5 Things You Must Do To Make a Difference at Your Non-Profit/Charity

Doing good work, especially in the charity/not-for-profit sector is no different than in business…you need a great team to do truly great things. In many aspects it is even MORE IMPORTANT to have a great team in the charity sector than it is in the for profit world!

It is the people who innovate, the people who creatively work the problems and the people who make the difference. Growing a great team isn’t just important, it is EVERYTHING!!!

Only by focusing on finding, hiring, training & retaining talent, are organizations truly able to even have a chance at fulfilling their mission!

One person alone cannot deliver truly outstanding results. A team can do so much more!!!

So here are 5 points for any non-profit leader to keep in mind as you create your team!

1. LEAD!

The only way you can get there is to aim there. Decide what you want, what you need and most importantly what you EXPECT! Think about tomorrow. Think about next month!

Remember that silly interview question “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” Well, answer that question….and answer it often!!! And then…

2. SHARE THE VISION!

Roxanne Spillett is the former CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. I have had the honor of hearing her speak and talking to her many times in my career. One of the things she taught me and many of us in the Boys & Girls Club movement was as the leader of your organization you are not just the Chief Executive Director but the Chief Executive Repeater! Talk to the team about the vision. Make it part of the every-day culture at your office. Say it so often the team giggles when they hear you say it.

If the team doesn’t know where to aim the arrows who knows where they will hit! And if everyone’s arrows are not aiming in the same direction….well that is chaos not efficiency! How are you supposed to grow, serve your clients and raise the funding you need if the team is not all pointed in the right direction? Next…

3 .RECRUIT THE BEST!

Talent is everything! With dedicated employees who have the skills and the enthusiasm you need no goal is unattainable! Interview lots of talented people. Hire many. Fire some. As has been said before “Hire slow, fire fast.” If they do not fit on your team you will know quickly.

Don’t rush through the team building process! Have second and third interviews, let the candidates do a little pre-hire volunteer work, check references, triple check their social media accounts, and have them interact with key team members. And don’t forget to ask your current team members what they think.

Not that long ago I hired someone that had a long time relationship with a current key employee. After the candidate got hired and CLEARLY DIDN’T work out I asked the employee why she thought that person didn’t work. She told me clearly she could have and would have told me it would have never worked. She had so much more information than I had….and all I had to do was ask! All that time, all the training, all of it could have been saved and applied elsewhere.

And encourage the team members to do some of the recruiting. They know people that will fit in with your team. They ARE YOUR TEAM!!! And then…

4. TRAIN & MENTOR and then TRAIN & MENTOR some more!

There is NO REASON to not train your team! None. Go read the last two sentences again.

Just do it. Spend the time. Spend the money!

I once had a member of my board of director’s talk about how we should not spend money on training. “That is what we hired you for….isn’t it?” he would say. This was a well respected member of the community. He held local office. He ran a prominent restaurant in town. When he spoke, people listened.

18 months later when the 3rd manager of his restaurant left, and his turnover was through the roof the restaurant was a ghost town. But he won re-election.

The point of me telling you this story is simply this, people will tell you this is where to cut the budget, that training is something you don’t need. They are wrong! Better to spend the resources to train someone and have them leave then have employees who do not get expert training on your team.

TRAIN YOUR TEAM! And finally….

5. HAVE NO TOLERANCE FOR THE PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE TEAM MEMBER!

Passive-Aggressive behavior CAN NOT be allowed to infiltrate your team. The easiest way to crush team morale is to allow passive-aggressive behavior to continue. When it pops up….and it will, you must stamp it out. The person who pretends to support the mission, or pretends to support the leader, but does things to sabotage the projects or dissuade team members from following the team goals is much more of a problem than the openly argumentative employee Warn them once, if it happens again they have to go. Sounds blunt, I know. Be blunt!

Document the unacceptable performance immediately. Have the discussion. Make it clear, once a decision is made get on board or get off the bus! This is NOT to say that you want only yes people surrounding you. Healthy disagreement is a necessity for any team. But once the decision is made all team members must be helping accomplish the task!

Keep these 5 points in mind and dream huge…and go do great things!

As always I would love to hear your feedback. Tweet me at @bgcjeff and let me know your thoughts!