Nine Points Every Nonprofit Leader Should Know
Nine points I believe everyone needs to practice to be a successful nonprofit social entrepreneur and leader.
- Look for people’s strengths; set team members up for success by focusing them on what they are good at.
- Look for passion in team members; experience is not necessary. Passion is what matters.
- Accept people’s inadequacies; no one is perfect.
- Nothing is perfect, ever.
- Empowerment and trust; are the foundational building blocks of a leader.
- Empathize; you have no business in the NPO/NGO sector if you cannot do this.
- Results matter; impact grows out of tangible results achieved. Start there.
- Failure is an opportunity; it’s up to you to find the opportunity hidden inside failure.
- Kaizen; sustained incremental improvement is more powerful than leaps forward.
Three additional thoughts that I reflect on regularly.
- I do not have an MBA; I don’t believe they are essential for social entrepreneurs of nonprofit organizations located anywhere. Business theory and getting stuff done rarely coexist. You don’t need an MBA to be a successful social entrepreneur. Just get out there and make a difference.
- I focus on my strengths; I surround myself with people who are good at everything else. I spend no energy improving what I’m not good at.
- The global education system doesn’t serve everyone; it leaves people behind by design. For that reason, team members look to employers to further their education.
Tom Stader
Tom Stader has worked within the International NPO/NGO sector since 2005. He has experience working in Mainland China, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the USA. In 2007, Tom founded The Library Project, which donates to rural elementary school and orphanage libraries in Asia, and most recently, Nonprofit Insights. Tom understands the real-world challenges that Founders and NPO/NGO professionals face. He understands that our work is not easy, there are never straight lines in development work, and support is hard to find.