out of sync with community needs and technological trends,
    • Changes in the Social, Political, or Economic Climate
    • Troubled Situations
    • Mergers, Acquisitions, and Strategic Alliances
    • Board Leadership Transitions
    • Aligning to Vision
    • Internal Clarity and Coherence of Leadership
    • Bridges
      • Deep connections are built through bridges. When roles are well negotiated, for example, leaders are designated champions of visions.
    • Strategic Thinking
    • Leveraging
    • Managing to Strategy
    • Opportunism
• Resilience: riding the cycles and stages of organization development
  • It takes a long time for vision to permeate the organization, for all to be infused with it. It is like cultural change.
  • Culture anchors everything else: structure, processes and procedures, and planning.
  • Visions and missions eventually enter the culture. They form its backbone. They become the almost unconscious basis for setting priorities, making decisions, structuring work, and management practice.
  • leaders give up too quickly on the veracity and the power of missions and visions.
  • Once a vision is crafted, however, and seems to be backed by a good percentage of the people—leaders—it needs to be talked up and supported by creating structures and processes in keeping with its message.
    • takes persistence but not stubbornness
  • With time, missions and visions take on a life of their own.
  • momentum builds, the leader feels this energy around him and senses that his moves are in some ways more than his own. He is speaking for something greater and, by so doing, has become something greater than himself.

Chapter 4 - Leadership and Strategy

• The opportunity, then, is to seek and hire a strategic leader: one who can be focused, prioritized, leveraged, and competitive, all based on an organization’s fundamental purpose and direction.
• How can an organization take advantage of that opportunity? The board must:
  • clarify the core strategic idea.
  • bring the strategy up to date.
  • communicate the revised strategy, at least to the search committee and transition team,
  • identify a person who wants to and can lead based on the strategic idea.
  • to charge the new person to lead based on the strategic plan
  • hold each other accountable for following the strategic plan and achieving the organizational objectives. reciprocal accountability is what keeps the organization aligned in the service of its mission.
• The addition of strategy to mission represents a commitment to perform specific, measurable activities to achieve mission and vision.
• Simply put, strategy is a plan to move from here to there, from your current state to the achievement of your objectives.
• When elaborated, strategy should include specific tactical or project plans.
• The broad formula tells a story of cause and effect.
• The strategic story sets priorities: We will choose this path and not another.
• For an idea to be strategic, it must bring all areas of an organization into concert, so that each improves the others
  • If strategy works, it moves an organization into a virtuous cycle
• Strategy development and transition management share a keen interest in the analysis of an organization’s current state.
• During periods of leadership transition, there is usually little time or appetite for full-fledged current state analyses to go with full-fledged strategic plans. Modified, briefer analysis, however, is possible and important.
• within six months of having new leaders take the helm of an organization, an in-depth strategic planning process should occur.
• There are two main objectives for the SWOT analysis: to understand the organization and to develop a set of concrete recommendations about improvements that need to be made.
• An objective is a specific, concrete, measureable achievement.
• Objectives are not missions. Missions invoke big-pictures goals.
• Once the mission is known, it can be broken down into concrete, measurable, and achievable objectives. Then strategies are developed to reach the objectives.
• Like strategies, objectives must be prioritized.
• Ultimately, leaders are judged by their ability to move organizations in the direction of their objectives. By clarifying objectives during the transition period, the board clarifies what they are asking leaders to do and how their accomplishments will be measured.
• Earlier, strategy was defined as a cause and effect story. It is a broad-based plan to achieve objectives, a bridge between the current state of the organization and where it wants to go,
• To develop an effective plan, Drucker poses five questions. They are deceptively simple:
  • What is our business (mission)?
    • What are we trying to achieve?
    • What specific results are we seeking?
  • Who is our customer: primary and supporting?
  • What does the customer consider value?
    • How well are we providing value?
    • How can we use what our customers consider value to become more effective?
  • What have been our results?
    • How well are we using our resources?
  • What is our plan?
    • Where should we focus our efforts?
    • What, if anything, should we do differently?
• The Bridgespan Group emphasizes a balance between accountability to a plan and flexibility in adjusting the plan to its changing environment with these questions:
  1. “What are the organizational strengths that have made the organization successful in its work to date?
  2. Given those strengths and their knowledge of how change occurs in their mission arena, what specific goals does the organization want to hold itself accountable for, over what time period?
  3. What activities should the organization focus on to move furthest toward its goals?
  4. Given the ever-changing nature of its work, how can the organization balance the desire to hold itself accountable for definite goals with the need to ensure that it has the necessary flexibility to respond quickly and appropriately to changing circumstances?”
• David La Piana questions:
  1. Who are you?
  2. What do you do?
  3. How do you do it?
  4. How do you finance it?
• Important, additional qualities of effective strategy:
  • Flexibility
  • Affordability
  • Focus
  • Leverage
• These qualities—flexibility, affordability, focus, and leverage—provide a blueprint for interviewing leadership candidates, for checking their ability to reason in a strategic way.
• Strategic fit with leaders trumps charisma, stature, credentials, and availability. First the organization needs to figure out where it’s going. Only then can it know who it needs to lead it.

