Mission-Based Management

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Mission-Based Management

• Leading Your Not-for-Profit in the 21st Century
• Peter Brinckerhoff
• 26 February, 2014

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Your Presenter

• Peter Brinckerhoff
• Corporate Alternatives, inc.
• 1-217-341-3836
• peter_at_missionbased.com
• www.missionbased.com

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Three Core Philosophies

1. Your organisation is a mission-based business.
2. No one gives your organisation a dime!
3. Nonprofit does not mean no profit!

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What Works? Nonprofits that succeed

• A viable mission statement
• Ethical, accountable and transparent
• A businesslike board
• Strong, well-educated staff
• Embrace technology for mission.
• Social Entrepreneurs

• A bias for marketing
• Financially empowered
• A vision for where you are going.
• Tight controls
• All of these characteristics work together.

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What is a Mission-Based Manager?

• Someone who balances mission needs with available
  resources.
• Someone who innovates, and takes risk on behalf
  of the people the organisation serves.
• Someone who leads by example, motivating their
  staff, board, and community.
• Someone who can communicate effectively.

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Now, two starting questions.....

• For each question, you have one minute to write
  down your answer. Then your table will discuss
  for 10 minutes. Make sure each person gets to
  contribute. At the end of that time, well talk
  about what youve learned, or what was the most
  prevalent answer, or the most unexpected.
• Make sure you have at least five people at your
  table.
• Ready?

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Question 1 Moving toward a competitive model,
what is your organisations biggest barrier to
success?

• Write for one, talk for 10, and Ill call on each
  table for common issues.

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Question 2 What can you personally do as a
leader to help overcome your barriers? Be
specific!

• Again, write for one, talk for 10.

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Mission Statements

• Key Philosophy
• Your mission statement is your most valuable
  resource. Its also one that can be better used,
  if you are willing to put in the time and
  leadership to do so.

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Getting more from your mission statement.

• First, is the mission statement the one you want
  to follow?
• Does it describe who you are, what you do, who
  and where you serve?
• Does it use appropriate language?
• Does it motivate you?
• Does it fit on the front of a T-shirt?
• Second, file any changes with the government.

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Using the mission statement.

• Its a Management tool
• Board and staff meetings
• Johnnie/Jennie stories
• Beat the click!
• Its a Staff Motivator
• Its a Volunteer recruiter
• Its a Fund Raiser

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Tea Time!

• Please be back in 15 minutes!

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Ethics, Accountability and Transparency

• The mission is the why of your nonprofit.
• Ethics, Accountability and Transparency are how.
• All of these must start inside the organisation.
  Its not just for outsiders
• All of these require personal leadership.
• All of these are risky-you can easily fall off
  the pedestal.

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Start with Values

• State your case in your values.
• Think these through collaboratively, and dont
  just put obvious things in.
• Have values that require discussion to implement.
• Be analog not digital.
• Googles key value?
• Dont have values you cant live with.
• Share and amend as needed.

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More on values

• Use your values in your employee and volunteer
  recruitment.
• Use your values as a management and
  decision-making tool.
• Enforce values in your behavior management.
• Be public-hold yourself accountable!

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Have some values.

• Respect We will treat others as we would like to
  be treated. We do not tolerate abusive or
  disrespectful treatment.
• Integrity We work with customers and prospects
  openly and sincerely. When we say we will do
  something we will do it. When we say we cannot or
  will not do something then we wont do it.
• Communication We have an obligation to
  communicate. Here, we talk the time to talk to
  each other.and to listen. We believe that
  information is meant to move and that information
  moves people.
• Excellence We are satisfied with nothing less
  than the very best in everything we do. We will
  continue to raise the bar for everyone. The great
  fun here will be for all of us to discover just
  how good we can really be.

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Ethics in your nonprofit

• Two old (and still correct) credos
• Treat others the way you want to be treated.
• The right thing to do is the smart thing to
  doand the smart thing to do is the right thing
  to do.
• Sounds tritebut really profound.
• How do people want to be treated?
• How is right also smart?
• Hold people (and yourself) accountable but allow
  for mistakes.
• If you dont like the ethics of the people around
  you and youre the leaderlook to yourself
  first.John Maxwell

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Accountability

• Take responsibility for your own actionsand fess
  up when you mess up.
• Everyone knows that everyone makes mistakes. What
  people want to see is how you lead through your
  errors.
• Then start with internal accountability by being
  public with expectations to both staff and board.
• Budget, work plans, strategic plans and ethics.
• Finally, let your community know what your plans
  are and ask them to help you by holding you
  accountable.

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What do we measure?

• Measure outcomes, not activity.
• Measure against mission.
• Measure methods against values.
• Go very public.

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Transparency

• Share your information inside the organisation.
• Share your information outside the organisation.
• Use tech to the max to do this.

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Leading Your People

• Key philosophy
• Your organisation needs good staff a lot more
  than your good staff need your organisation!

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Leadership in Nonprofits

• You have to lead from the frontbe visible and
  accessible.
• People dont care how much you know until you
  know that you care. ---John Maxwell.
• Be a mission cheerleader.
• Trust that you dont know everything...even the
  youngest, newest, least educated employee may be
  able to solve a problem better than you.

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Bottom-up management

• Treats management as a support function, not a
  restrictive one.
• Values direct service staff above all.
• Pushes decisions as close to the line of service
  as possible.
• Flips the organisation chart upside down.
• Works in competitive environments and with
  younger workers.

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The traditional model

• This traditional organisational chart was
  developed for large organisations in
  non-competitive environments.
• It worked-under those conditions.

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The improved model

• By valuing the people who deliver service,
  training them, and empowering them, the
  organisation is more responsive, flexible,
  provides higher quality service and is more
  competitive.
• And staff stay longer.

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Components of bottom-up management.

• You are an enabler, not a restrictor.
• Treat others the way you would like to be
  treated.
• Be a leader, but be willing to follow.
• When you are praised, pass it on when
  criticized, take the fall.
• They are not your staff. You are their
  supervisor.
• Thus the supervisors job is to get the tools and
  training in the hands of those closer to the line
  of service, to encourage, coach, mentor them, and
  to let them do their jobs.

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This also requires

• Good delegation
• Delegating both the work and the authority.
• Holding people accountable for outcomes not
  process.
• Good evaluation
• Constant, supportive and firm.
• And, when someone other than you has a great
  idea....follow it.....

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Holding on to your core values

• Not all changes are for you.
• Review new opportunities in light of your mission
  and values.
• Try to pick those opportunities that make you
  more mission-capable.

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Questions?

• Questions on anything weve covered?

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More reading for you

• Mission-Based Management, 3rd Edition, by Peter
  Brinckerhoff
• The Three Signs of A Miserable Job, by Pat
  Lencioni
• Developing the Leader Within You, or Developing
  the Leaders Around You, both by John Maxwell
• Begging for Change, by Robert Eggar

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Thanks for having me!

• Remember to e-mail with any questions!