Nonprofit Leadership: Two Ways to Create an Effective Nonprofit Team
Effective teams are essential to your nonprofit. I’ve been a part of teams that worked so well together, everything ran smoothly, and there were no major issues. But I’ve also been a part of teams that were the opposite.
So how do we create effective teams?
That’s what we’re exploring on today’s episode with Beth Napleton, an executive leadership coach and consultant who helps senior leaders lead through layers.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
02:26 Beth’s background: Helping senior leaders lead through layers
08:17 The biggest killers of a team
09:58 Remedying these team killers
13:25 Finding time and capacity to address organizational development as a leader
18:24 Learning and Development has an important part to play in team development
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Nonprofit Leadership: Two Ways to Create an Effective Nonprofit Team
Effective teams are essential to your nonprofit.
I’ve been a part of teams that worked so well together, everything ran smoothly, and there were no major issues.
We each felt like we could have our voice.
We could share ideas and opinions.
We could disagree.
We got excited about new ideas and new possibilities.
We were able to brainstorm creative solutions to problems.
At the end of the day, that is an ideal team experience in a lot of ways.
But… I've also been on other teams. And you may have been on teams like this too.
Teams where we couldn't seem to really agree on anything.
Teams where a missed deadline was just expected (I'll send out this deadline, but I know you won't meet it).
Teams where people just didn't really communicate.
I don't want that for your nonprofit. I want you to have an organization filled with teams that work well.
So how do we do it? How do we create those teams? What's the secret? I’ve invited Beth Napleton to share all the juicy secrets for creating teams that thrive.
In this blog post, we’re covering the following:
Beth is an executive leadership coach and consultant who helps senior leaders lead through layers.
1) The Biggest Killers of Team Performance
Beth explains that there are many ways to kill a team. She shares two examples.
1. Lack of Trust
Beth explains that a lack of trust can sink your team really fast.
“It can just absolutely erode teams, and it is virtually impossible to work together to make the world better if you don't trust the people you work with. And I think what's challenging about trust is that it's very quickly torn down, but it takes a long time to build.” - Beth Napleton
Beth explains that it’s a bit like heart disease, it takes a lifetime to write but then all of a sudden, it hits swiftly.
2. Teams not working together
Beth paints the picture of a kayak with five riders. Each has a paddle, but they are all trying to move in a different direction. All that ends up happening is that the kayak moves in circles.
Beth sees this all the time with the teams she works with.
This can be due to a fear of conflict, poor communication, or people with their own agendas.
“I think that a lot of times, you have a group of people who all play a different instrument sitting on stage, but they're not playing from the same songbook. And I see that really hurting teams all over the place.” - Beth Napleton
2) Two Ways Nonprofit Leaders Can Build Effective Teams
Beth explains that there isn’t only one path to success, but there are some common ingredients and it is crucial that a leader is supporting the team.
“I think that it really is much more likely to succeed if the leader is behind it and bought into it.” - Beth Napleton
STEP 1: While it can be tempting to just jump into action, the first step is to take a step back and observe what is happening for a week.
“You see these problems, and they're bothering you. And I can tell they're bothering you. But just keep a little sheet in your notebook, keep a note in your phone, and write down these pieces.” - Beth Napleton
For example, the conversation may have been set off by a discussion around the review process. However, once you observe for a week, you may find that people aren’t being direct to each other in meetings. They're not bringing up their problems with the source.
“There are little problems that are becoming bigger and nobody's addressing them.” - Beth Napleton
Beth explains that this is often why people will bring in consultants, or do surveys, to try and gather all this data.
Only once you have observed, can you start to think about the problem more holistically.
STEP 2: Look at the data and decide what you want to change and where you want to go.
“I think once you have a sense of where we are and where we want to go, then you can start to say, what is our plan to get from A to B?” - Beth Napleton
Do you want to start with the group that's really enthusiastic about it?
Do you want to apply it to everyone?
How do want to time it with a calendar year?
How much energy do you have?
