What are the connections between leadership and strategy?

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Retaining a strategic focus can be difficult in many nonprofit situations, as they are dependent on the efforts of volunteers, and often on a single charismatic leader. Relationships with those who provide material resources can create awkward dependencies, creating constraints for taking decisive action for the benefit of the organization. Keeping a board focused on the mission and core competence can be challenging as the organization matures and changes, and the demands placed on a leader in turn evolve. Ensuring that a board will fulfill its role requires considered management attention to board composition and working arrangements, and alignment with priorities.

You have recently been hired as the executive director of a non profit organization, with 50 employees. As the new executive director you have been told the organization does not have a strategic plan.

Our text lists a Ten-Step Strategic Planning Process (chapter 9 of our textbook).

Besides the textbook — refer to the The Problem with Strategic Planning by Neil Edgington.

The Problem with Strategic Planning by Neil Edgington.

The Problem with Strategic Planning
The term “strategic plan” has become so misused and abused in the nonprofit sector that it has almost become meaningless. So many organizations have undergone a poor strategic planning process. But the fact remains that to be truly effective at creating social change a nonprofit organization MUST have a strategy for the future and a plan for how they will get there.
There are some very clear ways that a good strategic plan differs from a poor one:
A good strategic plan starts from an in-depth understanding of the outside community marketplace in which the nonprofit operates (trends in clients, funders, competitors, etc). Whereas a bad strategic plan is created in a vacuum among only board and staff. One nonprofit told me that at a board retreat years ago, board members were asked to write their goals for the organization on post-it notes, which were then tacked all over the room and voted on. And like that, their strategic plan was born.
A good strategic plan forces the organization to articulate its value proposition, i.e. how the organization uniquely uses community inputs to create significant social value (change to a social problem). A poor strategic plan fails to articulate a value proposition and assumes that everyone outside the organization loves it and understands its value just as much as everyone inside the organization.
A good strategic plan puts everything on the table and allows no sacred cows. Board members with pet interests are reigned in and staff members who are not contributing are encouraged to realign themselves with the new plan. A poor strategic plan only deals with the easy or non-controversial issues and leaves the difficult questions aside.
A good strategic plan makes sure that the strategy for programs is aligned with the organization’s business and financial model so that the resulting strategic plan includes programs, financing and operations in an integrated way. A poor strategic plan focuses only on programs and assumes that the money will somehow follow.
A good strategic plan includes a tactical plan so that the broad goals are broken down into individual steps to get there. This allows the organization to monitor and revise the plan on an on-going basis. A poor strategic plan has no tactical plan or monitoring system attached to it. Once approved, staff or board don’t see it again and it certainly doesn’t drive the day-to-day activity of the organization.
A good strategic plan is inspiring and compelling to potential funders. It sets forth a bold vision for the future and a specific road map for getting there, which inspires confidence and investment. A poor strategic plan is boring, maintains the status quo, and elicits only nominal external support.
It’s not enough to go through the “strategy” motions. A real strategic plan is bold, compelling, tactical, well-financed, integrated and inspiring. It gets everyone (staff, board, funders, volunteers, clients) moving forward in a common direction from which real change flows.

Discussion Questions

What are the connections between leadership and strategy?

What are your first steps in the strategic planning process?

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