The Opportunity for Leadership in Challenging Times

Photo from NAMAC's Leadership Institute

In a survey released earlier this year, the Conference Board discovered that job satisfaction among workers in the United States is at its lowest level in two decades. From an organizational perspective, this is a huge liability; with the challenges of the current environment, it’s more important than ever that staff members are inspired, empowered, and fully engaged. Now is the time to involve all of your employees more deeply in the work of the organization and in finding solutions to challenges by strengthening their capacity to advance your organization’s goals. Now is the perfect time to build leadership capacity.

Challenging times create an opportunity for leaders to admit (if they haven’t already) that they don’t have all of the answers and to marshal the internal resources of their organization by empowering everyone to lead. We’re faced with big challenges and tough choices right now. How do we manage to stay afloat in the face of rapidly declining funding opportunities? How do we reinforce the value of what we do? How can we motivate and reward employees when raises are not an option this year? How do we do more with less? This last question seems to be the main one of the moment, for organizations and in our individual lives. How do we manage through these times?

And when will they end?

We’re all waiting for the skies to clear. In the meantime, we can use this moment as an opportunity to dig deep and improve our practice of leadership and develop leadership skills in others. This is a time to empower and to build stronger teams.

Leadership doesn’t require the resources of a new grant or a new major donor, yet it can make a huge difference for organizations. We can harness people power in difficult times and come out even stronger when the clouds have lifted.

Some ways to improve your leadership practice and develop leadership throughout your organization include:

• Empower your team by recasting challenges as opportunities to involve everyone in solution-finding. Every staff member at every level has a perspective to offer that can make a difference for your organization.
• Build the capacity of your employees to come up with creative solutions to challenges by encouraging and applauding innovation and creativity. Challenging times require out-of-the-box thinking and a willingness to try new approaches.
• Institute mechanisms for employees to give feedback, whether through surveys, one-on-one sessions, or just by having a culture of openness in your organization.
• Talk to your staff members about their goals for professional growth and chart some ways to incorporate those goals into their work for the organization. You might not be able to afford raises, but you can always afford to create opportunities for professional development.
• Reinforce how each employee’s role relates to the mission and success of your organization. For example, your receptionist is a first-point-of-contact brand ambassador, with an important role in creating a positive image of your organization. Connecting their job to the organizational mission gives each staff member a unique leadership role to play and a sense that their work is meaningful and important.

The greatest thing we can do now is to promote the idea that leadership is not held only by the person at the top rung of the organizational ladder. Leadership is not only positional – it comes in many forms. We need everyone to have leader mentality now; we need everyone inspiring, everyone thinking critically about how to solve challenges and conserve financial resources, everyone working to build teams and garnering support by maintaining strong relationships with each person they interact with on behalf of the organization.

Encouraging this culture is an act of leadership in itself. Part of leadership is remembering and recognizing that everyone has something to contribute to the success of an organization and then creating opportunities for that to happen. It might be one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of being a leader, and it is certainly necessary during this time.

Has the current environment affected how you practice leadership? Have you witnessed any noteworthy acts of leadership in your organization?

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Tiffany Nicole Fletcher is a nonprofit professional and writer based in New York City. She has served as president of an award-winning online magazine devoted to issues of identity, community, and diversity, and established and directed a network of funders committed to strategic dialogue and action to improve the lives of women and girls in New York City. She is a graduate of Columbia University and the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU.