Leadership in Civic Sector Organizations

Kevin Kearns, ProfessorGraduate School of Public and International Affairs

University of PittsburghMarch 11, 2009

Research Questions

• What are the most prominent theories and models of leadership?

• Do civic sector organizations have unique characteristics that demand certain leadership skills and perspectives?

• What leadership challenges are civic sector organizations likely to face in the foreseeable future?

What are Civic Sector Organizations?

• Any organized entity that plays a mediating role between individuals on the one hand and the state or the marketplace on the other.

• Exist to channel the collective action of citizens who share common values and interests that are distinct from those of the state, family, or the market.

• Civic sector organizations may be characterized as member serving or public serving

• Strong volunteer component • Fill gaps in programs and services that are not provided

by the state or by the private marketplace

Traditional Theories of Leadership: Warren

Bennis and others Leaders have the following skills, attributes and traits:

• Technical competence: Leaders must have professional literacy and competence in their field.

• Conceptual skill: Leaders must have the ability to think abstractly and strategically.• Track record: Effective leaders have a history of achieving outstanding results.• People skills: Leaders should possess the ability to communicate, motivate, and

delegate to subordinates in order to efficiently achieve the objectives of the organization.

• Taste: Leaders must be skilled in identifying and cultivating emerging talent within the organization, possibly successors who will be able to assume leadership positions.

• Judgment: Leaders must be able to make difficult decisions in a short time frame with imperfect data.

• Character: Leaders should demonstrate honor, integrity, and a commitment to personal values and principles.

Leadership Behaviors (Bennis)Leaders add value to an organization …:

• By providing workers and other stakeholders with meaning and direction, a sense of passion and purpose to the enterprise, and clear vision of goals and direction for the enterprise.

• By building trust with their followers, establishing and nurturing “authentic relationships,” demonstrating truthfulness and candor in their communication, and showing reliability and consistency in the way they behave.

• By providing workers with a sense of hope and optimism, displaying personal self-confidence and showing their energy and commitment to the tasks at hand.

• By being catalysts for action, assuming reasonable risks and demonstrating their courage and discipline for achieving stated goals and objectives.

Problems with Traditional Theories of Leadership

• Leader as “hero”• Leader as “all knowing, all seeing”• Leadership derived from hierarchical position:

– “the exercise of authority, whether formal or informal, in directing and coordinating the work of others”

• Followers portrayed as helpless without the leader

• Leaders are “born” not “made”

Contemporary Theories of Leadership: Boundary Spanning, Servant Leadership, and Level 5

Leadership• Leadership as process of persuasion versus

dictate• Leading from the bottom as well as from the top• Followers not construed as helpless, but actively

engaged• Distinction between leaders and managers not

as distinct– … Every time I encounter utterly first-class managers

they turn out to have quite a lot of the leader in them (Gardner, 2006, p. 19-20).

Boundary Spanning: John Gardner

• Horizon: Leaders think in longer term, beyond today’s problems and challenges, beyond the horizon.

• Perspective: With respect to the unit they lead, leaders think of it in larger perspective, as part of a larger enterprise, in relationship to external conditions, and even in relation to global events and trends.

• External Constituencies: Leaders try to reach and influence constituents beyond their jurisdiction, beyond the boundaries of the organization itself.

• Intangibles: Leaders put heavy emphasis on intangible aspects of influence such as vision, values, and motivation.

• Political Skill: Leaders have political skills to cope with the conflicting demands of multiple constituencies.

• Renewal: Leaders think in terms of renewal, change, and helping the organization to adapt to emerging opportunities and challenges in the world outside.

Servant Leadership: Robert Greenleaf

The best leaders “serve” their followers rather than being served by them• Building Community: Servant leadership is motivated by and evolves from a desire

to improve community. The leadership of institutions is viewed by servant leaders as a means to that objective, not an end in itself.

• Stewardship: Servant leaders view themselves as stewards (caretakers) of precious resources within the organization, including its mission, its people, and its money.

• Commitment to the growth of people: Servant leaders are committed to providing opportunities for personal and professional growth.

• Healing: Servant leaders search for ways to bring ‘wholeness’ to the lives of those they work with, encouraging them to balance work with other endeavors to ensure a healthy and balanced life.

• Empathy: Servant leaders strive for patience, tolerance, and an understanding that we are by our nature imperfect beings.

