Leadership
What is it, and are funders truly ready to invest in it?
By The Rev. John H. Vaughn

"Leadership" is a neutral term in the same way that "power" is. There is good and bad leadership, just as there are good and bad uses of power. Leadership is about claiming one's own power in a way that influences people or a situation and being willing to accept responsibility for it. If you are a board member, a staff person or a volunteer, at some point you will have the chance to influence a situation and you will have the opportunity to accept some level of responsibility. Anyone can be a leader. The challenge is to be an effective, positive one.

There is a blue index card that hangs over my desk. It says, "Talent is Cheap, Dedication is Expensive." Each of us has the talent to be an effective, positive leader, but are we willing to dedicate ourselves to being one? It requires a passion that believes that things can be better for me and/or others, no matter how small or large the situation. Everyone has the potential to be an effective, positive leader and the exercise of leadership looks different for each person. For grantmakers investing in leadership development, it's important to understand the qualities that define effective leadership.

Focus
When I was a seminary intern, a colleague used a phrase in situations that were less concerned with what was being accomplished than with creating broad agendas that would make everyone feel good and avoid tough decisions. "We sometimes become so open that our brains fall out," he would say. We are afraid to exclude anyone so we include everything - without regard to organizational capacity. However, a positive, effective leader has a clear sense of what needs to be accomplished, helps groups make the tough decisions and challenges people to remain focused on a clear set of goals. If our focus is not clear, we are done before we start.

Constituency Delivery
Community organizers like to say that there are two major sources of power - organized money and organized people. Most will tell you that a positive, effective leader can deliver people. Leaders who can bring people out for a meeting or an action may be skilled at building relationships, well respected or feared, but they can deliver people. People power is usually the strongest tool that nonprofit organizations have.

When I was the executive director of a faith-based organizing effort in East Harlem, the tenor of discussions changed when those that I negotiated with knew that I was the lead staff person for an organization with an institutional membership of over 40 congregations and religious organizations. What was previously deemed "impossible" all of a sudden became "possible." Power can change the rules. One cautionary note is that power must be used or exhibited to be a threat. Without a track record of bringing a constituency together, such power becomes meaningless.

Patience
Beware of the shooting star syndrome. How many times have we seen leaders who are the newest hope for local communities and cities or are the newest darling of the funding community, only to find that they are out of business, stagnant or another face in the crowd just one year later? Success brings forth a burst of energy, resources and visibility from outside one's community. This is an extremely seductive combination, particularly for new groups and their leaders. Everyone wants the key leaders to serve on their board of directors, to be a guest on their radio and cable TV show, to speak to their grantees or board or to advise other groups on how they too can be successful. Before you know it, the base from which that successful group operated - the people and the passion - is stagnant or has dwindled. Effective, positive leaders understand that sustainable, substantive change does not happen overnight, but gradually. The base has to be attended to, nurtured and supported, and balanced with the external opportunities.

Servant
Positive, effective leaders know who it is they are accountable and responsible to. A good leader serves the needs, the hopes and the dreams of the constituency he or she works with and represents. An important part of being a servant is being humble - understanding that you do not have to be at the center of the action to be successful. Such leaders also realize that for long-term success, they must be committed to sharing power and nurturing new leaders.

Conflict Manager
Managing conflict is possibly the greatest challenge for any organization. Many avoid conflict at all costs. Others respond to conflict by holding onto what they want or have for dear life, with no room for negotiation. Yet others operate best in situations of conflict, chaos and confusion because they experience power and control. A leader sees these tensions as an opportunity for growth. The issues that cause conflict will not disappear. Instead, the conflict manager identifies common areas for agreement and work and then tries to make sure that the conflicts do not become the agenda.

As funders, while we understand the basics of effective, positive leadership, we have yet to fully invest in its development. We need only look at the increasingly deep hunger for positive, effective leaders in the communities that we fund. We often support the same things, in the same organizations, somehow expecting different results just because we have said that our priorities include leadership development. In other cases, we haven't carefully examined claims to have developed leaders. One would think that we believe that "if you lead a horse to water, he or she will automatically take a drink" - that somehow education and information will translate into leadership.

All funders know that a three-year cycle of funding probably does as much harm as it does good for a community-based organization struggling to achieve sustainability, but a majority of us continue the funders' version of "Three strikes and you're out!" We know that a good number of the organizations we support are still rushing people into leadership positions, in some cases asking new members to chair the board at their second meeting. We often exacerbate leadership concerns by "creaming" the top leaders from local organizations to staff our foundations. What is our commitment to support development of the next generation of leaders in a community?

We are challenged to take a good, hard look at what we have seen and know about leadership development, to provide safe spaces and relationships with the groups we support, and others, to hear what it really takes to develop and nurture leaders. We must challenge groups to think outside the box of standard methodologies, and to take risks by investing in leadership development in the same way that venture capital firms invest in a new business or product. Here are some recommendations for us to consider:

• Fund places where people will learn leadership skills and then exercise them.
• Take a more activist approach when there is a gap in leadership development.
• Take on some new roles through local partnerships and incubation.
• Help people claim and build power.
• Redefine expectations of organizational sustainability and leadership development.
• Challenge our boards and staff to think outside the box and support approaches that might make them squirm or angry.
• Invest in infrastructure and technology that facilitate communication.
• Invest in strategies to develop new organizers in a variety of venues - schools (high school, undergraduate and graduate), community institutes and grassroots organizations.
• Give organizations more financial flexibility by providing general operating support, as well as substantial funds for training, technical assistance and professional development.
• Be willing to fail in some of what we support.

Leadership is the fuel of an organization. Though every organization needs leadership to survive, good organizations need effective, positive leadership to thrive. Are we willing to help create community organizations with full gas tanks or are we content to see two dollars worth of gas put in at each stop for fuel?

The Rev. John H. Vaughn is the Executive Director of the Peace Development Fund. This article is adapted from a speech he gave at a Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Small Grants conference convened by the Community Training and Assistance Center.

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