It is clear that for executive onboarding efforts to be successful, they cannot simply take the shape of a glorified employee orientation process. One of the most important factors of transitional success is for the incoming executive, and those assisting with his or her transition, to have an advanced level or understanding of three things: a) The unique aspects of the organizational culture; b) the dynamics of the teams the executive is entering (whether as a leader or colleague); and c) the personality, knowledge and leadership skills of the incoming executive

A leadership transition is a critical change for the organization, the new team, key stakeholders and especially the new leader. The need for the newly hired leader to get up to speed quickly, understand the business, navigate the culture, build relationships with key stakeholders, assess and lead their new team, and understand their own personal leadership strengths and needs in the context of this new role can be a daunting task.

In my last post (October 13) in the Management Library's leadership blog (managementhelp.org/blogs/leadership), I offered history and some detail on the Five Core Strategies of Appreciative Leadership. Today, instead, I’ll share some of the practices of Appreciative Leadership.

This blog entry – consistent with my entry from October 7 -- is a commentary on Whitney, Trosten-Bloom, and Rader’s book Appreciative Leadership: Focus on What Works to Drive Winning Performance and Build a Thriving Organization. I want to be transparent about my biases related to this current series of blog entries on Appreciative Leadership (AL).

In this posting, I build on the October 7 blog, in which Steve Wolinski introduced Diana Whitney’s, Kae Rader’s and my book, Appreciative Leadership: Focus on What Works to Drive Winning Performance and Build a Thriving Organization. Expanding upon Steve’s clear summary of our book’s content, I provide some history behind the approach and the design of the text, along with more detail about the five core strategies that together unleash positive power.

Imagine this scenario… The charismatic founder of a small (but influential) nonprofit resigns suddenly and moves across the ocean, leaving the organization in turmoil. Stepping in quickly to clean up the mess, the Board promotes Douglas from Deputy Director to Acting ED. Douglas has been in his new position for a month when the Board …

Coaching Blog: Coaching Tip – Block Time to Maximize Your Efficiency http://bit.ly/9dedlw # Training Blog: 4 Steps to Conducting a Needs Assessment: http://bit.ly/bANRSz # Social Enterprise: Feasibility Testing: Top 10 Tips http://bit.ly/9YLsOE # Business Planning Blog: What Do We Need: Strategic or Business Plan? http://bit.ly/dj9XBr # Fundraising Blog: GRANTS: FREE MONEY – NOT QUITE !! …

Reason’s whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words — health, peace, and competence. ~ Alexander Pope Alexander Pope penned those lines of iambic pentameter in the first half of the 1700s. But I wouldn’t be surprised if I heard them from a stressed-out 21st century nonprofit executive director. Imagine the conversation. …

Coaching Blog: What Are You Tolerating? http://bit.ly/aPXSWk # Training Blog: Tools for your Training/HPT toolbox http://bit.ly/aFWR3o # Business Planning Blog: What Makes a Business Plan a Business Plan? http://bit.ly/9RQcPh # Customer Service: Mapping your Customer Experience Strategy http://bit.ly/9SXUoh # Boards Blog: Is a “Working Board” an Immature Board? http://bit.ly/8YOdMf # Consulting Blog: What’s a “Mature” …

In her recent (April 16) blog, “To Lead” vs. “To Manage” (see: https://management.org/blogs/leadership/), Julia Fabris McBride observed that “Organizations need leadership AND management.” That made me realize that … up to now, I’ve been talking about fundraising from the perspective of “management – the role of the director of development – managing the volunteer leaders …