Coaching and the non-profit executive

As a nonprofit executive, he chose his profession for many reasons. Chief among those reasons was his desire to dedicate his time and energy to a worthy cause due to his belief in his ability to be an agent of change, build a better community, and serve people in need. .

Over the past seventeen years, I have found in my experiences as an executive and trainer in the nonprofit (NFP) sector that the vast majority of executives have come to their positions after beginning their careers as workers. social, fund-raiser, or program staff or other entry level opportunity. Typically, we were hired because of our particular abilities to do a particular job. As we have excelled in our positions, we have been promoted to supervisor and moved up the organization with few opportunities to develop and learn leadership and managerial skills.

Additionally, as we moved up the organization, we faced an increasing need to be involved in the business aspects of our organizations, such as hiring, training, and supervising employees, financial planning, business management, facility management, and long-term decisions. that affect the future. of our organizations.

There are still relatively few opportunities to study nonprofit management available today, and the field was virtually nonexistent twenty or thirty years ago when many of my contemporaries and our current executives were in college.

Change is constant and in order to adapt to new trends, technologies, demographics or the many other components that affect our organizations, we need to adapt and change our organizations and ourselves. Furthermore, if we are interested in developing to meet ever-increasing needs and expectations while balancing the challenges of our personal and organizational lives, we must find ways to develop our skills, knowledge, and attitudes in ways that improve outcomes and build capabilities. both on an organizational and personal level.

I have found that one of the best ways an NFP leader can learn new skills and balance the challenges of a modern, vital organization is by working with a certified professional coach. A good coach with strong nonprofit experiences understands the challenges of nonprofits and can help you find renewed clarity, commitment, and connection to her organization. In addition, your coach will enable you and your organization to function at a high and effective level of performance.

As a nonprofit executive, he is faced with delivering results in a wide range of areas including programs, fund development, staff, clients, boards of directors, volunteers and the community at large. And, in order to work at a high level of achievement, it is more important that you find balance in your personal life as well, including focus on your family and ethics and beliefs, the financial, mental, social and physical aspects of life. By creating a balance between the organizational and personal aspects of your life, you can achieve more and establish a greater sense of well-being. A coach will help you identify and clarify your areas of strength, potential, and limitations, and develop and prioritize the specific goals you need to set to move you and your agency forward.

The coaching process helps you identify the best results you want in your life. Once this is done, his coach will help him create specific goals, both short and long term, that will develop the positive behavior changes he needs to achieve his desired results. To achieve those goals, the coach will help him develop the skills and knowledge he may need to do so. And ultimately, his coach will help him understand the power that attitude brings to his ability to succeed.

By identifying, developing, and setting goals, you’ll be able to achieve the vision you’ve created for yourself and your agency, overcome obstacles in your path, and create a sense of balance that will bring renewed energy.

One of the key benefits an executive receives from coaching is the ability to develop, recognize, and achieve the right action. Right action exists when you bring together the right people to do the right things in the right way at the right time for the right reasons to achieve the right results! These steps ultimately lead to the creation of the results that best benefit the organization and the executive.

A good coach will help you reframe issues and move you “outside your box” to help you see your organization independently of the relationships you have with your stakeholders. Your coach, drawing on his own experiences, skills, and integrity, will guide you to a clear understanding of the right action and the steps you need to take to be successful, whether it is focusing on a particular situation or establishing a plan of action that will help you. allow to write your own future.

According to nationally recognized coach David Herdlinger, “Coaching is a highly attuned and powerful problem-solving and communication process. The relationship between coach and client is ‘co-creative.’ customer interest challenges. A coach will allow you to reveal and unleash the potential that lies within you.

Coaching is not the same as consulting, as coaching allows the person being coached to discover for themselves the right action that will lead to peak performance rather than identifying that action for yourself and prescribing the steps to achieve it. A coach does not offer solutions, but rather helps you discover your own abilities and how to use them to be more effective.

In the wonderful book 212 Degrees by Sam Parker and Mac Anderson, the authors point out that the power that is created by raising the temperature of the water from 211o to 212o. It is at that point that the water boils. Also, boiling water has the power to drive steam engines and produce energy. A difference of one degree creates a lot. Parker and Anderson write about that title, applying it to many aspects of life where “seemingly little things can make a big difference.”

Working with a coach can be that degree of difference you can make to achieve better results and greater capacity for your personal life and your organization. By taking that step, he will be more prepared and transformative, identify sixteen opportunities, and create the world-changing energy he sought when he entered the nonprofit profession. Those of us in the NFP field are challenged “not to sit idly by.” What would you be able to accomplish by taking the right action to work with a coach?