Creating a Leadership Pipeline
Photo by Monica Melton on Unsplash
In the ever-evolving and resource-limited landscape of nonprofit organizations, intentionally cultivating strong leadership is not just beneficial—it's essential. This is not just essential for your organization, but to keep your workforce engaged and growing. Alarmingly, a survey by Nonprofit HR indicates that over 40% of voluntary turnover in nonprofits stems from a lack of opportunities for growth and taking on additional responsibilities.
This turnover highlights a critical need for structured leadership development pipelines. A leadership development pipeline is a strategic initiative designed to proactively build a talent pool of promising individuals who can take on key roles as they become available. These pipelines are designed to identify, nurture, and prepare future leaders within an organization, ensuring a steady flow of capable individuals ready to take on key roles. By investing in leadership development, nonprofits can better navigate challenges and advance their missions.
Leadership Pipeline in Action
To understand the impact of leadership development pipelines, consider the case of One Acre Fund. One Acre Fund, a nonprofit organization that supports smallholder farmers in Africa, was growing rapidly and with that growth was developing a more complex operation. It was soon apparent that the leadership need was out pacing the leadership availability within the organization. As a result of this recognition, One Acre Fund implemented a comprehensive leadership development program.
The program focused on identifying high-potential employees and providing them with targeted training, mentorship, and coaching. Over time, this initiative led to a significant increase in internal promotions, with many leadership positions being filled by individuals who had progressed through the pipeline rather than coming into the organization from the outside. This not only reduced recruitment costs but also ensured that new leaders were deeply familiar with the organization's mission and operational context.
Moreover, the leadership development program at One Acre Fund was an opportunity to develop a diverse set of leaders that better reflected its community of farmers. This approach not only brought various perspectives and innovative solutions to the table, but created an environment that better served the needs of its community.
Practical Steps to Creating a Leadership Development Pipeline
Developing your own leadership development pipeline does not require large resource pools or large staffs of people to execute it. It does, however, require some intentional thought and effort.
Identify Leadership Competencies: Define the skills and attributes needed for leadership roles within your organization. Keep this conversation real. What are the actual skills a leader in your specific organization needs to have? Some will be fairly universal, but some competencies you identify may be very specific to your needs.
Assess Current Talent: Evaluate your current staff to identify potential leaders. Look for individuals who demonstrate problem-solving abilities, take initiative, and show a genuine commitment to the organization's mission.
Develop Training Programs: Create targeted training and development opportunities. Senior leaders or experienced staff can conduct workshops on important leadership topics. Also look for online providers or consider networking with other nonprofits to share resources and expertise.
Mentorship and Coaching: Establish mentorship programs to provide guidance and support to emerging leaders. Remember, here we are thinking about leadership, not just operations. When you assign somebody to mentor a potential leader, encourage them to mentor beyond the actual task.
Succession Planning: Develop a clear succession plan to ensure a smooth transition when leadership roles become vacant. Depending on the size and complexity of your organization, this might not be realistic for every possible position that requires leadership, but it should be a process for key positions at the very least.
Continuous Evaluation: Regularly assess the effectiveness of your leadership development pipeline. Are you not only finding people with leadership abilities, but are they engaging and learning through the process you’ve defined?
Create Opportunities for Leadership
Of course, training is one way to develop leadership skills, but your organization is likely to have practical leadership opportunities that could also be incorporated into your leadership pipeline.
Assign Leadership Roles in Projects: Identify upcoming projects and assign leadership roles to emerging leaders. Use targeted delegation to give staff a chance to practice leadership in risk-appropriate settings.
Rotate Responsibilities: Expose team members to different aspects of the organization. I am not suggesting you necessarily rotate each person for three months in each department, but short assignments to understand what is done in other areas can be important. For your future leaders to have a “bigger picture,” they need to understand what the other parts of that picture might be.
Encourage Participation in Decision-Making: Involve emerging leaders in board meetings, strategy sessions, and planning meetings. Even within their own department or area of responsibility, look for opportunities to ask them to make decisions or at least provide input into the decision-making process.
Provide Regular Feedback and Evaluation: Schedule consistent check-ins to discuss progress, provide feedback, and set development goals. Leadership pipelines, like succession plans, are not intended to be promises for future assignments. Instead, approach the leadership development activities as part of your normal professional development process with staff.
Conclusion
Nonprofits often face resource constraints that can hinder leadership development. However, strategic investments in people development can mitigate issues such as high turnover rates and limited upward mobility. By providing clear pathways for advancement, nonprofits can improve employee retention and satisfaction.
Strong leadership is the backbone of any successful nonprofit. By investing in leadership development pipelines, organizations can ensure they have the right people in place to navigate future challenges and drive their missions forward. Leadership development is an ongoing process that requires commitment and dedication. By leveraging partnerships, utilizing online resources, encouraging peer learning, and prioritizing L&D as a strategic investment, nonprofits can create a culture of continuous learning and growth.