Reel world

The not-for-profit world has emerged as an attractive destination for many corporate executives who desire change – to step off the rat race, to reorder priorities or to just do something meaningful in life.

For the non-profit world, the envisioned benefits of bringing in corporate executives are many – from execution focus to process maturity and a plethora of qualities that fuel organization success.

Real world

Meenu (name changed) was an advertising executive who was keen to work with children. An opportunity presented itself with an NGO and she jumped into it. Over the months, her tone gradually changed from unbridled enthusiasm to deep despondency. She was determined to fit in – but the harder she tried, the more difficult it seemed to get.

As she found it difficult to deliver on her objectives, she pushed herself and others harder and it kept becoming even more difficult. The thing that frustrated her most was, “why cant people just focus on getting things done, why is it so important to always involve everyone and slow things down?”.

Shalini (name changed) was an extremely successful and driven investment banker. She was a role model for many. Shalini had always been interested in the environment. One smoggy evening, while coughing in discomfort, she decided to take direct action. Within 3 months she had made the switch and joined as the Country Head of a well known environment NGO.

We met 9 months after that. I was her Coach. Things had not turned out the way she expected. Her “team” was resentful of her; none of her ideas had gone through. The trustees couldn’t help. Soon – she was living under the spectre of failure. “Why don’t they accept me?” was her plaintive call for help.

In reality- many who make the change find the shift challenging; and many an organization hiring ex-corporate honchos at senior levels have found these hires to be ineffective.

There are striking parallels between narratives of people who found the chasm deeper and wider – and these offer lessons for the “Corporate” executive to learn when dealing with mission and/or volunteer driven organisations. These lessons are drawn from observations based on my experience of working with over 50 leaders from the not-for-profit and an equal number from the corporate world, in my capacity as an Executive Coach.

I will cover the structural, strategic, cultural and behavioral lessons that each corporate executive and each not-for-profit organization on the springboard must pay heed to.

1. Multiple Bottom Lines

The corporate bottom line is a well defined and measurable metric. Not so for a Not-for-profit. Apart from hard money numbers, the organisation has to, among other things, deliver the “social good” and deliver on “living by the values”. These deliverables are as non-negotiable to the organisation as profit is to a corporate. Often, the measures are anecdotally articulated, but not very definite.

Like any good business executive, Shalini (see story above) had seen the accounts and arrived at the conclusion that raising money was the number one priority. She focused all her energies on that. Her conversations, daily reviews started with and centered around money talk. While that approach would have been great in a “for profit” environment, it was inappropriate here.

2. Multiple structures – multiple styles

Most NGOs have a mix of 2 or 3 different kinds of “employees”.

a. Full time employees – They usually man key functions (like programme, resource mobilization, content, finance). Traditional structures and talent management processes may work better here. Having common goals, open communication and a visible personal growth path works well. This is reasonably similar to the corporate structure.

b. Project-based Staff – These are time bound hires and linked to specific funded projects. These employees are often more married to the projects than to the organisation. Most hope to be able to lengthen their employment and see a programme mission through to its fruition. Often – this implies a future beyond the current donor funding and project. These are the accidental mercenaries who long to belong. They need to be given the sense of belonging and while they are there treated in exactly the same way as full time employees. A corporate’s approach to project-specific contractual staff is often the polar opposite of how a Not-for-profit looks at their contract employees.

c. Volunteers – This is a workforce that corporate executives rarely understand. A set of people who offer their time for free are very different from those working for money, growth, power. They are probably looking to be gainfully occupied, really do something meaningful or get “credits” for school/college programmes. The volunteer comes with a “moral superiority” that has to be understood and managed. They need flexibility, recognition of their “sacrifice”, and understanding of their need for purpose and self worth. Giving them a sense of purpose and belonging, being always respectful and finding ways to reward and recognise them without ever “owning” them are critical.

The mode is ‘service leadership’ rather than ‘command leadership’.

We will now look at the lessons from the behavioral and cultural areas.