• Listening: The servant leader responds to a problem by listening first and attempting to build strength in others.

• Service: Servant leaders are willing to stand aside and serve only when asked.

“Level 5” Leadership: Jim Collins• Humility and Drive: Leaders of highly successful companies

displayed a blend of extreme personal modesty and humility with intense professional drive and willpower.

• Channeled Ego: Leaders of these companies channel their ego needs away from themselves and toward the larger goal of building a great organization.

• Ambition Deflected: Leaders of successful companies are ambitious for the organization, not for themselves.

• Capacity Building and Leadership Development: Leaders paved the way for their successor by building the capacity for gradual and sustained long-term success, not short-term dramatic gains.

• Workman-like: Leaders of successful companies have unwavering resolve and a workman-like diligence to produce steady progress toward goals.

• Accountability: Leaders take personal responsibility when things go wrong, but they give credit to others when things go right.

Comparing Leadership TheoriesLocus of leader

Source of the Leader’s Power

Purpose of Leadership

Strategy of the Leader

Metaphor for Leadership

Traditional (top-down) Leadership Models (Bennis)

Top of the organizational hierarchy

Formal authority (position) and knowledge

Develop the vision and strategy for the organization and induce followers to embrace it

Induce followers to embrace the leader’s vision

HeroFatherOrchestra conductor

Boundary Spanning Leadership (Gardner)

Embedded within all levels of the hierarchy, but especially active at the boundaries of the organization

Ability to span diverse contexts and constituencies

Help the organization work in synergy with its environment

Provide linkages between the organization and the environment in which it operates

Bridge builderLiaisonMatch maker

Servant Leadership (Greenleaf)

Embedded within all levels of the hierarchy, even at the very lowest levels

Willingness to serve rather than be served

Foster spirit of community and collective action

Serve followers in accomplishment of their collective mission

ServantSteward

Level 5 Leadership (Collins)

Embedded within all levels of the hierarchy

Workmanlike humility combined with intense personal drive

Build organizational capacity for long-term success

Empower followers WorkerBuilder

Distinctive Characteristics of Civic Sector Organizations

• Throughout history, Civic Sector Organizations have been influenced by competing forces (“impulses” – Salamon, 2009) that affect:– Roles and objectives– The strategy and style of operation– The principle reference groups (stakeholders)– The funding and resource base

Four Impulses Shaping the Future of NGOsLester M. Salamon, 2009

Voluntarism

NonprofitAmerica

Professionalism

CommercialismCivicActivism

The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies

Each “Impulse” Has A Unique and Significant Impact on

Leadership

The Voluntarism ImpulseAccountable To Whom?• Accountable to “value driven”

stakeholders who bring passion and conviction to the mission

• Accountable to volunteers who provide significant human capital

• Accountable to donors and members who voluntarily support the organization and who embrace the values of the organization

• Accountable to clients who embrace value driven service model

Accountable for What?• Accountable for providing “outlet” for

expression of values (including spiritual values) in the civic space

• Accountable for “value-based” explanations of and solutions to social problems and issues (e.g., Jubilee 2000, Alcoholics Anonymous)

• Accountable for transforming lives of individuals via application of value-based interventions and treatments

• Accountable for maintaining tradition• Success or failure usually illustrated

with personal stories or anecdotes, not aggregate empirical data

Voluntarism: Implications for Leadership

• Value-centered: Leaders should mirror the values of the volunteer members and supporters of the organization, reflecting those values in any leadership task.

• Servant oriented: Following the Greenleaf theory, the leader should foster community building, stewardship, healing, and service.

• Pastoral: The leader of value-centered organizations is like the pastor of a “flock” or the shepherd who gently offers counsel and guidance, but recognizes the limits of his or her control over individual and group behavior.

• Holistic: The leader must be oriented toward holistic thinking, viewing followers, clients, and other stakeholders in all of their complexity, avoiding simplistic formulas for success.

• Fluid and Flexible: The leader of volunteer-based organizations must have a high tolerance for informal organic structures and the chaos they sometimes produce.

• Board-Centered: Many civic sector organizations have governing boards that are composed of citizens who volunteer their time to steer the organization and provide policy guidance and directives. Leaders in the civic sector must work very closely with these volunteer governing boards, often walking a delicate balance between their own leadership authority and the authority of the board (Herman and Heimovics, 1991).