Chapter 5 - Good Governance

• Governance in nonprofit organizations refers to the processes and structures used to ensure the accomplishment of the organization’s mission.
• Board Source identifies 12 principles of governance that empower good governance.
  1. Constructive Partnership
  2. Mission Driven
  3. Strategic Thinking
  4. Culture of Inquiry
  5. Independent
  6. Ethos of Transparency
  7. Compliance with Integrity
  8. Sustaining Resources
  9. Results-Oriented
  10. Intentional Board Practices
  11. Continuous Learning
  12. Revitalization
• 5 basic duties ensure the legal and ethical conduct of the board.
  1. Loyalty in the Best Interest of the Organization
  2. Disclosure of Any Potential Conflict of Interest
  3. Duty of Care
  4. Managing the Organization’s Funds in a Manner That Serves the Mission of the Organization
  5. Set Policies for Employment Practices, and Oversee Implementation of Personnel Policies for Both Volunteers and Staff
• nonprofit boards must hold organizations in trust for the community through the dedication, skills, and talent of the entire board
• governance committee leads the board in developing its members to think and act strategically during a time of transition.
• announcement of a resignation from the CEO or from the president is bound to be met with a level of consternation and some amount of chaos.
• when the board has operated for many years with the same CEO, there is complacency about the governance work of the board.
• but they’ve become accustomed to their “fit” with this CEO and have grown to expect that the CEO will handle most of the “heavy lifting”
• It’s no wonder that boards sometimes hold onto their CEOs long past their strategic fit with the organization. They know this CEO’s skills and capabilities.
• Once the strategic planning process is in place and performance metrics have been established, it is time to conduct an assessment of the capacity of the board of directors.
• There are many checklists available for board self-evaluation,
• the most important self-evaluation process is for the board to participate in a guided discussion through which the full board assesses its leadership.
• It should weigh the fiscal stability of the organization and the board’s role in raising significant funds to sustain and grow the mission.
• Discussion should also center on the development of staff leadership. One of the keys to maintaining a tenured CEO is to provide the opportunity for continual renewal through professional learning experiences.
• Boards should consider certain key questions on a periodic basis, but particularly at the point of leadership transition. Are the board and staff in agreement about the strategic priorities of the organization? Is the strategic plan implemented effectively throughout operations?
• second core area that the board needs to keep apprised of is the public’s perception of the organization. The board should participate in developing the key message that the organization communicates to stakeholders.
• Leadership transitions at the CEO level provide the opportunity for the board to improve the organization on a professional basis. This is particularly true for organizations seeking to move beyond their grassroots origins and style,
• processes that distinguish the transition to professional management are well known and easily distilled.
  1. Delegation of Responsibility and Authority
  2. Consistency
  3. Planning and Prioritizing
  4. Control
• Board self-evaluation is part of the overall cycle of leadership and is critical to bringing a professional perspective to the process. It also leads to the successful alignment of the CEO, the organization, and the community
• A board member should not become the interim CEO.
• The stress such crossing of boundaries places upon the entire board and the staff is untenable and is unlikely to result in a positive transition to the new CEO.
• the quality of the president and CEO relationship can make or break an organization.
• must work together to lead the strategic development of the organization.
• important that the president and CEO set agreed-upon expectations of each other
• dynamic of their leadership must be based on respect and strong continual communication.
• should develop a “no surprises” policy
• realities require a high level of maturity and objectivity on the part of both partners.
• practices and procedures that can minimize the conflict potential in this partnership:
  • written procedures for the board’s annual evaluation of the CEO.
  • two leaders should take time to discuss and determine how they will work together as a team.
  • president should ask for input from the CEO when appointing committee chairs and members.
  • clear written directions to staff supporting board committees
  • Boards should have full discussions on policy issues rather than allowing the president to presuppose
  • conduct regular orientations to ensure that all members understand the role of the board and its current committees.
  • ensure that the president possesses basic meeting management skills
  • president and CEO should completely share all information with the full board.
• Sometimes the CEO initiates a transition. Other times the board does this. The annual evaluation of the CEO offers a regular opportunity to evaluate
• One of the best questions to be asked each year is, “Do you feel continuing excitement about your role, and do you feel that you are still uniquely qualified to lead the organization in achieving its mission?”
• leadership transition demands of a board that it step up its governance and organizational oversight. It is a time of high demand upon board members in exchange for incredible opportunities to create a seismic change

Chapter 6 - Alignment

• fundamental challenge of leadership is to align organizations in the service of their missions, as articulated in strategies.
• New leaders should be selected for their ability to implement the organization’s strategic plan, to realize its objectives, to bring its mission closer to the practical world: in short, to get things done.
• missions can be a little broad and idealistic in their definition
• Strategy is more limited. It first tells how an organization is going to realize its mission and what practical steps will be taken to achieve it.
• next challenge is resource alignment.
• have to make sure that each resource supports and amplifies the others.
• organizational alignment is not something leaders can simply conceive of as “out there.” They must look at themselves and ask if they are aligned with the organization that they are charged to lead.
• If you get people on board, doing things that they both believe in and are capable of doing, and if you coordinate their efforts, you should succeed.
• When it comes to nonprofits, the “what” comes first. It is essential that boards know what their organization’s mission is and understand what strategy articulates that mission.
• Gathering brilliant people is not alone the touchstone of organizational strategy.
• The belief that fit, alignment, and relationship are at least as important as individual leadership talent is paramount in selecting the CEO candidate that will best serve an organization.
• the fit between leaders and their circumstance turns out to be a better predictor of effectiveness than any particular set of personal characteristics.
• idea of fit. When it is unpacked, this apparently simple idea, upon examination of its various parts, comes out looking like alignment.
• leadership style needs to line up with the organization’s culture, structure, resources, mission, and strategy. So does the leader’s values, skills, and personal objectives.
• The selection and introduction of new leadership may be the preeminent opportunity for organizational alignment.
• No matter how well you align an organization, it will regularly go off kilter. Important people may leave. New technologies may make current strategies obsolete. Board presidents come and go,
• loss of alignment is natural as organizations respond to internal and external changes.
• the refusal to adapt to changes more often than not leads to ineffectuality.
• When we fail to notice the movement away from alignment, rigid attachment to old ways becomes the norm, and it becomes harder and harder to let them go.
• there are “natural” moments when we can assess alignment and make true adjustments
• most obvious moment for realignment is during the strategic planning process,
• Major new projects and programs demand an assessment and adjustment of the organization’s alignment.
• Each time a leader reviews the performance of a manager, at stake is how it contributes to the work of others and how it aligns to collective goals.
• New leaders don’t usually walk into systems that are perfectly aligned. The opposite is usually true.
• Often CEOs enter with a powerful agenda of their own or with the need to rapidly prove their effectiveness. They often don’t take the time to assess their new organization, to learn about its culture, its people, and its deeper strengths and weaknesses. Rarely do these leaders strike a sustainable balance between fitting in and leading change,
• far greater chance that new leaders will succeed if the organization is moved toward alignment during, not after, the transition period.
• A transition plan has several well-known components: how decisions will be made and by whom, who will manage the organization during the interim period, and how leadership will be transferred to the incoming leader.
• When organizations are badly aligned or when there is uncertainty about alignment
• best to have an interim leader move the organization into greater alignment, including making hard changes with budgets, human resources, structural rearrangements, and so forth, so that the new leader can enter in the most positive and aligned manner.
• Fit and alignment mean more than cultural affinity. They also point to the skills necessary to lead the organization
• The ability to describe an organization’s mission in a coherent and compelling story is important.
• Like giant magnets, leaders focused upon the mission pull all other elements of organizational life to them. Mission and vision statements provide the organizing principles.
• must believe in these organizing principles if he is to communicate them with the personal conviction required
• In most nonprofit organizations, mission statements are value statements;
• he must lead people on a practical path to its realization. Strategy provides that pathway.
• identify leaders who are practical visionaries, who can articulate the steps to achieving the organization’s objectives.
• have the discipline to prioritize only those activities that drive the organization toward those objectives.
• The questions you need to ask of prospective leaders are these:
  • What is an example of how you have gotten all the organizational resources to work together?
  • How is funding sought that can support the mission and connect organizational energies?
  • How do you reward collaboration as highly as the achievement of individual goals?
  • How can an organization leverage a good reputation in the community for larger projects?
  • How does the marketing story of an organization, the “brand,” fit with its mission, vision, and strategy?
  • How does a leader sustain an effective relationship with the board of directors?
• Organizations live in changing worlds. They struggle to remain stable and true to their character, and they struggle to adapt to changes in their environment.
• Each time organizations adapt, they tend to go out of alignment.
• Adaptation and change in one area of an organization is almost always an occasion for realignment.
• entry of a new leader is also an occasion for realignment.
• The first shock to the organizational system comes with the announcement that the old leader is leaving.
• With the departure of the CEO, the current organization is thrown off balance.
• often in transitions, managers just try to hold things together until they find a new leader. That is a natural impulse. The organization may feel like a boat without a rudder.
• the board of directors, in partnership with current senior executives, must take the leadership mantle.
• This is a difficult task, and not one that most board members signed up for. It is time consuming and filled with uncertainty. But, if the board takes hold strongly, there is opportunity as well. The desire for guidance may be high.
• three main challenges for the transition team as it prepares to select a new leader.
  • create a sense of solidity: “We will be all right.”
  • team must clarify the organization’s mission, vision, and strategic direction.
  • transition team must do its best to align the current organization in the service of its mission
• The introduction of the new leader goes a long way toward his success or failure.
• The introduction, all by itself, is a way for the transition team to announce what the aligned organization’s strategy is.
• During the first year, it is important to charge the new leader with the assessment of the organization. In particular, the new leader will determine how well the organizational resources, structure, process, and operating systems are aligned to the strategy.
• within a few months of the beginning of the new leader’s tenure, she and the board should join in building a new strategic plan

