Private Sector Strategies for Social Sector Success: The Guide to Strategy and Planning for Public a

---

John Bryson and Lauren Hamilton Edwards

Fifty-nine percent of them say leaders do not adequately prioritize serving constituents or focusing on the mission. Sixty-one percent of them say leaders put the interests of their own organization ahead of collaborating with others to solve problems. And an equal number report that they see little cooperation occurring across the ecosystem—organizations scramble to claim credit rather than contribute to solutions.

The findings of three separate research studies shed more light on the poor grades leaders give when assessing their own leadership attributes and those of their peers. The first of these studies, conducted by McKinsey, analyzed 20 years of foundation spending and discovered that such institutions allocate 1 percent of annual funding to leadership development. In a second study, conducted in by the Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, researchers found that the social sector dramatically underinvests in leadership development compared with the private sector.

Access to them varies widely, not all opportunities are available to many sector leaders, and not all are appropriate for every leader.

The Haas School of Business research team identified distinct fellowship programs, executive-education trainings, tools, and prizes, but it did not believe this list was complete and exhaustive. If the leaders who responded to the McKinsey survey are indicative, most get their training on the job.

Seventy percent of the leaders surveyed said this was how they acquired their leadership capabilities. Sixty-seven percent of them credited exposure to challenges and career transitions as development opportunities, and 52 percent of them report that they gained skills outside the sector. In every sector, opportunities to take on a challenge are the foundation of leadership development. Among the commercial companies that do this best, such as GE, providing leaders with a challenge is a deliberate, thoughtful, systematic practice.

In the social sector, however, frequently there is less support, structure, and supervision available for emerging leaders to take on a significant challenge and fewer opportunities for mentorship, in part because so many organizations are small. When sector leaders responding to the McKinsey survey were asked what would help support their development, 40 percent of respondents cited coaching from board members and funders, underscoring this point.

What social-sector leaders need to succeed | McKinsey

A near majority of them also said that participating in cross-sector networks 42 percent , time to experiment 49 percent , or taking a sabbatical 49 percent would help. In , the Carnegie Corporation and the Ford Foundation issued reports that prompted a sea change in the development of business leaders. The reports reviewed the role of business schools, and they were deeply critical. They argued that standards within schools for hiring faculty, accepting students, and developing curricula were too low.

They recommended schools adopt everything from an increased focus on quantitative research to directing faculty to consult less and teach more. Business schools had flourished after World War II as the demand by American industry for trained managers grew. The reports suggested that schools were not meeting the needs of employers and urged significant reform.

Accrediting standards rose, and schools transformed to meet higher expectations. That year, business schools graduated just over 3, MBA students into the workforce. Today, about , students earn an MBA each year worldwide, about , of them from US schools. Sources include the following: A similar effort is needed to spur leadership development in the social sector. What institution could play the role in the development of social-sector leaders that business schools played in the development of contemporary business managers? Is there a possibility for online educational training to help meet the unique leadership needs of this sector?

Are there collaborative solutions across sectors? While solutions to defining and implementing leadership-development programs have a long history in the private sector, social-sector organizations should avoid adopting them directly as an easy answer. For instance, leaders in social-sector organizations have a passion for mission, and successful managers know how to harness the mission-driven energy of their staff, board, and volunteers. Even more important, while competition is the norm in the private sector, no social-sector organization is able to achieve its mission working alone.

To be truly effective, they need to be active, dedicated collaborators, unafraid to reach out to others for advice or for partnership opportunities.

Narrowing the development gap

Collaboration requires unique skills, which social-sector leaders must cultivate to be successful. A few funders are investing in social-sector leadership development overall or specifically in program areas they care about, such as education or the environment, and can serve as examples of what many other funders can do. McKinsey analyzed data of the Foundation Center including independent, community discretionary grants only , corporate, and operating foundations.

The data excluded corporate-giving or direct-assistance programs managed by foundations and grants to individuals. The data reviewed were based on a national sample of up to 1, larger US foundations including of the 1, largest ranked by total giving out of about 76, US-based grant makers. This analysis may not capture all grants made to support leadership within a targeted program area. However, the 1 percent total annual investment that US foundations are making in leadership is small and unlikely to sustain the sector.

Of course, foundation support is not the only source to fund investments—donations from individuals which are often unrestricted , earned income, and corporate grants for general operating purposes are alternatives. The fact that social-sector organizations do not invest more of these funds in leadership may reflect the fact that they are under pressure to meet short-term demands, and developing leaders takes longer to pay off.

Leaders assess leadership

Funders could help by having a more flexible balance of expectations between short-term and long-term results. The recent move toward pay for success is likely to put a squeeze on many social-sector organizations seeking to invest in their own leadership development by reducing their sources of general operating support. The concept suggests government, foundations, insurance companies, and others should pay for results when a preventive intervention, such as permanent supportive housing, successfully reduces a costly and pressing social problem, such as chronic homelessness.

While this may work in the short term, innovating, scaling, and sustaining interventions requires high-performing organizations and leaders—all the more reason to focus dedicated resources on leadership development. To learn more about pay for success, see From Potential to Action: American Express is also supporting the National Urban League Emerging Leaders Program, whereby high-potential regional leaders in the organization are offered training; the goal is to build an executive pipeline.

