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By Sandra Trice Gray

A number of studies in the seventies made note of facilitation and implementation of change and clarify the need for people to assume a facilitating leader role. Studies in the eighties began to reveal more clearly the actions supplied by change facilitators.

The human interface, or the facilitating leader is the connection between new information and practice in the field. The linkage role is concerned with establishing "communication networks between sources of innovations and users via an intermediary facilitating role either in the form of a linking agent or a linkage agency." Major linking agent studies show that there needs to be:

• emphasis on highly interpersonal forms of communication in order to connect staff with knowledge sources
• focused attention on new practices, particularly those resulting from research and development and practitioner developed and validated practices
• technical assistance for defining problems, identifying needs, selecting solutions, and planning for implementation and evaluation of the solutions selected
• change facilitators with new competencies and improved problem-solving skills

Another study significantly expanded knowledge about factors necessary for implementing and institutionalizing change, a part of the process that had not been given much attention. These factors include:

• stakeholder participation in decision making and adaptation of change to the local setting
• staff training
• a critical mass of stakeholders to support and motivate each other
• a receptive institutional setting/organizational climate
• the implementation strategy of local leaders, including consultation from resource personnel
• scope of the change
• the active support of leaders

To read the entire article, see Facilitative Leadership: The Imperative for Change.

by Sharon McDowell-Larsen

How do nonprofit executives make exercise a priority?

Do less, more often. Get moving. Keep track. Take it on the road. Be flexible. Multi-task. Motivate.

Think of your weekday workout routines as a way to stay strong and fit for weekend leisure activities. Staying healthy for skiing, surfing, playing racquet sports and keeping up with kids can be a big motivator.

Cited and used with permission from the Center for Creative Leadership. To read the entire article, click here.

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by John C. Maxwell

Maxwell agrees with Wooden and articulates the following values to his team:

1. Personal growth. It is the responsibility of each individual to grow personally, but it's the leader's responsibility to help facilitate that process.
2. Making a significant contribution. I believe every person ought to do something that he or she truly believes is making a difference.
3. Living and working with passion. I don't know about you, but I want everyone around me to love what they do as much as I do. I have no desire to motivate people the people I work with to get passionate about life. I would rather beg them to find another job!
4. Commitment to excellence. As I've written in this column before, I believe each of us should set the bar higher for ourselves than anybody else will.
5. Team leadership. The only way to build a successful organization is by developing a great team around you.
6. Living a life of integrity. Without this, everything else is meaningless.

Cited and used with permission from Leadership Wired. To read the entire article, click here.

by Alan R. Garner, President/CEO, Volunteers of America of Pennsylvania

What 5 things keep you up at night?

• Financial health of the organization, staff burnout, my own personal stress and what's on my plate, board development?
• Responsibility for organization; Responsibility for finance/finance concerns; Employee challenge?
• Creating a "to do" list; Communicating more effectively; How to get money to pay staff more and provide retirement benefits; Did that delegated task got done?
• Lack of funds, strategies for approaching key donors, how to best grow our program strategically with adequate resources to support services?
• Long term dilemmas that do not have immediate opportunity for resolution?

Cited and used with permission from Alan R. Garner. To read the entire article in PDF format click here.

by Ron Crossland

The ideas of values, character, ability to learn, emotional intelligence, the inner workings of the leader, social change, context, talent, creativity and innovation, risk taking, and storytelling have long been linked to leadership. The fact that we continue to write about them, analyze them, and study them through each generation is very good in my opinion. Each age must distill its own sense of what works and doesn't. It occurs in all categories of the human experience and, in the case of leadership, needs to be explored more fully.

Fundamentally we are not learning much new about leadership in general. What we are doing poorly is applying the lessons well in order to sustain an initiative of perpetual leadership.

Cited and used with permission from Bluepoint Leadership Development. To read the entire article in PDF format click here.