Beyond-the-Walls Leadership - 3

Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod spent the last four years studying a dozen of the most successful U.S. nonprofits of our time. The groups included the well-known (Habitat for Humanity, Teach for America), the less known (Self-Help, YouthBuild USA), and the surprising (Exploratorium and The Heritage Foundation).
 
Their secrets to success, as told in their book, Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits? To achieve wide scale, systemic social change, the social entrepreneurs must influence institutions beyond their four walls.
 
Great nonprofits:
1. Work with government and advocate for policy change
2. Harness market forces and see business as a powerful partner
[See the first discussion here]
3. Convert individual supporters into evangelists for their causes
4. Build and nurture nonprofit networks
[See the second discussion here]
5. Adapt to the changing environment
6. Share leadership
 
This is the third of a three part discussion series and focuses on the fifth and sixth of Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits practices: “Adapt” and “Share Leadership.”  See also Part 1 for Advocacy and Business Partnerships and Part 2 for Evangelists and Networking.

For social entrepreneurs, adaptability is encoded in their very DNA. It’s the key to survival as well as an instrumental component to success. As Charles Darwin observed, it’s not the swiftest, or even the smartest, of the species that survive in the end-- it’s those that are the most adaptive. Adaptability encompasses the unique ability to balance creativity and innovation with disciplined systems and business planning processes. That way, successful nonprofits don’t get stuck in old ways or mired in bureaucracy; but they also aren’t overwhelmed by unbridled creativity and rampant innovation that can dilute their efforts across too many program areas.
 
“Share Leadership" involves the ability of successful nonprofit leaders to let go and share power with those around them—including founders! This does not mean that the founders and CEOs of the 12 nonprofits we studied aren’t extremely powerful leaders with exceptional entrepreneurial talents. But we think their success is inextricably tied to their ability to share that power with others, giving true authority and accountability to their senior management team, and finding ways to engage their board as leaders for the organization as well.
 
 
Some questions that this raises include:
 
1. Social entrepreneurs are known for introducing innovative ideas, and the typical social entrepreneur will inevitably produce many social innovations over the course of their lives. The challenge is how to harness all of that creative energy and develop strategies for focusing on a limited number of opportunities to achieve maximum impact. How have social entrepreneurs overcome this challenge?
 
2. Founders are notorious for their inability to let go of their organizations—it’s their baby after all! What strategies have you seen work to help Founders ease off the reigns and share power so that they don’t become the stop-gap that’s holding the organization back? What hasn’t worked?
 
3. Our “share leadership” findings resonate closely with Jim Collins’ “Level 5 Leader” concept, which he introduces in his business management book, Good to Great, and with his observations about the need for nonprofit leaders adopt “legislative leadership” abilities, which he writes about in his monograph, Good to Great for the Social Sectors. How have these frameworks helped Social Edge participants think about honing their own leadership potential?

Join Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant in the conversation.