Choosing Leaders for Nonprofit Organizations

* Take ample time to involve all of the charitable organization’s constituencies in the process, and to introduce the new leader to all of the charitable organization’s constituencies.

* Give the new leader time to observe before expecting grand new plans. Great leaders listen before they talk.

No matter how thoroughly a search committee does its work, the outcome is never guaranteed. An error can be devastatingly costly. So, one must be able to sleep at night knowing that every effort has been made to catapult the charitable organization in a positive direction with the leadership change, rather than to mire it in a swamp of disorganization and discontent.

Robert Thalhimer is senior vice president of advancement at the Richmond Community Foundation in Richmond, BC. This article is reprinted from his blog, Bobby Thalhimer’s Blog for Givers (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-gBnSmJQjdKRLH4WyNEGEnZpq?l=1&u=5&mx=25&lmt=5).