Changing the Sector by Cultivating Change Champions!
By: Aila Malik
Tags: Leadership Development, Nonprofit, Courses And Training, Leadership, Course

Over the last six years, VLC has had the unique privilege to work with over 96 equity-centered nonprofits across the country. Our nonprofit client work serves as a source of learning for us to build methodologies that can be scaled to the sector, at large. In those six years, we developed various methodologies that catalyze organizational effectiveness, and by doing so, discovered a topline formula to consistently transform an organization through its inflection point:

Organizational Change Readiness + Change Champion + Strategic Change Design = Transformative/Enduring Change

We tested this formula first through codifying our change design processes. We then integrated VLC staff or freelance Venture Leaders into organizations to lead change efforts. When it worked, we tested our ability to teach other practitioners our codified change design processes, enabling them to employ such processes in the field. We expanded our staff/consultant team to 29 Venture Leaders, serving upwards of 35 nonprofit organizations per year. We then utilized a learning process to codify the critical components needed for strong “executive generalists,” those who are competent in driving strategic versatility into the achievement of critical missions. Specifically, we defined strong executive generalists to be practitioners who have embarked on intentional learning in each of these four areas:

1) Interpersonal work to deeply understand their personal alignment, inherent areas of strength and opportunity, and trajectory for growth

2) Strategic acumen to understand the power and skills needed to create an intentional plan or vision as a tool to rally others around change and advancement towards a unified goal

3) Skill-development in the major workstreams required for operational efficiency (e.g. Finance, Development, Program, Evaluation, Talent, and Leadership)

4) Advocacy experience to hone effective communication skills to amplify the impact of change initiatives and invite communities to embrace the change effort

Practitioners who were committed to growth and development in these four areas made excellent change-agents because they had interpersonal and intrapersonal emotional intelligence. Additionally, their strategic orientation, as well as their high-level skill sets in relevant operations and communications, made them a leader that could align multiple stakeholders and inspire confidence towards execution. In other words, change initiatives served as a proxy to assess and strengthen executive generalist acumen.

Bottom Line: If someone can lead through moments of change and inflection with efficacy and intentionality, they are effective executive generalists that will be successful in almost any organizational context.

The continued demand for our services confirmed the lack of this executive generalist acumen in the larger sector and thus, we began to explore the gaps.

Why are executive generalists so hard to find?

We recognized that due to classic organizational talent pitfalls, many strong and capable mid to senior-level managers were left at the edge of a large crevasse between their current roles on one side, and their abilities to leap intentionally into executive readiness on the other. We further noted these strong #2 and #3 leaders were often Black, Indigenous, and/or other people of color (BIPOC). In short, nonprofit dependency upon senior management leaves little room for increased intentionality, especially when the “executive readiness” of these leaders is not seen as an immediate advantage to current operations.

But what would it give us to challenge our thinking? If we all spent more time on intentionality and skill-development to advance the opportunities of our best leaders, we would collectively elevate our ability to achieve the same equity and justice we all desire. Helping leaders find their own alignment to the sector, hone their skills, and advance their voices would create stronger retention of talented executives in the field. It would also lessen the fear we feel towards the challenges we face when the time comes to pass the baton to the next leader in the relay. Completion of our missions depends on our ability to pass those batons again and again, long after the tenure of the current leadership. Thus, if we are truly committed to the missions we dedicate ourselves to daily, we owe it to the movement to create a stronger network of “change champions.”

Change Champion (n.): A fully-expressed, values-driven, influential, and respected leader who acts with intention to create enduring change, towards a greater vision of equity and justice.

This year, VLC inaugurated Venture Leadership Academy, a 12-week long course that aims to bridge the crevasse, on the edge of which mid to senior-level managers in the nonprofit sector (majority BIPOC), find themselves. Through the Academy, VLC built the knowledge and experience of Academy participants and equipped them with the skills necessary to become Executive Change Champions.

Snapshot of our Inaugural Class

The inaugural cohort of 8 fellows were assembled from a cross-section of community issue areas and organizational contexts, categorized by one or more of the following: Issue Areas- education, immigration, safety-net/social services, employment, and medical and Organizational Contexts- from start-up ($1M operating budgets) to advanced and matrixed organizations ($20+M operating budgets); from intermediary to direct service models; and from smaller local and regional footprints to national scale.

The majority of our fellows fell between the age range of 35–44 years and were professionals with 10–15 years of career experience, with a majority of those years dedicated to the nonprofit sector. Additionally, 88% (7 of 8) fellows earned a salary between $100–150k, another proxy for senior management status. The cohort was unsurprisingly diverse in how they identified themselves:

· 88% (7 of 8) fellows identified as BIPOC (38% Asian, 25% Black, 25% Latinx, 12% White)

· 25% (2 of 8) fellows identified as LGBTQ+

Quick Look at Results

After 12 weeks of intentionally exploring the micro and macro applications of the four focus areas mentioned above, while engaging in practicum projects in their own organizations, the fellows grew their confidence levels to champion change and advance their career trajectories:

· 100% felt confident to advance their career trajectory to a step above their current role (50% “somewhat confident”, 17% “confident”, 33% “very confident”)

· 100% felt confident in being expressed as an executive change champion (17% “somewhat confident”, 50% “confident”, 33% “very confident”)

· 100% would recommend this course to other nonprofit professionals

o “VLA has been the hands down most comprehensive and effective professional development experience of my career.” o “The course is developed and facilitated with so much intention, strategy and heart — I never wanted it to end! Upon completion of VLA, I feel more grounded in my values, strengths and truth as a leader.” o “This class transformed me professionally and personally. It’s one of the best personal development courses I have ever taken.” o “The hard skills plus the deep exploration of personal defaults has been amazing.”

VLC’s Venture Leadership Academy, an incubator of Executive Change Champions, offers the sector an excellent alternative method for investing in our own organizational leaders while advancing the mission through a strategic practicum project, like an organizational assessment or a strategic vision.

Through mutual learning, collaboration, and empowerment, the academy is already creating a ripple effect in impact that will be felt by the sector at large at the hands of our inaugural class. We invite you to join our next cohort this fall, where we can learn and grow together to effect lasting equitable and just change in the sector we care so much about.

Learn more at www.ventureleader.org. Fall Cohort applications are due October 1, 2021.