Why not for Profit leaders need a leadership coach
Author: Aly McNicoll - LEAD Director
Leading a not-for-profit organisation is rewarding, meaningful – and often extraordinarily demanding. You are responsible not only for your organisation, your people and its financial sustainability, but also for delivering on a purpose that matters deeply to the communities you serve. There are often more needs than resources, competing stakeholder expectations and difficult decisions where there is no obvious right answer.
And yet, who coaches the leader?
Leadership can be a lonely place
Not-for-profit leaders are often expected to be the person who has the answers, provides reassurance, makes the difficult decisions and keeps everyone moving forward. You may have a board, a senior leadership team, colleagues, friends and family – but it can be difficult to find someone with whom you can speak completely openly about the challenges of leadership.
This is where having your own leadership coach can make a significant difference.
A coach provides a confidential thinking space outside the organisation – somewhere you can step back from the immediate pressures, make sense of what is happening, challenge your own thinking and consider what you really want to do next.
A coach doesn't give you the answers
Good leadership coaching isn't about someone telling you how to run your organisation. It is about having a skilled thinking partner who can help you find your own best answers.
A coach can help you:
Step back from the day-to-day and see the bigger picture.
Think strategically when operational demands are consuming your attention.
Challenge assumptions and habits that may be limiting your leadership.
Navigate difficult people and complex relationships with greater confidence.
Have the conversations you have been avoiding.
Make difficult decisions with greater clarity.
Lead through change, uncertainty and complexity.
Strengthen your leadership impact without losing sight of your values.
Stay accountable for the changes and actions you want to make.
Perhaps most importantly, coaching provides a place where you can ask yourself the questions that are easily lost in the busyness of leadership: What am I really trying to achieve? What am I not seeing? What am I avoiding? What does my organisation need from me now? And what kind of leader do I want to be?
Looking after the leader is not self-indulgent
In the not-for-profit sector, investing in yourself can sometimes feel difficult to justify. There are always other priorities. There is always someone else who needs the funding, the time or the support.
But leadership capability is an organisational resource.
The quality of your thinking affects the quality of your decisions. Your ability to manage pressure affects your team. Your willingness to have difficult conversations affects performance and relationships. Your capacity to stay curious, strategic and purposeful affects the future of the organisation.
Having a coach is therefore not simply an investment in the individual leader. It is an investment in the organisation's ability to fulfil its purpose.
You don't have to wait until something goes wrong
Leadership coaching is sometimes seen as something you turn to when a leader is struggling or when a problem needs fixing. In reality, some of the greatest value comes from coaching leaders who are already performing well and want to become even more effective.
The best leaders recognise that they don't have to do leadership alone.
They seek out people who will support them, challenge them, broaden their perspective and hold them accountable – someone who is sufficiently removed from the organisation to see things differently, but sufficiently skilled to understand the realities of leadership.
Because when the leader has the space to think better, they are more likely to lead better.
And when leaders lead better, the people, communities and causes they serve benefit too.
Would coaching be helpful but you don’t have the funds? We have a few graduates from the NZ Coaching & Mentoring Centre’s professional coaching course, Professional Mentoring and Workplace Coaching Skills, who would like to gain client hours for their accreditation process who are willing to provide professional coaching to not for profit leaders either pro bono or for koha. The coaching would be online via Zoom or teams. Email aly@lead.org.nz if you would like to explore this opportunity.