The Professionalism ImpulseAccountable to Whom?• Accountable to professional

staff who bring skills and professional standards of performance to the mission

• Accountable to professional associations

• Accountable to informed clients who expect professional treatment

• Accountable to funders and donors who understand the “logic model” of the organization

Accountable for What?• Accountable for mission

accomplishment via theory-based (versus value-based) logic model

• Accountable for demonstrating results and outcomes that can be empirically verified and tested

• Accountable for continuous learning and improvement

• Accountable for meeting professional (“guild”) standards of performance and quality

• Accountable for “best practices”

Professionalism: Implications for Leadership

• Technical competence: Leaders of civic sector organizations, especially those that have become highly professionalized, must be technically competent in the programs and services provided by the organization that they lead.

• Trust and Credibility: Clients as well as professional staff must feel that they can place their trust in the leader of the organization. In order to make a meaningful contribution to solving community problems, the organization must above all be perceived as professionally and technically credible.

• Boundary spanning: Leaders of civic sector organization must be able to build bridges to other organizations and other professionals who can contribute to the resolution of community issues and problems.

• Fact-based accountability: Because professionalism pushes civic sector organizations toward fact-based (versus ideologically based) programs, the leader must provide the catalyst and resources to help the organization demonstrate the outcomes it produces for the community.

• Collaboration and systems thinking: Leaders of professionally based civic organizations must master the art and science of thinking systemically about their mission, understanding that their organization is part of a wider system of resources that can be brought to bear on the problem.

The Commercialism Impulse

Accountable to Whom?• Accountable to “the market”

(need and demand)• Accountable to partners,

venture philanthropists, “investor” philanthropists, social entrepreneurs

• Accountable to clients who expect to be treated like “customers”

Accountable for What?• Accountable for market based

measures of performance such as market share, Social Return on Investment, Cost-Benefit Ratios, Various Financial Ratios of sustainability

• Accountable for exploiting “comparative advantages” to capture niche markets

• Accountable for catalyzing entrepreneurial culture via franchising, replication, and other growth strategies

Commercialism: Implications for Leadership

• Entrepreneurial skills: Entrepreneurs are observant of and empathetic for consumers and their needs. They are skilled at interpreting consumer needs and rapidly mobilizing resources to meet those needs.

• Risk taking: Entrepreneurial leaders take calculated risks. They are extremely skillful at understanding the risks inherent in their ventures and taking all possible steps to minimize or eliminate those risks.

Discipline: Leaders of commercialized civic sector organizations must have the discipline to focus their energy on the organization’s distinctive competencies and comparative advantages. Commercials success is most likely to come when organizations focus on what they do best.

• Versatility: Leaders of commercialized organizations must be versatile to focus both on the charitable mission of the organization as well as opportunities for commercial gain.

• Opportunistic and Decisiveness: Ultimately, however, entrepreneurial leaders must make not waver in making decisions. They know that opportunities are fleeting.

The Civic Activism Impulse

Accountable to Whom?• Accountable to

supporters who view NGOs as vehicles for social change

• Accountable to coalitions and partner organizations

• Accountable to beneficiaries, including future generations

Accountable for What?• Accountable for changing

the allocation of valued goods in society or the rules by which those goods are allocated

• Accountable for future outcomes that can’t be accurately measured in the present time frame

Civic Activism: Implications for Leadership

• Political skill: Leaders of civic activism must, of course, have deep and sophisticated knowledge of political institutions and the decision making processes used by those institutions to make public policy.

• Advocacy: Activist leaders must be skilled at leveraging their political skills to advocate for change, which involves sophisticated skills in framing and articulating issues in ways that are compelling as well as practical.

• Negotiation and conflict resolution: Leaders of activist organizations sometimes work with fragile and volatile coalitions of other organizations whose ideologies or preferred strategies for social change may be at odds with each other. Negotiation and conflict resolution are an integral part of the leader’s responsibilities.

• Tolerance for ambiguity and change: Because advocacy organizations promote change, they themselves are constantly in the midst of change in terms of their structure, the issues they address, their strategic partners, and their methods of operation.

• Judgment: Activist leaders must exercise sound and mature judgment in order to be successful and credible.

• Showmanship and Master of Symbolism: Leaders of civic activism organizations often are the “public face” of the organization and they must be skilled at capturing the attention and the imagination of the media and of other important stakeholders to promote the cause of their organization.

