Game Changer – ONEplace@KPL

ONEplace@KPL has become a significant Game Changer for nonprofit organizations in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Opened in 2009 with support from local funders including the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, and others, and with administrative support and facilities provided by the Kalamazoo Public Library, ONEplace is a management support organization (MSO) for nonprofit organizations. Their focus is on four key areas common to nonprofits:

• Management – operations & program directors
• Communications – marketing, public relations & media relations
• Fundraising – individual, foundation & corporate support
• Leadership – board & executive director

With leadership from director Thom Andrews and associate Lolita Moss, the list of professional development opportunities for nonprofit organizations is extensive and comprehensive. The list includes workshops, roundtables, webinars, interest groups, courses, and plenty of other resources.

At the same time a variety of  direct services, such as consulting, advising, problem/opportunity identification, and action planning are provided on a confidential basis. And because of the ongoing financial support of area foundations everything at ONEplace is available at no cost to the nonprofit organizations.

Several of us at Midwest Consulting Group have been involved with ONEplace since its founding. We love working with nonprofit organizations and the wonderful work they do; it’s a great way for us to give back to our local community.

Last week saw the kickoff of the 2015 ONEplace Nonprofit Leadership Academy (ONLA) with a bakers’ dozen of Kalamazoo County’s best and brightest nonprofit professionals taking part. ONLA consists of nine monthly day-long group sessions, one-on-one work with an executive director mentor, and other activities throughout the year.

If you lead, work in, or volunteer with nonprofit organizations in Kalamazoo County, you owe it to yourself and the nonprofits you serve to check out ONEplace@kpl. They are indeed a Game Changer for nonprofit organizations.

Stay Tuned

Paul

Teacher vs. Coach – II

Shortly after the 1st edition of The 8 Essential Skills for Supervisors & Managers was published I posted some thoughts about one of the important roles you fulfill in the course of your work – Teacher and Coach. Based on the number of times that term gets searched on the blog, maybe it’s time to explore that a bit more.

Teacher

As a manager we can work with people whose skill level and job knowledge vary considerably. Particularly when the employee is new to the organization or your team, you are likely to be in a Teacher mode. You are teaching when orienting them to the team or the job; you teach them about the culture of the organization and the group. What do they need to know in order to be effective in their specific job and as part of the team? You teach them about the standards and expectations for performance, quality, communication, attendance, participation, and how much freedom they have to make decisions on their own. You make sure you give them plenty of feedback as they learn and progress. Once they demonstrate the appropriate level of competence in the basics of their job, you can shift toward more of a coaching role.

Coach

The role of a Coach is different from that of a teacher and involves a different set of skills. At the highest level it requires a well-developed sense of awareness about each employee’s talents, skills, and needs. Knowing when an employee needs some encouragement and positive encouragement versus when they might need corrective feedback or bit of refresher training can involve some subtle differences. Asking open ended questions can help lead the employee to figure out what needs to done without you “telling” them what to do. Once the employee has successfully mastered the basics of their job you can increase the level of involvement they have in managing themselves. Obviously that doesn’t happen right away; you want to empower them but must do so purposefully. Beware the “aimlessly empowered!” Of course the two sides of this coin are not mutually exclusive. You will likely move back and forth on a continuum between teaching behaviors and coaching behaviors. What do you think? Are you teaching and coaching your people? Do you have a firm grasp of when to teach and when to coach with each personal on your team? PS – for a great take on the difference between Coaching and Feedback, see what executive coach Mary Jo Asmus has to say on the topic. You’ll find an excellent post on her blog at Aspire-cs.com. As she points out, Coaching is future-oriented while Feedback is focused on what has occurred in the past. She says, “In the end, coaching is about ‘letting go’ of advice-giving and assuming the person being coached is whole, smart, and understands the best direction to head in.”  Good advice from one who knows.

As a manager, how adept are you at knowing when it’s time to shift from Teacher to Coach?

Paul

360 Assessments Underway

Conducting a 360 assessment process is an important part of each ONEplace Nonprofit Leadership Academy, and the data-gathering is well underway for the 2015 Academy group.

We’re using a pair of excellent multi-rater assessments, the Management-Leadership Practices Inventory (MLPI) and the Professional Communications Inventory (PCI) – [click here for more info]. Each Academy participant selects the 360 that best fits their situation and provides us with a list of people they want to ask for feedback. The scores are provided only to the Academy participant and individual rater’s responses are reported in aggregate, so confidentiality is assured throughout the process.

At the March session the group will receive the results of the assessment process. For many this will be the first time they’ve received this kind of feedback, and the enthusiasm within the group is pretty high.

When is the last time you got really honest feedback on what you do (and don’t do) as a professional?

Stay tuned,

Paul

What’s New in the 2nd Edition?

The 2nd Edition of The 8 Essential Skills for Supervisors and Managers contains several completely new chapters in addition to the many revisions and updates to existing material. We’ve added chapters on:

• Communicating in a Connected World – the growth of mobile computing allows many of us to work remotely from our “virtual” office nearly anywhere in the world. While that flexibility is wonderful, it also creates new challenges.
• Resolving Conflict – learning to resolve conflict successfully has to be part of the skill set for every supervisor and manager, regardless of the organization you work in. Ignoring conflict isn’t an option; you’ve got to deal with it!
• Diversity in the Workplace – the composition of the workforce has changed significantly in recent decades, and there is every reason to believe the workforce of tomorrow will be even more diverse.

You’ll also find a full Index as well as a Table of Cases in the Appendix of the 2nd Edition. Stay Tuned!

Paul

Revision Underway

Watch this space for news about the 2nd Edition of The 8 Essential Skills for Supervisors and Managers. We’ve added several new chapters as well as made significant revisions to content and cases. As with the 2010 edition the focus is on how we manage ourselves and each other in organizations. The 1st Edition has been adopted as a core resource by organizations of all types and sizes.

We’ll keep you posted on our progress and let you know when and how you can order the new edition.

Nonprofit Leadership Academy – Version 4

For the past three years I’ve been involved with the ONEplace Nonprofit Leadership Academy (ONLA) here in SW Michigan. This fantastic leadership development program is provided free of charge to the nonprofit community in Kalamazoo County through the generosity of local foundations. The 2015 version kicks off this month and promises to be exciting and innovative as we welcome a baker’s dozen of nonprofit managers. ONLA is always a great experience for the participants as well as for those of us involved in The Academy. Watch this space for more information as the process moves along.

In the meantime, take a few minutes to check things out at ONEplace@kpl.gov to see what’s going on in the nonprofit community. Thom Andrews and Lolita Moss do an outstanding job at ONEplace!