The Right Leader for the Season
***Adapted from the chapter on Leadership from my book, Unlikely Good.
Have you ever been in an organization that just did not have the right leader for the season? The business needed better quality-control systems, but the leader was always pushing to develop new products. The pastor wanted to do more technical Bible studies while the congregation was shrinking in numbers. The nonprofit executive seemed unable to move beyond doing things the way they had always been done.
Leadership is critical in any organization, but especially vital if you are trying to accomplish Unlikely Good in your community. Making sure you pair the right leader with the particular season of growth is crucial.
The Three Seasons of Organizational Growth
In my experience, organizations progress through three distinct seasons from inception to growth.
The “entrepreneurial season” is defined by entrepreneurial energy, creative innovation, risk-taking, and excitement to give birth to something fresh in the market. This is often referred to as the startup phase.
Leadership in the entrepreneurial season is usually charismatic, hands-on, and decision-making is rapid.
Employees will often harken back to these “good old days” when everyone was excited, things moved quickly, all hands were on deck, and life was a little chaotic.
I refer to the next phase of growth as the “systems season,” characterized by the need to organize and establish systems that deliver the product or service with accuracy and consistency. This is especially crucial as the workload expands, necessitating the hiring of new employees, formalizing roles, and creating job descriptions. Systems must be developed and documented. Policies and procedures are implemented to foster efficiency and accountability.
Leadership in the systems season becomes more formalized due to the need to delegate the work. Leadership looks more like the management of people and tasks.
Employees will notice, in this phase, that work becomes more defined as systems are built. Decision-making inevitably begins to slow down. Those who love the speed and excitement of the entrepreneurial season may start to resent the emerging bureaucracy of the systems season.
After some time living in the systems season, the organization will likely need to question its relevance to the market. This period requires a spirit of innovation, questioning, and reinvention. I call this the “renewal season.”
Leadership in the renewal season requires the same energy and excitement that exist in the entrepreneurial season, along with respect for the quality control of the systems season. Yet, the leader in this season may need to consider how the organization needs to adapt to new market conditions. Radical restructuring and change could be required in this phase of the work.
It is vital for the progress of your mission that you understand the season you are in and what leader is needed for that particular season.
Misdiagnosing the Season
Too often, nonprofit and church boards misdiagnose the type of leader needed for a particular season. I once served on a Christian nonprofit board that desperately needed a CEO with extensive experience in major gift fundraising. During the search process, some board members became particularly enthusiastic about one candidate because he had experience teaching the Bible, despite having minimal proven fundraising experience. The majority decided against advancing his candidacy. Yet, the board ended up hiring a very nice candidate who had substantial operations experience, but again, no proven fundraising experience. The job's requirements burned him out, and he left the organization less than two years later, leaving it back where it started.
A fifty-year-old school I once consulted for needed to enter into an invigorating renewal season. The school was struggling financially, and enrollment was stuck. Their head of school had been in place for thirty-seven years. They quickly needed to adapt, restructure, and dramatically change their model. As I assessed the organization, I found that they had a part-time employee helping with fundraising who had vision but often ruffled the feathers of other employees. This woman was precisely the kind of disruptor the organization needed to adapt. The board recognized the potential and created a transition plan to move her into leadership of the school. She went on to successfully lead the organization for several years.
The First 90 Days
Michael Watkins’ book The First 90 Days is a helpful tool for any organization trying to assess its season and what leader is needed for the moment. He proposes a STARS model that identifies five different situations in which organizations may find themselves:
• Start-Up: Think of what I describe as the entrepreneurial season
• Turnaround: The plane is going to crash, and someone better quickly take charge
• Accelerated Growth: The business is rapidly growing, but needs systems to scale
• Realignment: Change is necessary, even though everyone doesn’t acknowledge the problems
• Sustaining Success: The organization is a high-performing one, and the leader needs to maintain that success
Both the board and the leader of the organization need to have a good understanding of the season they are in and the leadership traits required to excel in that season. Existing leaders may need to supplement their team to fill the leadership gaps that are not being met in the current season.
Organizations that are hiring new leaders need to make sure they have properly diagnosed the needs of the current season.
Matching the right leader to the needs of the season is critical if you hope to accomplish Unlikely Good in your community.