Chapter 7 - Creating a Transition Management Plan

• One of the great opportunities provided by the transition is to reestablish the value of project planning and management and to model it for future organizational efforts.
• Few organizations take enough time for thorough transition management. More typically, boards—or rather two or three central board members—put together a “game plan” almost entirely focused on hiring a new leader and perhaps naming a staff person to look over daily operations.
• Transition management consists of a wide range of activities of which the search for a new leader is but a part.
• What is more, the general purpose of the organization—its mission, vision, objectives, and strategy—should be reviewed.
• Project planning begins with the issue of who we should bring to the table. Should include the following:
  • Project sponsor—lends his authority—his imprimatur—to a project and who guides it
  • Project leader—Project leaders manage project activity from conception to completion.
  • Skilled people—helps to include people who have helped organizations move through major transition processes
  • Potential opponents—Including potential skeptics and opponents in the planning process tends to defuse or at least diffuse their opposition.
• Leadership transitions present opportunities for self-reflection and growth at the very least. Organizations should ask what kind of leader fits with their hopes and plans for the future.
• Once the right people are at the table, the organization can ask what it wants to achieve during the transition period.
• there are other objectives, almost as important, including:
  • Stability and Productivity
  • Clarify Mission, Vision, and Strategies
  • Determining What Kind of Leadership Is Required
  • Modeling the “Right” Leadership Style
  • Introducing New Leadership in an Empowering Way
• Supporting the new CEO in establishing new roots in the organization is a vital part of the transition team’s work.
• If an organization has recently undergone strategic planning, calling to attention the direction set by that plan will inform the transition team’s future steps. If the strategic plan is out of date, stopping to review and renew it with the organization’s key constituencies will be time well spent.
• When formulating a transition plan, the team must consider the organization’s needs, character, and culture
• One of the principal challenges of transitions, particularly those accompanied by haste or acrimony, is to gain and maintain perspective.
• Transition periods can be chaotic. Inexperienced boards may rush to hire the first reasonable candidate who comes their way instead of patiently assessing applicants
• Increasingly, there are professional executive transition consultants who specialize in nonprofit organization support and can bring the experience gained through many transition processes.
• The transition plan needs to ensure that the organization will carry on well during the transition period, and the staff needs to know what is expected of them.
• a timetable is required for the team to hold itself accountable and to coordinate activities.
• In general, whatever fault lines and weaknesses there are in organizations stand a good likelihood to emerge during the transition period.
• a “current state” or SWOT analysis should be part of transition planning. It will help you anticipate problems and then manage them rather than have them become crises.
• Alternatively, in conflict adverse organizational cultures, the important discussions will be avoided for fear of fighting. When differences are glossed over, decisions are made with inadequate information, and simmering splits persist in underground currents
• It is important to build evaluation into the transition management process: evaluation of the planning, itself, of the management, of the board’s effectiveness, and of staff capability.
• Carefully documenting the work of the team will provide a starting point for transitions of the future.

