The Emotional Lifecyle of Nonprofit Leaders and Their Teams
The concept that organizations progress through fairly predictable stages of growth and decline is generally understood and accepted. The “Lifecycle of Organizations” diagram is often discussed during board/staff retreats, planning processes, and at conferences. The stages include start-up, growth, maturity, decline, and renewal (or dissolution). There are pain points associated with such discussions. The lifecycle diagram exhibits the reality of constant change, but change is uncomfortable.
What is less talked about is the emotional lifecycle of nonprofit leaders and their teams. The stages of this cycle include hope, joy, discouragement, despair, and renewal (or burnout). Just as a board might prefer the organization to permanently reside in the growth or maturity stages of the organizational life-cycle, they might also hope/expect that the executive director might permanently reside in the hope and joy stages of the emotional lifecycle - equating these with optimal performance. But we are human! The question is, how can we be aware of and support the emotional experiences of the team?
The emotional reality of nonprofit leaders and their teams changes. Accepting the truth of this is essential to being able to work together in human teams. It is unrealistic to expect a leader or team member to remain in a state of joy, and it is unrealistic for an organization to remain in a perpetual state of high performance or growth.
Realizing that a leader will experience emotions ranging from joy through to despair is to accept their essential humanity. The questions to address are 1) How do we work effectively in teams when we know that at any time, one or more team member(s) are experiencing despair? 2) How do we as leaders cope?
There are tactics that can help significantly - and they have to do with building a culture of appreciation.
Focus on what is working: At any of the stages of the emotional lifecyle, identifying what is working and celebrating successes shifts mindsets away from negativity and generates hope.
Focus on the future: It is quite tempting to focus discussions on the past, especially during challenging times. Questions such as “Why did that mistake happen?” tend to move a conversation towards scapegoating and blame. By contrast, kicking-off a team meeting with “How can we work together to achieve XYZ goal?” inspires and motivates the team.
Forgiveness: Leaders are often thought of as being strong, based on their ability to fire people. This approach does little to inspire trust, engagement, and hope. Wouldn’t it be great if “strong leaders” were typically assessed by their capacity to forgive mistakes and, by doing so, strengthen morale, engagement, and teamwork?
In their book, “Building Resilience with Appreciative Inquiry”, Joan McArthur-Blair and Jeanie Cockell explore organization leadership through hope, despair, and forgiveness. The book provides profound insights into establishing a culture of appreciation, and includes resources for implementing these ideas. The book is a source of hope that even during the most challenging times, we have the capacity to move in the direction of inclusiveness, positivity, hope, and the creation of a better world.