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The Community Role in Preventing Nonprofit Leadership Falls
Brian Kreeger 1:20 • August 26, 2021
Over the last several articles
I have written about the people who have a role in preventing the fall of nonprofit leaders. I have written primarily about the role of the leader themselves, and the accountability structure they work under.
This article shifts to the role of the community-at-large that can help prevent the fall of nonprofit leaders. The next couple articles will focus on this.
One of the many people I interviewed for these blog articles and my book is a woman who founded an urban ministry that has grown quite successfully over their history and has impacted thousands. It was not easy, and people thought she was nuts. But she had a calling from God, and that was all she needed.
She recalled one time when she was struggling during the founding of the ministry, searching God’s word for encouragement when no one else seemed to understand her plight. While reading her Bible nearly 20 years later, she came to a verse that encouraged her during that rough time. In the margin she found a note to God in response, “Yes, but please send me someone with skin on.” She wasn’t particular. She just wanted one person to talk to, to encourage her, to speak God’s truth to her.
(This article is the twentieth in a series that focuses on starting a conversation centered on preventing the fall of nonprofit leaders. I write it from a Christian perspective, but all leaders will benefit. Be sure to sign up to receive these articles via email every Tuesday at briankreeger.com. In addition to receiving these articles two days before they hit social media, you will receive the Contents, Introduction and the Appendix (My story) of my upcoming book, The Courageous Ask: A Proactive Approach to Prevent the Fall of Christian Nonprofit Leaders to be released September 23rd, 2021.)
Everyone, including the executive leader, is accountable for their own life. The accountability structure that an executive sits under has a role in helping to prevent the fall of a nonprofit executive, as well as all of the traditional duties and responsibilities that come along with being a board of directors.
The people the executive leader needs to help them stay on track, including the desired “person with skin on,” are found way beyond themselves and the board of directors.
In fact, there are people all around an executive leader who can impact their life much more than those formal structures around that leader. There are people and groups with access to the life of an executive that the board simply does not have. Certainly, family would be at the top of that list. But the list could include congregations, constituencies, community members, casual observers, friends, acquaintances, etc.
There are relationships around the executive that might be very new, without the hang-ups and judgments of past issues. There may be trusted relationships that have been built over many years that the leader leans on in times of trial. And then there are the casual relationships somewhere in between.
Those people need to be activated, and they need to recognize that their impact on the leader can be paramount in the prevention of a leadership fall. Those relationships can rise above all other relationships for three reasons:
- They are natural and more genuine because there is no professional structure or obligation, which allows for more openness and transparency.
- Fear of retribution within the organization is typically shuttered.
- The transparency and openness these informal relationships bring can reveal issues earlier that may culminate in an executive fall.
Of course, the sheer number of those people outside the formal structures is so much greater. As I have previously written, there can be a tremendous amount of pressure that can come from all of the people around the executive. That pressure, if not handled properly, can result in a fall.
Those groups of people can also bring an incredible volume of invaluable encouragement and wisdom.
Too many times, when people see an executive struggling, we hear the phrase, “They really need to do something,” meaning family and the accountability structure around the leader. What is forgotten is that we all have a responsibility for the support and encouragement of one another. “They” may actually be I or we.
Sometimes people outside family and the accountability structure need to be empowered to perform a Courageous Ask.
Many times what a floundering leader needs is an objective person who is separate from family and the accountability structure. These are the places where walls can unfortunately get built in the leader’s life.
In fact, while the leader is ultimately accountable for themselves, these two groups—family and accountability structure—may even help build the wall between the Christian nonprofit executive and God.
It’s very hard for board members and family who love the leader they see falling to stop doing things like sending scripture verses and videos they think might inspire and make the difference. They want to help fix them, and for the leader to see the clear path that they see.
In the possibly deluded mind of the leader, these types of things may make them resentful toward the sender, and as a by-product that resentment may carry on to God.
This is a great example of when a person in the community might be able to make the difference in the life of a struggling leader, whether they are falling or not.