Chapter 8 - Managing During the Transition Period

• Few organizations have clear, written succession plans to fall back on
• More often than not, leadership transitions are poorly managed.
• Instead of defining the strategic directions they want the new leader to take, boards focus on finding an outstanding person and hope that she will take the right path.
• boards frequently fail to carefully introduce and empower the new leader.
• well-managed transitions generally lead to successful leadership tenure, which in turn leads to well-managed organizations and the possibility of optimizing growth toward achieving the organization’s mission.
• good transition management requires
  • Strong governance
  • Clear transition planning
  • Strategic leadership recruitment and integration into the organization
• Patience - an effective transition effort takes from 12 to 18 months from announcement to the full empowerment of the new CEO
• Planning is one thing. Implementation—no matter how good the plan—is often harder.
• It is in some ways like implementing a strategic plan
• The easiest way to convert people to a new vision or strategy is to give them a meaningful role in making it happen.
• here is the opportunity to begin reorganizing any undisciplined or chaotic areas of work and putting in good management practices.
• transition team and the interim CEO roles will not be crystal clear.
• sequence of activities that breaks delegation into constituent parts:
  • Frame the task with its sense of urgency
  • give room for people to come up with their own solution
  • Review the plan with inexperienced employees.
  • Let experienced and trusted employees go right from plan to implementation.
  • Hold people accountable for completing tasks in a high-quality way.
• The transition period is an excellent time to be clear about what kind of information is needed, and an opportunity to develop clear reporting systems
• establish very clear rules about who reports to whom, how that reporting will take place, and how people will be held accountable for clearly stated objectives
• Logistically, it makes sense for the transition team and senior management to divide the assignment for stakeholder relations.
• Funders often fund leaders. Therefore, funders dread change
• The broader the strategic planning group, the greater the opportunity will be for the transition team to explore joint efforts throughout the community.
• there is a tendency toward a crisis orientation. The transition team should resist moving through the transition too quickly. This will result in losing sight of the mission and strategic direction.
• important to identify and nurture the talent that is present. There are three reasons to keep everyone focused.
  • will result in maintaining day-to-day functioning to maximize movement toward the mission.
  • will provide the incoming CEO with the best possible team
  • keeps them committed to the mission. They will be motivated to stay and perform well
• Resistance to change takes many forms, from direct opposition to foot dragging to apparent agreement accompanied by inept plan implementation. Indirect resistance is particularly difficult to deal with.
• The process of organizational change is challenging, one that people find confusing and anxiety producing.
• Managing the change process is one of the transition team’s major challenges.
• The first step for the transition team to lead the organization through change is to make the decision to do so. This requires a consensus among all the key stakeholders
• there must be a clear perception of the need to change—and of the changes already in motion.
• The transition team will have to help people through three critical steps:
  • Holding people together as they let go of the old ways of doing things and deal with the losses they feel because of those changes.
  • Helping people hang on through what William Bridges calls the “neutral zone”—the time when the new isn’t fully operational, but the old is gone.
  • Assisting people in making a new beginning, reinforcing their first steps in new systems and ways of work, showing appreciation for people’s willingness to learn to change, and helping them celebrate what and who the organization is becoming.
• Holding people together
  • In the first phase—letting go of the old ways—some will temporarily lose their sense of competence. They will feel uncomfortable and need to be assured
  • There inevitably will be a chain of cause and effect collisions. When A changes, B no longer works and a new C needs to be developed.
  • want to identify and discuss who is losing what and try to foresee what secondary changes will probably occur and what will be different when each change is completed.
  • stakeholders together need to accept the reality of what is changing, and everyone needs to appreciate the importance of the subjective losses each is accepting for the good of the whole organization.
  • expect overreaction from some people in the initial phases of the transition.
  • express concern and sympathy openly while gently turning people’s attention to the future.
  • may want to develop a transition management dashboard.
  • During this time of transition, the team will need the patience of Job as they give people information over and over until it is heard, understood, and acted upon. This is how new realities are built in organizations.
  • clear and continual communication of transition information will also prevent people from individually deciding what to abandon, by preference rather than by the need to realign.
  • During transition there is a need for rituals or ceremonies that dramatize the things that are ending,
  • The entire team needs to stay on message: This is about aligning everything we do to move the mission forward.
• Helping people hang on
  • Leading people through the second step, the neutral zone, is difficult.
  • things are changing, but they do not yet have all the details or perhaps even a clear sense of what new way will come.
  • strongly committed leadership is necessary
  • In creating things for people to hold onto during the transition, it will be necessary for the team to create temporary systems.
  • need to strengthen organization-wide connections so that they create champions of change at every level
  • need to encourage creativity at every level to find the right fit in all of the systems.
• Assisting people in making a new beginning
  • important for the team to encourage people to ask questions.
  • If people don’t understand why changes have occurred, they won’t be able to absorb them.
  • connect changes to storytelling.
  • important that the team help the organization face both the good and bad facts
  • the team needs to be consistent in how it reinforces the new beginning
  • ensure that systems have been reorganized for the “new beginning.”
  • find ways to ensure and celebrate some quick successes
  • help stakeholders recapture the dream that brought them into the organization
  • highlight the outcomes that change, no matter how difficult, will produce for the organization.
• The continuing challenge is to put the new management processes and style in the service of the organization’s mission and vision.

