The Kind of Leader I Want to Be

After spending most of my career in mission-driven organizations, I have thought a lot about what kind of leader I want to be.

Results matter to me.

I care about strategy, fundraising, financial sustainability and organizational performance. I enjoy figuring out how to turn a complicated situation into a clear plan and then helping people execute it.

But experience has also taught me that leadership is about more than results.

People remember how you treated them.

They remember whether you listened when they had something difficult to say. They remember whether you gave them credit, whether you told them the truth and whether they felt that you trusted them.

That has shaped the six values I try to bring to my work: generosity, integrity, determination, positivity, authenticity and inspiration.

Generosity

When people hear the word generosity in a nonprofit context, they often think about philanthropy.

I think about it more broadly.

Generosity means giving people your time and attention. It means sharing credit. It means teaching what you know instead of protecting knowledge as a source of power. It means helping someone else succeed even when there is nothing obvious in it for you.

A leader can be generous with recognition.

A board member can be generous with their expertise.

An executive can be generous by giving people room to take ownership.

These small acts can have a surprisingly large effect on an organization’s culture.

Integrity

Integrity is probably the value that holds everything else together.

It means being honest when the truth is uncomfortable.

It means acknowledging when something isn’t working rather than explaining it away.

It means doing what you said you would do.

It also means treating people consistently, regardless of how much influence they have.

In nonprofit leadership, that responsibility is particularly important because organizations are entrusted with money, relationships and a mission that belongs to more people than the person sitting in the executive office.

I’ve always believed that one of the simplest tests of integrity is to ask whether you would make the same decision if nobody would ever know about it.

If the answer is no, it is probably worth reconsidering.

Determination

Nonprofit leadership requires persistence.

Progress is rarely as straightforward as the strategic plan makes it look. Funding changes. People leave. Programs need to be adjusted. Donors say no. Good ideas fail.

Determination doesn’t mean refusing to change.

In fact, I think real determination sometimes requires changing course.

It means remaining committed to the mission while being willing to reconsider the strategy.

There is a difference between stubbornness and perseverance.

Stubbornness says, “We have to keep doing this because we already decided to do it.”

Perseverance says, “We are going to keep pursuing the goal, even if we have to find a different way to get there.”

I want the second kind.

Positivity

I have never believed that leadership requires pretending everything is fine.

That isn’t positivity.

Positive leadership means believing that difficult situations can improve while being honest about the difficulty.

There is a big difference between saying, “Everything is great,” and saying, “This is hard, but I believe we can work through it.”

The second statement creates room for both realism and hope.

Leaders have an enormous influence on the emotional climate of an organization. If every problem is treated as evidence that something is fundamentally broken, people eventually become exhausted.

If problems are treated as things that can be understood and improved, people have a reason to keep working.

Authenticity

Authenticity has become a popular word in leadership conversations, but I think the underlying idea is simple.

Your words and actions should match.

If you say that you value people’s opinions, you should actually listen to them.

If you say that mistakes are opportunities to learn, you should be willing to acknowledge your own.

If you tell people that something matters, your decisions should reflect that priority.

Authenticity also means being comfortable saying, “I don’t know.”

A leader does not need to have every answer.

People need to know that the leader will listen, think carefully and take responsibility for the decision.

Inspiration

The final value is inspiration.

I don’t mean motivational speeches or constant enthusiasm.

I mean helping people see what is possible.

I want employees to understand why their work matters. I want board members to see how their involvement can make a meaningful difference. I want donors to understand what their support makes possible.

Most of all, I want people to leave difficult conversations believing that the situation can improve.

That is what inspiration means to me.

It is not about making people feel good for five minutes.

It is about giving people a reason to believe that their effort is worthwhile.

The values belong together

These six values are not separate from performance.

They support it.

Generosity strengthens relationships. Integrity builds trust. Determination creates resilience. Positivity gives people energy. Authenticity makes leadership credible. Inspiration creates momentum.

The healthiest organizations I’ve encountered are able to pursue strong results without losing sight of how those results are achieved.

They can make difficult financial decisions while treating people with respect.

They can hold people accountable without humiliating them.

They can say no without becoming cynical.

They can pursue growth without allowing growth itself to become the purpose.

That is the kind of organization I want to help build.

What I want to leave behind

I don’t think the most meaningful measure of leadership is simply what happened while you were in the room.

I think a better question is what remains after you leave.

Did you build something stronger?

Did you develop people?

Did you improve the way the organization works?

Did you strengthen relationships?

Did you create systems that could continue without you?

Did people feel respected along the way?

Those questions matter to me more than any particular title.

My goal is not simply to help nonprofits raise more money or become larger.

It is to help them become healthier, clearer and more capable of fulfilling their missions.

That brings me back to the philosophy that has increasingly shaped my work:

Fix the organization. Grow the revenue.

And do it in a way that reflects who you want to be as a leader.

Be generous with your time and attention. Be honest when things are difficult. Stay determined when progress is slow. Bring realistic optimism to hard situations. Be authentic enough to admit when you are wrong. And help people see something worth building together.

That is the kind of leader I want to be.