The responsibility we, as onlookers, feel must be elevated when it comes to Christian leaders who are serving us and the community while they strive to represent Christ on earth.
Very few of us are going to be the person who deals directly with whatever the struggle might be, although we could be and should desire to be.
I try to remember what author Nancy Duarte wrote, “Sometimes all it takes is a kind word of encouragement to get your heroes back on the right path.”1
Well, I believe it takes a hero to do just that. YOU can be a hero by extending that kind word of encouragement that gets a nonprofit leader back on track.
Next week I will write more about how the community-at-large can engage with leaders in order to help prevent leadership falls.
Everyone has a role.
1Nancy Duarte, “Like Yoda You Must Be,” Duarte, October 22, 2015,
https://www.duarte.com/presentation-skills-resources/like-yoda-you-must-be-2/.
Be sure to sign up to receive these articles via email every Tuesday at
briankreeger.com. In addition to receiving these articles two days before they hit social media, you will receive the Contents, Introduction and the Appendix (My Story) to my upcoming book, The Courageous Ask: A Proactive Approach to Prevent the Fall of Christian Nonprofit Leaders to be released September 23rd, 2021.
Brian@briankreeger.com
#Leadership Fall #Leadership Survival #Nonprofit Relationships #Proactive Approach #Leadership Struggles #Leadership Battles #Christian Executive Leader #Christian Leader #Board of Directors #Courageous Ask #Board Relationship #Board Engagement
Executives -pastors or nonprofit executives in our context- are put on a pedestal. It’s not that the typical person necessarily believes they belong there or desires to put them there. But it is human nature that this happens. The general public often places much higher expectations on leaders than they do on themselves. Sometimes it is appropriate, and the leader has put themselves in that position. In some cases, it is simply scriptural. For instance, James 3 points out that those who teach will be judged more strictly, thereby heightening the expectations of those who lead and teach. But what about when we accept, and enact, those elevated expectations and forget the humanity of our leaders? Often a community heaps on a leader the expectation that they are to perform with the perfection of Jesus and not simply be a Jesus follower and disciple just like them, but with a unique calling and heightened responsibility. Too many times when a leader shows human imperfection, the respect we have for them is damaged. Leaders fall under strict judgment, and we forget they are no less fallible than us. The imperfection they have colors any positive experience we would have had with them otherwise. While most of us acknowledge this strict, hypocritical judgment and recognize it as not being how we want to treat our leaders, it is a difficult battle to fight in our own attitudes and minds. No matter who the leader is, they are not Jesus. But please allow me to reverently make some comparisons. (This blog focuses on starting a conversation centered on preventing the fall of nonprofit leaders. I write it from a Christian perspective, but all leaders will benefit. Be sure to sign up to receive these articles via email every Tuesday at briankreeger.com as well as taking a look at previous blog articles. In addition to receiving these articles two days before they hit social media, you will receive the article "5 Early Indicators of a Christian Nonprofit Leadership Fall" along with the Contents, Introduction and the Appendix (My story) of my book, The Courageous Ask: A Proactive Approach to Prevent the Fall of Christian Nonprofit Leaders. )
You are the community, no matter what formal role you play in a particular organization, or if you play any role at all. My blog articles typically focus on the roles the leader and the board have in preventing the fall of Christian nonprofit leaders. But I contend that the community that exists around organizational leaders and boards has a role as well. In fact, a community’s role can many times be much bigger. My next few blog articles will focus on the role of the community in preventing the fall of Christian nonprofit leaders. (This blog focuses on starting a conversation centered on preventing the fall of nonprofit leaders. I write it from a Christian perspective, but all leaders will benefit. Be sure to sign up to receive these articles via email every Tuesday at briankreeger.com as well as taking a look at previous blog articles. In addition to receiving these articles two days before they hit social media, you will receive the article "5 Early Indicators of a Christian Nonprofit Leadership Fall" along with the Contents, Introduction and the Appendix (My story) of my book, The Courageous Ask: A Proactive Approach to Prevent the Fall of Christian Nonprofit Leaders. )