Do you want to take on a big project or start with small changes?
“Sometimes people feel like to overhaul culture, there's got to be so many huge things that happen. And I actually think that you can really impact that culture and dynamic of any team and group, often by starting small and just being really consistent and working towards that bigger vision as well.” - Beth Napleton
It doesn't necessarily have to be a new or difficult problem to solve when you break it down into the steps of the process.
Take a step back and observe.
Identify where you are and your starting point.
Figure out where you want to be.
Map your path to get there.
Those steps are true of almost anything you want to do in life. Why is it then that leaders don't do these things? We’re discussing that next.
3) Barriers to Team Building as a Nonprofit Leader
Beth explains that there are a couple of reasons why leaders don’t take these steps.
1. Our teams are human.
“If I know that loud Larry never wants to change anything and is going to pitch a big fit, I as a leader can develop a trained response to want to avoid anything that would evoke that. [...] Or if this person just got a tricky diagnosis and is struggling with health issues, or this person was on maternity leave. And so I think there's always a reason you can look to delay it.” - Beth Napleton
2. It doesn’t seem like it’s directly serving the mission.
Creating an effective team is often not high on the priority list because people don’t think it is directly impacting the mission.
It's not client serving.
It's not client facing.
It doesn't have a compliance deadline.
There's no money attached to it through a grant.
“But what people don't realize is that when you have a strong culture, and you have a team where everyone's moving in the same direction, it's like pouring fuel on a fire, right? You can really supercharge your impact.” - Beth Napleton
3. Leaders are at capacity.
“Nobody has enough time and nobody has enough capacity. I don't know a leader who's sitting around a nonprofit thinking, ‘What should I do this afternoon?’ Instead, they've got a list of 100 things and they need to pick two.” - Beth Napleton
Beth explains that one of the reasons she thinks that people bring people in to do this work is because it's someone to hold you accountable.
“Your role as a leader is to make sure that it's getting done, which it will because you're hiring a professional.” - Beth Napleton
Beth explains that by outsourcing this work, the leader can also participate in it.
“I don't have to facilitate this focus group; I can actually participate. I don't have to be the one who synthesizes the survey results; I can just take them in and take my own learning away. It actually lets me be a learner, which I think is unusual when you're in charge of humans at an organization.” - Beth Napleton
L&D can help your leaders overcome some of these objections.
4) Learning and Development’s Role in Team Development
Beth explains that L&D is essential to this conversation and it looks different in every nonprofit.
1. Mindset Work
“There's something powerful in just like unpacking and unlearning and being like why do you think that? How strongly held a belief is that? Where does that come from?” - Beth Napleton
Beth explains that even if people get uncomfortable with conversations that seemingly don't go anywhere, even just having the conversations can leave you in a different place and thinking from a different perspective.
2. Personal Development
“I don't know that you can go between point A and point B without L&D at some level.” - Beth Napleton
Beth explains that so often people will start doing something and just assume that it will work.
“We actually have to move people along this continuum. And we have to help their own development and help them grow.”- Beth Napleton
It is through an individual’s personal development that a nonprofit can make the greatest impact.
“This is what we're here for. As we help people grow, we help them become stronger, we help them become more competent so that we can get to the place we want to be, so that we can make the impact that we want to make on this pressing social issue that we're grappling with.” - Beth Napleton
To hear the full conversation I had with Beth Napleton on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 76.
The Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective
Do you wish you could connect with other nonprofit learning and development leaders?
I know what it feels like to want someone to bounce ideas off of and to learn from, someone who really understands you and your work. Imagine if you could have a simple way to meet people in the field, ask questions, and share information.
That's why I created the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective – so nonprofit L&D, talent management, and DEI leaders can connect with each other quickly and easily in a virtual space.
When you join this community, you will walk away with a new, diverse, and powerful network – and a sounding board for your staff development needs.
So if you're ready to exchange ideas and collaborate with your peers, come join the Nonprofit L&D Collective.
