Leadership and Productivity

I’ll start off with a quick anecdote from early in my career. I was 32 and in my second professional position in the nonprofit sector. It was definitely a move up from my previous position; I was managing a team of three and completely responsible for my own department. The Executive Director (my boss) was an older woman who had been with the organization for many years. To say she was eccentric would be an understatement - this woman went to Thailand for a facelift at the age of 60 and came back with misaligned eyes. I’m not joking. 

I found her very difficult to work with. She was controlling, loud and obnoxious. She embarrassed me in donor meetings – she would wear pantyhose with sandals and her long toenails would poke through the ends, exposing chipped nail polish or specs of paint that she dropped on them while redoing her house. She had terrible manners. To this day, I have no idea how she held that position for as long as she did.

Because my boss was so unpredictable, an air of paranoia permeated the office. Her unpredictability caused the board of directors to not trust her, so they all ran roughshod over her. In the nonprofit world, a board of directors’ purpose is to govern the organization, not to manage the day-to-day activities or the staff. The fact that they delved into staff issues was inappropriate and a strong leader would have never allowed it. My boss, however, did not have the ability to stand up to them.

This board was too scared to fire her, so they created a new position - Deputy Director. And, thank goodness they found a very capable one. She later became one of my mentors - I learned so much from her.

After watching the Executive Director over the course of a couple of months, the Deputy Director was able to identify the problem and step into action. She mobilized the board of directors, placed herself as the authority of the cause and took charge. 

She gave clear direction. She didn’t allow meeting conversations go off topic; she stuck to the agenda. She reigned in attention seekers (more on these attention seekers in another post) and started and stopped meetings on time, regardless if everyone was present. (This tactic can work miracles with a lethargic group.)

She possessed the presence of someone in power. She was direct and had an authoritative edge. When board members or other volunteers had questions, they went to her. But wouldn’t the Executive Director feel that her toes were being stepped on? This was where her true leadership skills emerged: she knew that in order to be successful in this endeavor, she would have to be transparent, inform the ED of her plans and try with all her might to make the ED look good. This is an art!

Strong leadership fosters productivity. Weak people in charge create chaos and kill productivity. What are some of your experiences with strong or weak leaders? Let me hear from you!

Stephanie