Not every funder will create a program exclusively dedicated to leadership development. But they could direct more resources for leadership development within their existing activities. Following this model, all funders could add on a percentage for leadership development to every project-specific grant, along with some mechanism to ensure the relevance and quality of the activities that are subsequently made available.

Best-practice funders and government grant makers look for indicative outcomes and ongoing assessment capabilities needed to measure results before they decide to support a project in the social sector. Similarly, funders might give preference to organizations with a deep leadership bench over those with a single charismatic CEO or those with a track record of collaboration over those that go it alone.

For example, funders could invest in codifying collaboration skills and developing a curriculum to teach leaders at all stages of their career how to be successful partners. Since collaboration was rated one of the most important skills for social-sector leaders, this could yield powerful results. But more important, and even easier to do, funders can reward organizations that show a track record of behaving collaboratively and cooperatively.

Leaders who responded to the McKinsey survey were asked to name leadership-development resources on their wish list. They chiefly cited time to experiment and innovate 49 percent of respondents and sabbatical time to rejuvenate themselves, gain exposure, and broaden their horizons 49 percent of respondents. Linnell and Tim Wolfred, Creative Disruption: And, as the report notes, most leaders who take a sabbatical recommit to their leadership role after it is over, with only 13 percent looking to move on to another job within three years.

Forty-two percent of respondents also cited developing and accessing cross-sector networks to build connections with peers in the social and private sectors and in government. We believe this reflects their understanding that social-sector leaders, to be effective, must be skilled collaborators who can work with multiple stakeholders.

In This Article

These networks can also be sounding boards for leaders. Partnership and coaching from board members, investors, or funders is another priority on their development wish list, according to 40 percent of respondents. Forty percent also cited building communications skills, particularly media training and public speaking. This request seems consistent with the desire to reflect and innovate, share new thinking with peers, and engage meaningfully with supporters. Funding organizations that are dedicated to delivering fellowships and training for leaders is the most direct way to expand leadership development.

Participating in these programs gives leaders time away from the office to reflect, while helping them build their peer networks—two things they asked for in the survey. For instance, the Rockwood Leadership Institute, based in Oakland, California, provides leadership training to nearly social-sector leaders each year.

Founded in , and with more than 4, alumni to date, the institute focuses on helping leaders to develop attributes such as the ability to collaborate and to inspire organizations to achieve quality outcomes. It provides long-term and short-term training programs for emerging leaders, in part by connecting them to opportunities and mentors globally. It provides structured training and a leadership opportunity to a mixed group of public- and private-sector executives interested in more broadly serving communities.

Crown Fellows not only engage in a personal leadership journey but also have the opportunity to build their cross-sector peer networks. The private sector could step in to help meet this gap, contributing some specialized expertise in the bargain. Increasingly, for-profit companies are working to address issues that have cross-sector implications, such as education for employment, sustainable supply chains, and job growth.

Companies frequently engage in these issues through partnerships that bring them in touch with social-sector organizations. Paul, the leaders of the major local foundations, and the leaders of the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. The involved business leaders become part of a peer network with key social-sector and political leaders and work closely together to improve economic competitiveness and quality of life in the region.

Socioeconomic disparities, job growth, education, and transportation are some of the issues they address. Through examples like this one, many private-sector leaders are becoming familiar with the issues social-sector leaders are working on. This puts the private-sector leaders in a better position than ever to be sounding boards for their social-sector counterparts, many of whom they now know personally through shared partnership endeavors.

Additionally, private-sector coaches could bring expertise in unfamiliar areas such as supply-chain management, social media, knowledge management, and customer care. Peer coaching relationships with business leaders also help social-sector leaders to build their networks—another priority on their development checklist.

Open Preview See a Problem? Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. This practical guide offers a realistic approach to strategicmanagement, while borrowing from the most helpful and relevantbusiness ideas, allows the public or nonprofit organization toachieve success without compromising its unique mission orconstituency.

Executives, managers, and policymakers will find keyprinciples for everyday application, including how to: Throughout this innovative guide, there are numerous illustrationsand examples of how to apply the most appropriate technique to aparticular need or goal. At last, public and nonprofitorganizations have a real-world guide to finding lasting success.

Hardcover , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Feb 11, Nick Klagge rated it it was ok.

What social-sector leaders need to succeed

I was assigned this book for a grad-school class, but unlike the other class text "Why David Sometimes Wins" by Marshall Ganz , this one was utterly dry and boring. While some of the frameworks Kearns describes may be useful, the book is strategy without soul. Leeda rated it liked it Apr 02, Theresa Newhard rated it it was amazing Feb 28, Ammu rated it liked it Aug 26, SP rated it liked it Mar 31, Julian rated it liked it Nov 30, Emily rated it really liked it Jun 03, Mamta Prakash rated it liked it Jan 20, Dan Law rated it it was amazing Sep 17, Mike Swigert rated it really liked it Apr 18, Alice rated it liked it Jan 04, April rated it really liked it Sep 02, Florence rated it liked it Jul 10, Jordan Calhoun rated it it was ok Feb 12, Emily Lamia rated it it was ok Oct 16, Tanya rated it really liked it Jun 14,

• People and Computers XVI: Memorable Yet Invisible: Proceedings of HCI 2002: 16th
• Analog Dialogue, Volume 44, Number 2
• Models of Neural Networks IV: Early Vision and Attention: v. 4 (Physics of Neural Networks)
• Anne Rice: A Critical Companion (Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers)
• The Magic of Pray Rain Journaling