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C05 Pre-Conference: Interim Executive Directors

Interim Executive Directors: A Special Corps of Nonprofit Capacity Builders

Thursday 9:00am - 4:00pm

Price: $100 Members; $175 Non-members

Track: Capacity Building Models and Techniques

Presenter

Don Tebbe, TransitionGuides

Description

The Annie E. Casey Foundation over the past four years has led a national effort to build resources for nonprofit agencies facing leadership turnovers. "Executive Transition Management" is the name the Casey Foundation has given to the growing set of consultant protocols being developed to assist agencies in transition. Within ETM, it is recognized that the availability of an interim executive versed in the ways of temporary leadership is often essential to the successful management of a transition.

The Executive Transitions Program (ET) of CompassPoint Nonprofit Services has worked with over 180 agencies in transition in the past 7 years. An evaluation of ET client outcomes indicates that those agencies employing an interim executive director experienced the greatest levels of success with their transitions. They did not lose ground with funders. They experienced greater levels of capacity building during the transition period. Their new permanent executives achieved higher levels of success as monitored 12 months after their start dates.

Workshop content will include:

An overview of the of the major types of leadership transitions that can benefit from temporary leadership and the variety of skills required by each:

Turn-arounds, in which agency fortunes have seriously declined and the executive may have been terminated.
Start-ups, in which an all-volunteer agency is getting ready to hire its first executive and needs systems and protocols created. A temporary executive can put things in place such the permanent hire needn't be as skilled and can be hired at a salary affordable for a young agency.
Following founders and long-term executives, in which a Board and staff need an interim leadership period in which to separate from the presence of a successful and powerful leader before being able to select and bond with a new permanent leader.
Adequate recruiting periods, in which the Board needs more time to analyze its leadership needs and conduct candidate recruitment than is allowed by the departure schedule of the current executive.

Contracting for interim engagements and entry behaviors:

Efficient pre-contract assessment techniques for identifying key challenges and tasks to be addressed in the interim engagement
Methods of setting up the engagement with the Board of Directors to establish realistic expectations and maximize outcomes
Best practices for "hitting the ground" running and quickly grabbing the leadership reins.

The developmental tasks of the interim leader:

Facilitating a healthy closure with the departing executive
Helping the agency come to terms with its history
Envisioning the future: Engaging key stakeholders in identifying challenges and clarifying aspirations for the agency
Capacity building: Preparing the platform for the next executive
Handing off to the newly hired executive

Participants will develop an understanding of the unique nature of interim leadership and knowledge of field-developed practices for taking advantage of the capacity building opportunities in leadership transitions.

About the Presenter

Don Tebbe, Transition Guides

Don Tebbe is a senior associate and co-founder of TransitionGuides, a consulting collaboration based in Silver Spring, Maryland that advises nonprofits on leadership succession, executive search and transition management, and related capacity-building projects. His 22-year nonprofit career spans the full spectrum of the sector, as an executive director and interim director, and for the past 12 years, as an advisor to nonprofits. Don has served six assignments as interim executive director and currently helps train and place interims for clients as well as members of the Maryland Association of Nonprofits and Center for Nonprofit Advancement.

Don has managed over 50 executive transitions for nonprofits ranging from pre-incorporation start-ups to the world's largest international child welfare organization. For the past four years, he has been part of a national team of executive transition management practitioners, which, under the auspices of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, has conducted extensive research on executive transitions and developed best practice approaches to executive transition management based on their collective knowledge base that encompasses over 300 executive transitions.

He was one of the early leaders in the movement to develop statewide associations of nonprofits and was involved in the formation of three related national groups, including serving as a founding board member of the National Council of Nonprofits Associations. Don is the author of For the Good of the Cause: Board Building Lessons from Highly Effective Nonprofits, a report based on case studies that explored the link between governing board behavior and nonprofit effectiveness. He has been a guest lecturer at a variety of universities, including Northwestern and University of Chicago. He currently serves on the advisory council for the nonprofit studies program at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.