Share Your Feedback on an Executive Directors Group!

The Council of Community Services of NYS (CCSNYS) and The Institute for Human Services (IHS) have formed a new partnership. As a part of this partnership, IHS is now a CCSNYS association member. Now when your organization joins or rejoins IHS, you will also receive a CCSNYS membership (2 for 1). CCSNYS and IHS are also working together to convene an Executive Directors Group for the Southern Tier. Please take a few minutes to share your feedback by completing the survey. Thank you for your time and consideration.

The Young and The Restless

The Chronicle of Philanthropy's latest article on leadership does a great job of pulling together the loose ends of the debate around succession planning and leadership that nobody really wants to talk about...

"Younger people talk much less about a crisis in people retiring,
younger leaders think the crisis is that existing organizations are getting
stale. The nonprofit sector has been incredibly neglectful about innovating
for leadership."

The leadership deficit - and the discord between current leadership's definition of how to "lead" their nonprofit and the "up and comers" definition about what it takes to lead a successful nonprofit in a new environment is driving studies, articles, websites, and over 40,000 results on a recent GoodSearch query!

Only 1 in 3 young nonprofit workers aspire to become an Executive Director. What is keeping young leaders from wanting to ascend to the "power position"?

1. The work is long and hard - are there ways to work smarter and achieve greater success? They think so. Have you talked to them lately?


2. The leadership models never change - what can we do to attack the "way it's always been done" mentality? How can you slot new leaders into existing positions when new skill sets may not "fit" perceived "old" needs?


3. There's no future in it - there's no clear career map for current leaders' retirement plans (many say they will take other jobs in the sector) or future leaders career "ladder" ( "I've got to tell you the truth. I'm under 30. Are you going to give me a shot?")
   

The dialogue is picking up some steam. The Institute for Human Services in Bath is focusing their annual conference on leadership and succession planning. Syracuse is also doing a good job of engaging young voices in the community revitalization process...The Young Nonprofit Professionals Network is out there supporting new leaders - and everyone is allowed to be on the listserv. If you're a current nonprofit leader, why not join this group - listen in on the conversations?

What is going on in your region?