3. Build Consensus Or Else

Non profit leaders often have less authority than their for profit counterparts. This is partly because they have to honor the needs of disparate groups –  partner organisations may have mission conflicts with a funding organisation, the government may have different priorities and there may be no leadership consensus on priorities. Because the mission and purpose is so important, all people have to be taken along.  “You have to have a much more consultative, inclusive decision-making style,” adds Peter Goldmark, who was president of the Rockefeller Foundation for nine years in between publishing stints at the Times Mirror Company and the International Herald Tribune.

“You have to lead by consensus and by influence as opposed to by pure management,” explains David Chernow of JA Worldwide (Junior Achievement). He says this lesson was seared into him when Junior Achievement merged its international and U.S. operations.  You can’t just come in here and wield a stick and make things happen.

But it takes time to persuade and build. All too frequently, for-profit executives who venture into nonprofit leadership expect to drive big changes as fast as they did in the for-profit world. They often fail to consult with key stakeholders before making important decisions. They don’t give the organization time to get to know and trust them. And they don’t take the time to get to know the organization’s culture, informal power structures, and ways of working.

The resulting disingenuous conflicts can damage the organization and its mission in manifold ways. The remedy to this problem may be obvious, but that doesn’t mean it is easy to implement. Nonprofit neophytes need to get down to knowing the organization and understand all stakeholders’ perspective before they earn the acceptance to drive change.

4. Not just the “What” but also the “How”

1. Ability to subsume ego and not make it about “self”- When the “I” surfaces increasingly in communication and thought, it is bound to be in conflict with many other “I’s” that feel equally fiercely about the cause/mission or their own point of view. As a corollary, credit stealing in not-for-profit is likely to be met with even greater distaste. It results in questioning integrity and intent and a breakdown of trust.
2. Empathy –  listening to what the other has to say, their motivations, making them feel heard and deciding with all perspectives taken into account.
3. Respectful communication as table stakes-  For those who are fired by the altruistic, there is very little as demeaning as being spoken to disrespectfully or being spoken down to. On the other hand the one who speaks respectfully to ALL stakeholders has the higher chance of influencing and getting things done.
4. The difficult art of Shared Leadership to be lived every day- Everyone has to roll up their sleeves and do real work. By contrast, the “ordering”, “memo writing” – “bossy” behaviour is most likely to be met with hostility.

5. The People Connect

At the end of the day, the not for profit mission is about doing some good or correcting some wrong, usually for the most disadvantaged or disempowered. The leader’s connect with the beneficiary and empathy for the cause are essential for a leader’s credibility and position. When a corporate leader steps into the sector, spending time to understand and connect and showing that ultimately that is the most important part of the job for them, will help them gain the trust and acceptance to succeed.

After the Inferno – �the Paradiso.

Shalini learnt that she has to be perceived as more mission focused. She worked with the team to conceive a new program in Uttarkhand and today has the organisation rallying behind her. They are now listening to her when she talks about “organisational sustainability” and the need for raising money and watching costs.

Meenu has learnt the art of asking “What do you think about it? Do I have your concurrence? What can I do to help you?” And she finds herself included a lot more.

Tail piece

While the posts have focused on the not-for-profit world, there are lessons that corporates too can take away from this.

Behavioral muscles that help in dealing with rapid changes in the environment, “partnerships” as a default mode of operation, employees on flexi hours, the “millennials”, virtual offices are what corporate leaders have to develop. These are the muscles that not-for-profit leaders exercise all the time

1. The use of Influence to get things done and move people
2. Empathy, respectful communication
3. Consensual decision making
4. Shared Leadership

I hope you have enjoyed reading these posts – for those who have and those who want to – do let us know what you feel and share your personal observations if possible.

Sources –  LSE Research (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/29022/1/cswp1.pdf) , Susan J Ellis – Differentiating between Volunteering and Working for Pay (https://www.energizeinc.com/hot-topics/2010/january), Kerry Hannon (http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryhannon/2011/11/25/how-to-prepare-for-non-profit-work/), Les Silverman & Lynn Taliento, Stanford Social Innovation Review – 2006 (http://ssir.org/articles/entry/what_business_execs_dont_know_but_should_about_nonprofits)

I owe a debt of gratitude to Sashwati Banerjee – MD Sesame Workshop India, Geetanjali Mishra – ED CREA, Sohini Bhattacharya – Director Breakthrough and Ritesh Koshik – CFO, Sesame Workshop India for their active inputs in this piece.