Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to speak on a panel about young leaders at the Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium sponsored by American University’s Arts Management Program. I had a blast meeting so many young, educated go-getters in the arts field. I talked about my experiences being a young board member, relating to older colleagues, and the value of getting a Master’s degree in your field. Our discussion spanned many of the same issues we covered in our live Chronicle of Philanthropy discussion earlier this month: Standing Out: How Young Nonprofit Workers Can Get Ahead of the Competition. So this week, I’m really glad to have this space to be a resource for those of you asking these very same questions about how to move from entry level to leadership. We’ll go in-depth on several strategies that will help young professionals gain valuable skills and experiences to get to the next level. This week’s blog series also builds upon a course I teach at the Social Action and Leadership School for Activists (S.A.L.S.A.) here in DC called: From Entry Level to Leadership: How to Advance Your Nonprofit Career.
What I hope our discussions will emphasize is that you don’t have to have a title to be a leader, but if you want to move from entry level to leadership, it’s up to you to make it happen. What we’re talking about is basic leadership theory outlined by Peter Northouse and others, essentially the fundamental difference between assigned and emergent leadership. Assigned leadership is based on being hired into a particular position in an organization: “Executive Director/CEO” or “Development Director” or “Senior Vice President” etc. Assigned leaders, however, are not always necessarily viewed as the “real leader.” In contrast, emergent leadership is exhibited when an individual is perceived to have influence in a group or organization, regardless of their title. How does this happen? Successful leader emergence happens as a result of several positive behaviors, including: 1) being verbally involved, 2) being informed, and 3) initiating new ideas. We’ll definitely touch on all of these ideas this week.
Young nonprofit leaders like you and me don’t have to wait until we’re assigned to lead. We can’t just sit still in our seats until someone calls on us to lead from the back of the room. It’s about time we began the important work of moving ourselves up to the front.
Up Next: How to Join a Nonprofit Board of Directors
To ensure you receive all the blog posts in this week’s series, you may want to subscribe to my blog. To sign up for this for free simply add your email address to the mini form below:
RSS Feed – If you’re familiar with RSS feeds you can subscribe to mine here
Related Posts
-
Virginia Edelstein
Cozality on 
bsaunders on 