Responding to the Four Impulses

Five Lessons for Leaders of Civic Sector Organizations

Lesson #1• First, the leader of a civic sector organization must begin from

the premise that the mission of the organization is the single most important determinant of their leadership style.

• Far more than government or business organizations, the mission of a civic sector organization determines what it needs from its leader.

• The mission will not only determine how the leader will measure performance and results, but it will also dictate the values, operating philosophies, and culture of the organization.

• The leader must mirror the mission and the values to the employees, volunteers, and external stakeholders.

Lesson #2

Second, the leader of a civic sector organization must answer this question: What can I as the leader do to serve this organization, to truly add value, to help it achieve its mission? The answer to this question will, of course, vary from one organization to another.

The point is that the leader must be prepared to serve the organization and the people in it building on the strengths the organization already has, and if possible addressing its weaknesses.

Lesson #3

• Third, the leader of a civic sector organization must be committed to sustaining and enhancing, if necessary, the organization’s public trust and credibility. Public trust is the most valued asset of a civic sector organization. Without it, not much can be achieved (Kearns, 1996). Building trust will involve identifying essential stakeholders, and understanding what type of performance they expect from the organization. In almost all cases, the leader of a civic sector organization will need to serve as its liaison to the outside world.

Lesson #4 Fourth, the leader of a civic sector organization will need

to have a holistic and systemic perspective on the big picture – how the organization fits into the community it serves and how the organization itself can add value and be an asset to the community.

Civic sector organizations will not build public trust if they are perceived as duplicative or a drain on public resources.

The leader must exercise discipline and wisdom as a steward of the organization’s scarce resources, allocating the wisely and with superior judgment to activities that are truly needed by the community.

Lesson #5

Fifth, and finally, the leader of a civic sector organization must understand that they are not the “owners” of the organization, but rather they are only its temporary guardians or stewards.

Consequently, they must be devoted to helping the organization build the capacity to sustain itself, long after the leader has left. This will involve not only helping to secure resources to sustain the mission, but also developing the leadership skills of everyone in the organization.

Leaders of Civic Sector Organizations Are …

• Part spiritual healer

• Part professional clinician

• Part social change agent

• Part entrepreneur

Leadership in Financial Crisis

• It will be the leader’s responsibility to broker a dialogue with essential stakeholders both inside and outside the organization, working together with these stakeholders, to develop a strategy for deriving maximum value from the resources the organization has to offer. – Mission-driven and value-driven criteria must be established for

determining which services are essential and which services might be divested

• The leader must communicate very clearly how the organization plans to respond, focusing particularly on the mission-based criteria the organization will use to set priorities. – Values, ethics, and accountability will be essential to success.

Financial Crisis (Cont.)• The boundary spanning skills of the leader will be especially

valuable in these difficult economic times. • The leader must be on the lookout for opportunities to collaborate

with other organizations and to take care not to waste resources by unnecessarily duplicating the services of other civic sector organizations.

• At the same time, the leader must be an articulate voice of advocacy for the organization and the people it serves.

• Partnerships and collaborations should be formed carefully, to ensure that the organization is not taking on a partner that is itself so financially stricken that it will be unable to contribute anything of value.

• Discipline and good judgment will be essential leadership skills during the crisis.

Financial Crisis (cont.)

• In these difficult economic circumstances, leaders must be even more mindful that they are stewards and guardians of the organization’s future.

• This will entail not only supreme discipline in the allocation of scarce resources, but also preparing the organization for long-term sustainability and eventual growth.

• Recruiting and developing young talent, for example, is a leadership strategy that can help ensure the organization’s future.

• Also, this is a time when the leader may add value by finding a more diverse and balanced income portfolio for the organization.

Silver Lining in the Dark Clouds• In difficult economic circumstances, organizations have the

opportunity to reassess their core strengths, determine what they do best, and what values are essential to their mission.

• In these circumstances, leaders of civic sector organizations have the opportunity to improve the dialogue within the organization and with outside constituencies.

• There is also the opportunity to share leadership, not only with employees but with volunteers, including the governing board. If the governing board has been under-utilized, then the economic crisis provides the perfect opportunity to re-energize the board and enlist its support in securing the future of the organization.

Thank You!!

Questions / Discussion?