Chapter 9 - Managing the Search Process

• Before turning to the search process, let’s ask what kind of outcome we are looking for. This is a question too often taken for granted.
• essential challenge is not finding exactly the best CEO, but finding the right CEO for a particular organization at a particular time.
• If the organization can afford support—the equivalent of a chief operations officer—it can hire inspirational but less technically experienced leaders.
• Internal candidates have several primary advantages:
  • skip a lengthy, seemingly disruptive, time-consuming search process.
  • already familiar with the organization,
  • board is familiar with the internal candidate’s capabilities
  • compensation and benefits package can be adjusted incrementally and may represent something of a bargain compared to the current market
• internal candidates bring disadvantages as well
  • External candidates are more willing to listen to the priorities the board wants to set,
  • may be inclined to continue running things as they have always been done
  • candidate who is a valuable staff member presents a serious problem, because the organization probably does not want to lose her in her present role,
  • board or staff may have seen the internal candidate at less than her best
  • embarrassment of not being selected or the sense that there is “nowhere to go here” is likely to open her eyes to other avenues.
• The search committee needs clear direction from the transition team that defines its responsibility, authority, resources, and operating methods.
• Any possible conflict or overlap with standing committees should be clarified.
• Search is a board function.
• search committee should be led by a key board member—either the president, president-elect, or a member reporting directly to the transition team and president.
• nonprofit cultures are frequently participative, and staff members certainly have an investment in the person who will be selected.
• If staff and board roles are more distantly defined, it may be appropriate to delegate this work to board only.
• Including staff on the search committee presents several benefits:
  • make it easier to gain buy-in from staff when a candidate is selected.
  • bring a perspective different from the boards and may be able to comment on the candidate’s likely acceptance
  • provide certain administrative functions to the committee when a professional consultant is not leading the process.
  • have a high investment in the success of the search.
• also challenges:
  • lean toward hiring a person whose style they particularly like or who might favor their particular viewpoint
  • may favor a comfortable rather than challenging plan
  • may have to defend a course of action not pleasing to peers
  • pressure to talk about confidential aspects.
• several guidelines are advised:
  • retain the clear understanding that the hire is a board responsibility.
  • Select staff one level removed from direct responsibility to the CEO so that staff on the committee will not be directly supervised
  • board members may confer without staff presence regarding issues considered confidential
  • Staff may be asked to serve in an advisory rather than voting capacity.
• Including volunteers and community members has several advantages:
  • develop closer ties with the organization
  • bring a valuable perspective
  • bring experience with search processes
• Disadvantages of including volunteer and community members
  • lower level of knowledge of organizational history
  • Less commitment to participation
  • Less stake in the outcome
  • agendas that might be served
• the outgoing CEO should refrain from serving on the search committee.
• board members should ask the departing CEO for an organized plan to transfer fully documented files.
• The outgoing CEO uniquely can:
  1. Reinforce stewardship for the organization’s strategic plan.
     • Assess the current status with the board and staff.
     • Identify short-term commitments to implementation.
     • Reinforce strong, distributive leadership throughout the organization.
  2. Document processes and practices, and openly identify strengths and weaknesses.
     • Create a guidebook that identifies activities that have been directed out of intuition and turns them into disciplined, documented, and replicable action steps.
     • Identify personal strengths and talents that the organization may need to replicate or replace from other resources.
     • Review personal weaknesses and identify particular skills and actions that are a priority for the organization.
  3. Pull any skeletons out of the organization’s closet.
     • Are there difficult problems in the organization’s history that have not been dealt with?
     • Are there hanging legal issues?
     • Are there outstanding fiscal issues that need to be pursued?
• Considerations in choosing board members for search committee service include these:
  • “Representation” of certain constituencies—geographic, program components, board committees, long-time members or newcomers, and so on
  • Gender, age, racial, and personality balance
  • Reputation for hard work, and acceptance of the level of work required
  • Availability for meetings, ability to schedule without great difficulty, and flexibility when changes in plans are needed
  • Ability to listen, understand, discern, and communicate cordially
  • Leadership qualities
• The search committee should be relatively small to maintain efficiency and confidentiality
• Pros to hiring a search consultant:
  • know the processes
  • can conduct the search
  • offer perspective
  • help with integration
• Cons to hiring a search consultant:
  • commitment of the board. This may be enhanced if board members have carried out the selection process themselves
  • Search specialists can lead to homogenized candidates.
  • Cost
• Five Danger Zones in Hiring a New Executive:
  1. Poorly structured hiring process
     • Poor strategy or work plan
     • Unclear job definition/candidate requirements
     • Inadequate recruitment/pool
     • Rushing to hire
     • Ignoring employment laws
  2. Money issues
     • Letting money be the key issue
     • Noncompetitive salary/compensation package
     • Picking the bargain candidate
  3. Internal board conflicts
     • Lack of board clarity
     • Polarized board
     • Deceiving the candidate about organizational health
  4. Special interest pressure
     • Undue pressure from insiders
     • Discriminatory practices
     • Partnership power plays
  5. Personality traps
     • Being “snowed” by fast talk
     • Ignoring bad chemistry
     • Looking for a savior
• Although a well-executed search is not “rocket science,” it does require planning, care, and consistency.
• professional search process strengthens the organization

Chapter 10 - Using Interim CEOs During Transition

• in the real world, CEO transitions do not usually occur without a significant time frame between the exiting CEO and the organization’s readiness to appoint a new person.
• commitment to the process of revisiting the organization’s strategic plan prior to engaging in a CEO search is essential to selecting a new CEO with an appropriate fit with the organizations’ values, culture, and life cycle.
• essential that organizations refrain from making a hasty decision about who should be hired without doing the necessary work to prepare the organization for new leadership
• seldom is a nonprofit staffed for redundancy, particularly in the CEO role.
• Increasingly, nonprofits are finding it necessary to contract with an interim CEO
• Interim CEOs are available who have training and experience in leading nonprofits through a leadership transition in a manner that fully utilizes the “in between” period.
• transition of the CEO creates an opportunity for the organization to conduct an in-depth analysis of all of its systems and ways of work.
• Interim also comes with an objective eye
• The interim can help the board evaluate in a planned and mindful manner the effectiveness of the previous CEO as well as review staffing, programs, and methods in light of the organization’s goals.
• a skilled interim can make needed changes in the organization. Interims do not have to build alliances for the long term,
• A board can charge an interim CEO with jump-starting a major change that is expected to bring short-term resistance
• The interim CEO can also provide an objective, deep-level analysis of structures and systems.
• can do stakeholder interviews to determine the satisfaction of community members and funders
• Sometimes the departure of a CEO leaves major tasks undone. The board can hire an interim with significant expertise in a particular area to complete
• most importantly, hiring an interim CEO buys the board valuable time to create a pool of candidates
• Key scenarios suggesting the use of an interim:
  • A turnaround is needed for the organization to survive
  • There are no currently functioning systems to sustain maintenance of the organization
  • Retirement of a long-term CEO or founder
  • Immediately following a crisis that has shattered the organization’s confidence in the board and CEO
• generally not advisable to use a board member as the interim CEO. It upsets the balance of governance and operations and reduces the objectivity with which assessments will be conducted, and may result in adherence to the status quo rather than exploring new perspectives
• The secret of an effective interim CEO is that she is generally in and out in no more than 6 or 8 months to lay the groundwork for new leadership.
• Interims lose their effectiveness with an extended stay
• The interim’s role is not to redirect services, change programs, or create personal alignment
• A good interim CEO is neutral regarding personal style and preference.
• reflects the board’s strategic governance priorities in every level of operations and seeks areas that are out of alignment or in need of refreshing
• interim is advised through the use of a contractual agreement of the specific tasks that will be pursued
• will set the stage for the organization’s rebirth that comes with new leadership.
• should be internally focused within the organization
• engages staff and constituents in letting go of old ways of work and beginning to explore new options,
• helps people connect to their aspirations for the organization,
• develops the transition plan
• assists the staff in integrating their work to the board’s direction
• works with the search consultant or search committee to facilitate communications with candidates about the organization and with staff about the search.
• To effectively use an interim CEO, the board needs a clear understanding of what it expects to be accomplished.
• there is usually a short overlap in which the interim can share his findings and assist in the orientation. It is often sufficient for this period to be less than two weeks.
• When nonprofits are asked why they decided to use an interim, their response tends to center on these reasons:
  • board was committed to conducting a significant strategic planning process and wanted to take the time to do it well,
  • search consultant found the organization not prepared to identify the skills and assets needed in their next leader or not prepared to welcome and incorporate new leadership
  • organization had experienced problems in management and operations that indicated a need for retooling
  • cultural health of the organization was unstable, and the board wanted to reconnect with its core values and purposes
• the placement of an interim CEO does not guarantee success. However, because of the focused nature of the interim’s plan of work, there is much less risk in exchange for the greater reward of starting the new CEO in a healthier organization

