Tuesday, February 25, 2014

What It Takes to be a Successful Nonprofit Leader in Changing Times?

Successfully managing and leading a nonprofit is very challenging—particularly in times of change like we are now in.  This is why Bay Path’s Nonprofit Management and Philanthropy program trains students to be critical thinkers and creative problem solvers so they can develop novel solutions to the uncharted challenges their organizations are likely to face in the future.   

These program goals came to mind this morning while I was out walking my dog, Charlie, and listening to a Podcast (Episode 128) about how a consulting company in Copenhagen uses the human sciences to help solve the hardest business problems of their clients.   At minute 34 a particularly interesting discussion begins about the different skills a successful CEO must exhibit in stable vs. dynamic times.   Essentially, the discussants say that in stable times a successful CEO can simply oversee the regular performance of routine operations while in changing times s/he must also ask and answer the “why” questions in order to correctly understand--and proactively meet-the change that is occurring inside and outside their organization.   Thoughts?  


(Don’t be put off by the “cool/hip” language of the interviewers.  The guest speakers are thoughtful and interesting.)   

No comments:

Post a Comment