How I Learned to be a Better Manager as a Nonprofit Professional

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Leah York, CAE is the President and Founder of Talbott Talent. She leads company-wide strategies to help nonprofits find and hire the best people.

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Last week I bumped into somebody who I hadn't seen in probably a decade. It was someone I interacted with a lot at the beginning of my career. Running into this person brought back memories of the first few years I managed people. 

Like many nonprofit managers, I was promoted into the role after showing promise as an individual contributor on the team. I was excited about this new opportunity but frustrated and bewildered about how to interact with the people now reporting to me. I wasn't given any instruction, training, or coaching on how to manage people. I also hadn’t yet experienced good management in my young career and I didn’t yet know the importance of and how to recognize good leadership.

So, again, like many new nonprofit managers, I went with my gut. As a new 20-something manager whose instincts weren’t fully developed and who hadn’t had many examples of good managers, I didn’t have much success. 

Fortunately, I’ve grown a lot in my 25+ year career in nonprofit leadership but, if I’m completely honest with you, those first few years as a manager were pretty rough – and not just for me. 

Sadly, we do this all the time in the nonprofit sector.

We have an employee who is a great performer and we think “Oh, they do such a great job; let's move them into a management role.” Then we promote them and say, “Congratulations! Now go manage people! You’ve got this!” 

Unfortunately, it's a game of trial and error for most of these new, untrained and inexperienced managers. They're trying to figure out how to manage people using their limited toolkit of trial and error and underdeveloped instincts, which don’t often lead them to the right and best way to manage people. 

Here’s a great, real-life example:

“Anonymous Nonprofit” had promoted a manager six months earlier when they came to us for help with their hiring. After a few conversations with the leadership, we discovered that one of the biggest issues Anonymous Nonprofit faced was that they couldn't keep people who were reporting to this new manager.

Then we learned the backstory. 

When the previous manager left, Anonymous Nonprofit had, like most nonprofits, promoted the strongest performing employee from that team into the manager role. After all, they were really good at their job and had a lot of knowledge about how the department ran.

Unfortunately, that new manager wasn't given any training or professional development on how to manage people. And, although this had been a strong team with high retention over the years, under the leadership of this new, untrained manager, the members of that team, one by one, started leaving. So, Anonymous Nonprofit hired new people. But those people weren't sticking around either! The people that were hired and quickly left even mentioned the inability to work under the new manager as one of the primary reasons they were leaving.

And, here’s where Anonymous Nonprofit really went wrong. Instead of developing the new manager, providing training and mentorship, and coaching on how to manage people, they just thought “We’re not finding the right people to report to this person, who will work well under their management style.” 

Anonymous Nonprofit was avoiding the core issue - the new manager needed training on how to manage people.

So how can nonprofit managers learn to manage people?

Well, remember when I was in my twenties and found quickly that there was a lot to learn about managing people? My instincts and trial and error weren’t going to cut it either. I needed more tools. So, here’s what I did:

1. I PRIORITIZED LEARNING. I had to first admit I needed to learn how to manage people better and then I had to prioritize learning. I wanted to succeed with people because I knew that if I did better, the organization would do better, too. 

2. I OBSERVED AND STUDIED OTHERS. I looked for examples of good leaders and managers that I had experienced. I looked for ways that I had experienced good management, where I had been managed and led well, and I listened to what friends and colleagues at other nonprofits said about their managers. Then, I really paid attention and studied those people’s actions in specific situations. And, then I started modeling my behavior after them. One key thing that kept coming up is that good managers first developed trust, which allowed (even encouraged!) the people they managed to make mistakes – I began to see mistakes as opportunities for growth.  I also learned from my peers, tapping into groups where I could learn from other people who were eager to learn how to better manage and lead at work and in their communities.

3. I FOUND A MENTOR. I networked, sought out help, and found a mentor. At the time, my mentor was an executive director at a nonprofit. As a matter of fact, all these years later, I still meet with this mentor today. She’s retired now, but still has coffee with me once a month to help and guide me. I had to do my part, too. I've been willing to be vulnerable and ask questions and tell her mistakes that I've made. This has helped me grow tremendously! 

4. I IMPROVED MYSELF. I really dove into developing myself as a leader and learning how to relate to other people because that’s a lot of what it takes to be a manager and a leader. I wanted to be a leader worth following, and that began with leading myself in a way that other people want to follow. One of my favorite quotes from John Maxwell is, “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.” 

1. I READ A LOT. Becoming a better leader is something I need to continuously learn. I focused my reading time on books about  leadership and personal development. I also sought out leadership experts and listened to tons of audio recordings.

I still do many of these things today. Becoming (and staying) a strong manager, and even better, a leader worth following, takes practice.

If you’re a nonprofit manager and you’re struggling to “magically know” how to lead, I want you to know you are in good company. You can learn from my experience or, better yet,  I encourage you to ask for training, guidance, and support from the people who manage you and the leaders you admire.

If you’re a nonprofit leader ask yourself “Do any of my managers need resources, coaching, and training to do better? Is there anything I can do to help the people in my organization to grow into leaders worth following? Am I a leader worth following?”

No matter who you are and what role you’re in, I hope you gain something from the experiences I’ve shared and I encourage you to adopt a people-focused mindset and seek out what you need to be a leader worth following!