Chapter 11 - Introducing the New Leader

• integration of a new CEO is an often-neglected activity.
• Alternatively, boards that have grown accustomed to their increased leadership role have trouble letting go.
• Inevitable result is a lack of early guidance, in the first case, or a power struggle in the second.
• another scenario has the board and transition team playing out their ambivalence. They confuse everyone by alternately pulling back and then reclaiming leadership.
• transition team is charged with the vital task of introducing the new CEO and orienting him to the organization’s mission and strategic plan.
• activity should continue until the new CEO is well integrated and the board is comfortable that this new leader can represent the organization’s values,
• Among the central tasks is holding a major planning meeting to articulate or clarify mutual expectations between the board and the new CEO.
• If possible, a board retreat by the end of the first six months will help to solidify the leadership team of board and senior management.
• transition team should work with the board to establish a disciplined method for evaluating the CEO’s ongoing progress
• sample of performance accountabilities for a new CEO:
  • Finance
  • Fund development
  • Membership
  • Integration
• Time should be scheduled during board meetings to discuss the CEO’s introduction and areas in which he can request greater—or less—assistance from the board.
• the CEO and the board should jointly redesign the tactical plan to align with the strategic plan,
• board should have ongoing exploration and dialogue with the CEO about the effectiveness of systems and services in furthering the mission.
• Before the transition team can hold a new CEO accountable, it has to make sure he is oriented,
• can be done in two complementary ways.
  • The first is didactic, telling him, “Here is our mission, vision, and plan.”
  • The second is narrative and experiential.
• Among other things, the transition team should do the following:
  • Assist the CEO in developing his partnership with the board.
  • Help him build credibility internally and externally
  • Teach him about the internal and external political environment
  • Discuss strategic areas that have been given priority status
  • Review the information and metrics the board needs to receive
  • Review reports currently being received by the board,
  • Make sure the board reviews its own effectiveness in managing to the strategic plan.
  • Encourage the CEO to review key deadlines to ascertain whether they are in sync
  • If appropriate, request a presentation of the organization’s achievement of certification and licensing requirements
  • Require that the interim director and senior staff brief the new CEO Empower the CEO to set up ways of working with his staff team that make sense to him
  • Support the CEO in establishing his authority with the staff.
• board may need to allocate resources for the CEO to bring in a consultant to assist in building her relationship with the staff team.
• An organizational development consultant can assist in determining if the right people with the necessary skills are on the staff
• A good consultant can also help the CEO discover and respect the expertise and ways of work of the current staff.
• A guided staff retreat can help the CEO to organize and understand the wisdom and experience the staff brings to the organization.
• will help the CEO negotiate a clean slate with staff, dispensing with rumors and fears
• consultant may also need to help the staff resolve or bury past issues,
• By utilizing an external facilitator, the new CEO can concentrate on listening to her staff and learning about operational systems and can use the retreat to begin building trust and establishing her preferred ways of work.
• newly configured senior staff can develop a shared synergy for moving forward
• some additional goals for such a retreat:
  • Acknowledge that the new CEO may require more formal channels of communication between staff and board
  • Encourage the new CEO to develop her own style of and means for communicating
  • Help the new CEO articulate an appreciation of staff and volunteers
  • Thank staff in advance for their assistance in orienting the new leader.
  • Review and praise everyone’s work throughout the transition
  • Keep an ongoing dialogue with a broad cross section of the organization about how the board intends to utilize the new leadership
• After the retreat, the CEO will need to do the following:
  • Work with department managers to assess operations.
  • Support department managers in uncovering any issues
  • Encourage truth telling even when it may imply a need for staff and board development or a change in ways of work.
  • Ask questions when she doesn’t understand the implications of what she sees, and face the good and bad facts of where the organization stands
  • Pay particular attention to health and safety issues that may have been overlooked.
  • Conduct a review of financial systems with the finance committee
  • Review the stability and effectiveness of technology used throughout the organization.
  • Report to the board on what she thinks may be priorities compared to the current strategic plan.
  • Assess actions she would like to champion that are not currently in congruence with the strategic plan.
• In launching a new CEO, it is vital to challenge her to select priorities that will take the organization to a higher level of performance
• Through dialogue with the CEO, the board can help determine where the introduction of new leadership can best leverage her energy for the greatest return to the organization.
• Many new leaders believe their board expects signs of their “brilliance” immediately and, as a result, they act impulsively to prove how they are different
• Unless the new CEO becomes grounded in the partnership and the board’s strategic plan for the organization, she will not understand the need to act in alignment with the board’s vision and may make capricious changes to prove her authority
• When the CEO has had time to become reasonably grounded, ask her to create a tactical plan that provides benchmarks for the board’s evaluation
• Encourage her to identify opportunities for quick, meaningful “wins”
• Negotiate the goals and priorities for the first six months of the CEO’s tenure with clarity and transparency.
• greater the understanding of common expectations, the more likely all will be in alignment
• useful to craft a process for delivery of outcomes to the board and develop a two-way progress evaluation between the board and the CEO
• Working with the CEO to identify and implement her own professional development plan to bring her skills to a higher level will provide meaningful learning experiences
• In an organization that utilizes a strong volunteer component, it is essential that the new CEO be introduced to volunteer constituents in a formal and supportive manner
• important issue is that the board provides the introduction of the CEO to the community and in the process shares its respect for the CEO and communicates the organization’s mission
• introduction of the CEO to the community creates a great public relations opportunity. Combine media interviews of the new CEO with announcements of the strategic plan and how it will impact the community.
• important that the board and staff coordinate their messages
• process that best disseminates the organization’s story is committed people talking to one community member at a time.
