Nonprofit leadership. Introduction: Miracle Workers at the Helm. New Ways of Exercising Leadership

Authors

Kristen McCormack, Boston University

Abstract

Leading a nonprofit organization in today’s world requires nothing less than a miracle worker at the helm. That could be the conclusion one might draw from reading the literature on the traits, skills, and characteristics required to lead a nonprofit organization. Today’s leaders should be honest, competent, forward looking, and inspiring as well as intelligent, fair-minded, broad-minded, courageous, straightforward, and imaginative. Leaders should be of high integrity, dedicated, magnanimous, humble, open, and creative while energizing others. Able to cope with change, leaders must establish direction, align people, motivate, and inspire while effectively communicating their story. He or she must be ambitious for the company, demonstrating a compelling modesty, calmly determined, never blaming, willfully creating superb results, demonstrating an unwavering resolve to do what must be done to produce the best long-term results, no matter how difficult. Finally, the leader should be tactically and technically proficient, be self-aware, set an example, build effective teams, ensure tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished, and make sound and timely decisions.

Recommended Citation

McCormack, Kristen (2010) "Nonprofit leadership. Introduction: Miracle Workers at the Helm. New Ways of Exercising Leadership," New England Journal of Public Policy: Vol. 23: Iss. 1, Article 23.
Available at: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp/vol23/iss1/23