What Do Current and Future
Leaders Need to Succeed?
Session 1
ArtsForward
Surviving and Thriving during Times of Change
Alene Valkanas
This program is made possible with support from
National Endowment for the Arts, American Express
Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, a
State Agency

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Answers come from thousands of
dedicated workers

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Our leaders are leaving their posts.
• Does the next generation want to lead?
• Are they prepared?
• Are the boards prepared to make good hires?
• What are the opportunities for retiring execs?
• Does the culture have to change to meet the needs
of the new generation?

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The Bridgespan Group – The Nonprofit
Sector’s Leadership Deficit
24,000 vacancies in 2009
Top barriers to finding suitable leaders:
Compensation
Difficulty finding executives with specialized skills
Competition for same in-sector talent
Lack of resources to find and cultivate new leaders

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The most important attribute recruiters are
seeking
“Cultural fit” – shared passion for the mission
“Functional skills will get you on the short lists,
but only cultural fit can seal the deal.”
-Wayne Luke
Bridgespan Partner

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Succession – Leadership for the 21st Century
 First Generation of arts nonprofits retiring
 Most learned on the job
 Only 5% of organizations have a succession plan
in place
 Organizations lack staffing depth to develop
leaders within

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Do arts professionals like their jobs?
Job Satisfaction Findings
Executive Directors—76%
Emerging Leaders – 78%
“This is a job I love, but I wouldn’t
wish it on anyone else.”
- Executive Director

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Focus Group Findings
• Emerging leaders are • Racial barriers hamper
dedicated to the arts minority progress
• The starving artist is an idea • Arts management degrees
whose time has passed carry both pros and cons
• Professional performance • Professional development
must command fair can be hard to come by
compensation • Mentors are important but
• There’s no clear path to rare
moving forward in the arts • Lack of exposure to board
• Structure encourages hinders advancement
turnover

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What can we do?
• Make leadership transition a more visible issue
• Make information about succession readily available
• Become an advocate for Professional Education
• Create opportunities for person-to-person assistance

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Focus Groups Recommendations
Current leaders must
Provide young artists with info about arts management careers
Reward the skills developed in arts management degree programs
Provide mid-career challenges and growth experience
Provide opportunities for professionals from the corporate
sector to learn about arts management
Accept some attrition as inevitable & provide mechanisms for those
who leave paid positions to stay connected
Create support systems for new leaders to help overcome the
stress and isolation
Encourage mentoring and communication among all levels of the
field

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Compasspoint – Daring to Lead
Massive Turnover – Boomer Retirement
70% plan to leave in 5 years
5 Arts service organization leaders departed in last 5
years
 Half of social service orgs. are still led by
founders
 Leadership gap expands with smaller population
of Millenials

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Majority of executive directors will not do
it again!
Challenges of the Executive Director Job
Dissatisfied with Boards of Directors
Financial Management and Fundraising – least favorite
aspects of job
73% say fundraising most desired partnership area
with Board
Many admit to making significant financial sacrifices

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Rewards of the Job
• Working for organizations that change lives of
individuals and communities
• A level of autonomy
• Wide variety of tasks and responsibilities
• Opportunity to work in constructive partnerships
I think we have a responsibility to dig deep in the community and engage
people who are going to care as much about what we’re doing today as we
care. Emerging leaders are living with this incredible naiveté about how this
really works. We have to grab one and say you and I are going to be partners
here. We’re having lunch at least once a month until you have arrived.”
-Executive Director

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Compasspoint - Ready to Lead
Follow up study to Daring to Lead
Largest national study to date
Profiles 6,000 emerging leaders across country
“Becoming an ED is one of my goals, but not yet.
I would say probably five to ten years down the road.
I think I still have a lot of training to go through. .. I think more than schooling,
I would say more hands-on…I need a lot of management experience.”
-Emerging Leader

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What did They Learn?
• One in three aspire to be an executive director
someday
• A higher percentage among people of color
• Nonprofit Sector desirable place to work for social
change
• Pipeline filled with highly educated and committed
individuals
• Most feel they have meaningful and satisfying work

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The Barriers
• Lack of Work/Life Balance
• Nonprofit salaries and lifelong earning potential
• Lack of mentorship and support form incumbent
executive directors
• Inherent nonprofit structural limitation
• Prevailing executive director job description
unappealing to next generation of leaders.

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Recommendations to Current Executive
Directors, Next Generation Leaders,
Boards of Directors, and Funders
Current Executive Directors
• Replace dated power structures
• Help staff build strong external networks
• Be a mentor
• Be a good role model
• Pay reasonable salaries and provide benefits
• Engage in succession planning
• Recognize generational differences

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Next Generation Leaders
Take control of your career
Develop broad management expertise
Join a board
Find a mentor
Work with a coach
Recognize and respect generational differences

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Boards of Directors
• Pay reasonable salaries and provide benefits
• Ensure robust leadership beyond the executive
director
• When hiring - get out of your cultural comfort zone
• Recruit young leaders to serve with you

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Funders
• Support leadership and training programs
• Ask the question
• Don’t be part of the problem

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The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Involving Youth in the Arts Project Phase II – April 2009
Focus Groups on Next Generation Leadership
Study Looked At
• Millennials – born between 1980 and 2000
• Generation Xers – born between l965 and 1980
• Boomers – born between 1944 and 1965
“There are profound and sharp differences in
generational attitudes towards a wide range of issues of
work within the nonprofit arts sector, based on differing experiences,
customs, perspectives, priorities and thinking.”
Barry Hessinius

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What young people want from their jobs:
Meaning
Inclusion
Life/Work Balance “While a life in and around the arts may always
Appreciation attract talent, the lack of professional
development opportunities, of a support network,
Learning of constructive reviews on job performance, of
guidance on how to map out a career path and, all
Career Path Options too often, miscommunication between colleagues
of different generations (on top of the chronic
under compensation that permeates the
nonprofit sector) makes retaining such talent
extremely difficult.”
~Moy Eng, Program Director
Hewlett Foundation

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Specific Recommendations
1. Create Sensitivity to the Challenge
2. Improve Communications
3. Provide Lots of Opportunities for Professional Development
4. Delegate Real Decision Making Authority
5. Modify the Organization’s Culture
6. Increase the Opportunities for Junior Level Employees to Network
7. Address the Issue of Advancement, Promotion and Career Path
8. Help Identify Preferred Perks
9. Provide Frequent Performance Reviews and Feedback
10. Facilitate and Nurture Employee Creative Interests & Enterprises
11. Consciously work at integrating “Fun” into the Workplace
12. Bring Staff and Board Closer Together
13. Include Line Item in Budget for Updating Organization’s Technology

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The Ideal Executive Director
(drawn from focus groups – IL Arts Alliance Succession: Arts Leadership for
the 21st Century)
Honor the Mission
Stay Strategic, Focus on the Big Picture
Look Outward, Not Inward
Be an Excellent Fund-Raiser
Be Multi-dimensional
Work Well With People
Hold Up Under Pressure
Be An Excellent Financial Manager
Be Motivated by Intangible Rewards
Be Ego-driven, But Only a Little

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Message from Forces for Good:
The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits
What do nonprofit leaders need to do
to create impact that extends far beyond
what they could achieve alone?
• Great nonprofit leaders share power
• Let many leadership styles bloom
• To relinquish control, hire a COO
• Empower your executive team
• Great leaders last
• Develop a succession plan
• Build a big and strategic board
• Balance power

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What do you need to
Follow up with succeed?
Alene on the BLOG.
www.nysarts.typepad.com Should the job of executive
director change? If so,
how?
How can arts organizations
best retain talented
professionals?