• First impressions are powerful, so be sure to provide enough orientation for the CEO
• Take advantage of the introduction of the CEO within the community to highlight your organization’s mission
• Make sure your message is clear, strategic, and consistent with how the organization is moving forward.
• Board members need to assist the CEO in making appropriate connections, particularly if he has come from outside the community.
• time for board members to use their contacts for the organization and to introduce the CEO to the leadership of peer agencies, surrounding affiliates, community and business leaders, and the funder community.
• For integration to succeed the new CEO needs to form partnerships
• board will want to introduce him to external constituents that are likely to maximize the organization’s effectiveness.
• The time dedicated to getting the CEO off to an effective start will be one of the best investments the board can make in the CEO’s success and retention.
• the new CEO cannot expect to grow into his leadership position without significant seasoning.
• Everyone needs to be patient, expect missteps, and anticipate more than a few rough spots
• Without board support, the CEO could become frozen in fear of overreaction to the steps he sees that need to be implemented
• Organizations should assume that a new CEO will supplement the strategic plan
• If she fails to take the strategic plan seriously or diverges widely from its major directions, the board must step in immediately
• If the board fails to confront a new CEO who has taken her own direction, problems will build with time.
• While there is a delicate balance between helping and intruding in the CEO’s life, offers of assistance in the new community will help him to feel welcome. Four options come to mind:
  • Board president
  • Executive support team
  • Mentor
  • Executive coach
• Often, boards neglect the post-hiring period, which increases the incoming CEO’s isolation
• following strategies decrease isolation and speed integration:
  • Involve the new CEO before their start date
  • Welcome the new CEO
  • Include the new CEO in planning and evaluation
  • Use the authority of the board
  • Schedule interviews
• The new CEO must understand organizational culture before moving in new directions.
• The board and transition team must curb their impulse to dump the organization and its challenges in the new CEO’s lap
• Integration is the first step in leadership retention.
• The new CEO quickly learns some pretty frightening realities.
• enormous limitations to what she alone can accomplish.
• this job is all about what she can do with and through other people
• has to absorb the reality that she’s ultimately responsible, but the power to get almost anything done long term lays not in her authority but in her power of persuasion
• begins to realize that everything looks more complicated when she is at the top looking down
• realizes that the linear solutions she held onto no longer fit the total needs of the organization
• begins to realize that the whole picture that is now more apparent to her is still not seen by the department heads and other key constituents
• the role of the CEO is to paint this picture with sufficient clarity to gain the trust of others to follow her lead
• In some ways, the new CEO does have great authority as long as she doesn’t resort to using it unilaterally
• second-guessing senior managers pulls operational authority away from them and creates a quagmire in decision making
• any need for undue wielding of authority creates a bottleneck for timely action within the agency
• second frightening reality the CEO may encounter is that the skills she used to get the CEO position will not necessarily transfer
• best course of action is to turn the tool box for managing and running things over to the senior managers
• rather than “running things,” the CEO’s primary job is to paint the doorway to the future of the organization so that staff and constituents move through it
• third reality is that the CEO’s authority is counter-balanced by the board of directors
• CEO has an entire board of big picture bosses, or at least we hope so
• CEO can never forget two things:
  • The board hires, evaluates, supports or overrules, and has the power to fire the CEO
  • Boards are composed of experienced, capable people who know how to wield power but don’t necessarily know the organization’s business
• Another rude awakening for the new CEO is that her life and schedule are often driven by both internal and external people’s needs, which forces her to wedge her agenda between and within constituent’s priorities
• Can be particularly difficult for a CEO who likes to believe she is in control of everything
• Becomes obvious that, as CEO, she cannot personally know everything or even everyone on whom she depends for success
• So, what is a new CEO to do?
  • First task is to hone effective communications skills
  • Need strong muscles for indirect influencing to sell her vision
  • Needs to share her strategic vision broadly, eliciting support across all levels of constituents
  • should develop a process of bringing everyone onto her team by empowering them with an understanding of the strategic plan
• New CEOs are often surprised at how much their actions are scrutinized and overinterpreted
• Often, new CEOs expect to enjoy living in that spotlight. However, living under a microscope quickly becomes a real killer for many
• best tactic for combatting incorrect information is to continue operating in as transparent a manner as possible
• Different constituencies respond to information from their differing perspectives. So, the CEO learns to speak to constituencies in their preferred language and to use reflective listening
• Leaders who are used to brainstorming out loud can end up with managers leaping to enact half-baked ideas
• CEO’s actions and words may be magnified and distorted, sometimes beyond recognition
• people who used to tell the CEO the truth in their previous position may now endeavor to tell her what they think she wants to hear
• The new CEO should share his strategic positions early and often, staying absolutely focused on strategy
• Often it becomes necessary for a new CEO to put a stake in the ground to assert the direction in which he intends to lead
• this needs to be done tenderly and with respect so that the new CEO doesn’t overstep the managers’ responsibilities
• important to keep staff motivated and moving forward
• winning the respect of long-term staff comes with a significant set of constituents who have placed their faith in the staff member
• The CEO who has moved up within the organization faces a unique set of realities
• Often, long-term relationships become at least temporarily tilted as colleagues try to make sense of the change in status
• Wherever possible, internal CEOs need to use indirect power
• The internal CEO has an advantage in creating a learning organization because he is demonstrating all the skills he acquired throughout his career-long learning process
• Clearly, the most powerful CEOs expand the power of those around them
• A CEO who has come up through the ranks will need to develop new sources of information
• CEOs who have come up through their organization will need to work particularly hard to develop structured support from other CEOs or organizational associations because of previous relationships

