A friend of mine teaches at a local private school. He tells
me that anytime that a faculty member wants to get their way; the closing
argument is that “it’s for the kids”. The obvious conceit is that it may in
fact have little to do with the kids; but within the school’s culture and
context, that argument is very hard to assail.
When it comes to the motives of both donors and staff, a
similar construct exists in the lexicon of most nonprofits. “It’s for the mission” becomes a catch all
that obscures much of the actual behaviors and intent of many folks who seem well
meaning on the surface. Studies of donor theory indicate that while many donors act from altruistic motives, a good
portion of them are driven by self-satisfying intentions such as ego, a desire
for improved social status, or the ability to influence the agenda of the
organization. Good points all, but
probably not a huge new revelation to most of you.
Those of you keeping score at home will recall that our last installment told the true story of a time when my darling bride was taken to
task for insufficient personal sacrifice in the name of a nonprofit mission.
You will also recall a promise to discuss the reason this happened. So here’s
the theory of the day: Nonprofit Executive Directors are subject to the same
range of motives as the donors
.
Yes, yet another strain of the dreaded Nonprofit Martyrdom Syndrome is the ego driven staff scenario, where the personal gain of the
mission’s leader is what the goals are really about. In the story I told last time, the absurd behavior exhibited by the local E.D.
was driven in part by a need to be seen as “the best” by the national organization, and that somehow this translated into staying up all night in a bizarre hugfest. What
this type of behavior shows is that the leadership is not really motivated by
concern for the cause. Sometimes it’s
the ego rush of being in the spotlight. Sometimes it’s a need for control, or
the desire to build or maintain an empire. Sadly, sometimes it’s the validation
that comes from others who tell you “what a good person” you are. Regardless of
the reason, the negative impact on mission of this kind of behavior should be
obvious. Rather than share best practices and build a better operation, each
chapter office is left to its own devices. Any first year MBA will tell you
that such behavior is bound to create duplicative efforts and increase
costs. In a misguided effort to improve
performance, the national leadership creates a competitive culture that pits
local operations against each other rather than encouraging collaboration.
The cure? Create and
implement a performance management system that clearly encourages collaboration
and discourages competitive behavior. And then (this is the hard part) hold your
team accountable to collaborative goals. For example, the office that raises
the most money should not be rewarded either directly or by accolade (no
trophies, no “atta boy”, none of that). On the other hand, a poll of peers
asking them which of their colleagues shared the most might be the subject of a
great item in an internal newsletter.
Sensing a trend here? The astute observer (and I know you’re
out there) will note that effective performance management was part of the
prescription for the cure for our first strain of NMS, the pittance that passes
for a pay scale in nonprofits. Now here
we go again with performance management as part of the answer to abuse in the
form of excessive hours and lack of collaboration. The simple answer to that is that Martyrdom is
a human issue, and so Human Resource tools are appropriate in many cases.
Perhaps the real issue is that we confuse
dedication with sacrifice or that we think that a calling implies a complete
24/7 devotion (ask any Pastor, Rabbi or Priest how that’s working). The truth is that we all need times of rest
and renewal, and that the work we do is so important that the need to do it
well is even more important.
Bottom Line: Transparency in motive, and the courage to call out and correct behavior that is not healthy, will actually make us more able to care “for the kids”.