Chapter 12 - Succession Planning

• Succession planning is often thought of as identifying a person within the organization or hiring an associate who will at some time assume the current leader’s position. This model is often used in corporate settings, but the flaw when applying it to nonprofits is that the board - not the CEO - holds the organization in trust for the community and as a result holds the responsibility for replacing the CEO when necessary
• Nonprofit succession planning is more authentically a process of preparing the organization for leadership change
• done by keeping strategic planning up to date, by continually evaluating the effectiveness of the organization’s programs and staff, and by keeping a vital and active board appropriately engaged
• includes careful hiring and support of professional staff as well as proactive relationships in the community
• demands explicit conversation about how the organization will manage leadership transition when needed
• the organization is then ready to move into a new phase of leadership with healthy systems in place
• When there is even one manager with clear leadership potential, allowing and encouraging a career ladder for them can engender an open environment where work contributions are freely given. Creating a strong pool of leaders benefits all.
• Grooming young leaders can take place in a number of ways:
  • CEO can mentor potential leaders on their own staff or encourage the development of a mentor relationship with another organziation’s CEO
  • organization can fund coursework or individual instruction to build skills and leadership abilities
  • CEOs can place potential leaders in low-risk opportunities for ever-increasing responsibility and expose them to community leaders
• transition from one board president to another can be as momentous or disruptive as the departure of a CEO
• When term limits are in place, succession planning is often more commonplace and seen as normal
• If the board has not instituted term limits, the president may have served longer than the current CEO or even with multiple CEOs
• important, then, for boards to establish orderly succession procedures and to select and groom new presidents, as well as committee chairs, in a timely and thoughtful manner
• following tasks should be familiar by now:
  • Forming a selection committee
  • Writing a job description
  • Developing an interview protocol
  • Making the process clear to the entire organization
  • Introducing the new president to the community
  • Vital for the new president to form a successful working relationship with the CEO
  • Transferring information from the incumbent to the new board president
  • Thanking the outgoing president ceremonially and assisting in his departure
• As with a departing CEO, when it’s time to go, doing so gracefully is a major gift to the organization’s future
• converting him to a friend rather than a board member is part of creating an ever wider universe of support
• This process may seem idealistic, especially to new and small organizations. Is perhaps best thought of as a transition process to aspire to
• Beginning wise processes and procedures early is easier than beginning them when there are established poor habits later on
• departure may be sudden. To prepare for this possibility, experts stress the importance of creating an emergency succession plan. Six core tasks:
  • Create the job description
  • Address short- and long-term challenges
  • Keep a list of potential interim CEOs
  • Provide training on essential tasks to the designated replacement
  • Ensure that relevant information is readily accessible
  • Create a communications strategy
• Leaders who are more effectively supported by the board are more likely to stay for longer periods
• CEOs thrive best when they have access to networks with other leaders, when they have opportunities for continual learning, and when they have or can acquire the needed functional skills
• Another requirement for retaining leaders is for the organization to hire a candidate who fits within the organization’s culture
• A CEO who endeavors to change the culture of an organization without the leadership and support of the board is not likely to remain at the organization for long
• The CEO is more likely to have increased tenure when board members stand behind her during the difficult tasks that are the CEO’s responsibility
• Regardless of the quality of the search process, CEOs are likely to enter their role in the new organization with a few significant gaps in functional expertise. It is incumbent upon the board to help them develop a plan for acquiring such skills or structuring other staff positions to fulfill those functions
• Finally, the board should give public praise to the CEO when it is earner and refrain from blaming or overreacting to the inevitable mistakes that will occur as the CEO endeavors to fulfill broad responsibilities
• Leadership is best conceived broadly, not so much as a moment but as a cycle.
• Skills, structures, processes, and ongoing leadership influence the nature of transitions. The development and nurturing of these skills and processes before a transition and in the months and years after the selection of a new CEO are as critical as the management of the transition

Chapter 13 - Leadership Continuity and Long-Term Governance

• goal of leadership transition is to establish new leadership that will be effective and sustained. That goal can only be measured with time
• This chapter will quickly review the pathway toward good transitions, and then it will propose a set of activities aimed at sustaining and amplifying the gains made
• Passing the Torch has focused on five ways to deal with the ill effects of rapid, frequent leadership turnover and, more importantly, how to turn the crises that are generated by the turnover into opportunities
  • First step is to put a new frame around the turnover and transition process
  • Second step is to review and revise the organization’s general sense of direction
  • Third step is to reconceive the transition from the replacement of one person with another to the replacement of one form of leadership with another
  • Fourth, transition period needs to be managed in a style that serves as a model for all future management
  • Finally, the way to go about doing things during the transition should serve as a model for future leadership
• The shift from one CEO to another is only one of the many important and potentially difficult transitions that mark organizational life. There are many others.
• Methods for enabling the board to move back into its oversight role and to build a working partnership between the board president and the CEO:
  • The board returns to a partnership and relative background position
  • Build an effective CEO-board president relationship
  • Negotiate effective and authentic roles
  • Implement a contract and a covenant
  • Identity narratives
    • In their most exquisite forms, stories portray leaders as the embodiment of their causes and organization
    • identity stories are both fiction and nonfiction
    • Leadership identity narratives are not exactly the same as individual identity narratives. Individual identity stories cover more ground
    • Leadership identity stories focus on the character we bring to work, the roles we assume, and the way that others respond to us
• In addition to well-negotiated roles, expectations, and stories, sustainable relationships among volunteer and professional leadership are based on regularly shared information and interpersonal candor. Broadly speaking, this means feedback, which comes in a variety of forms.
  • Regular, candid conversation between CEOs and board presidents
  • Regular reporting on agreed-upon information
  • Regular CEO performance review
  • Regular board self-evaluations
  • Regular and predictable tests
• Even within the transition period, one event influences another
• As they shift, organizations must avoid quick, narrow responses
• In the long view, leaders and partnerships among leaders may be said to cycle through relatively predictable phases
• Together, intentional continuity and adaptability provide organizations their best shot at ongoing excellence
• Cycle of leadership transitions common to organizations, and the particular management challenges during them:
  • Periods of relative stability
    • assessment
    • performance review
    • succession planning
  • Times of difficulty
    • the habit of conversation and problem-solving
    • utilizing outside expertise
  • Decision to depart
    • developing a transition plan
    • building a transition team
    • building a communication plan
  • Transition period
    • maintaining a well-functioning transition team
    • create job descriptions and strategic plans
    • sustain communication
    • conduct a highly professional search and selection process
  • Introduction, early phases of new leadership
    • effective introduction and support of the new CEO
    • disband the actual functioning of the transition team
  • Introduction of the new board president
    • clarifying the organization’s mission, vision, values, objectives, and strategies
    • orientation
    • nurturing the CEO-president partnership
    • Clarifying CEO-president roles and expectations