Who’s Next?

By Joe Hungler on February 3rd, 2008

Know HR has a post up that more companies are identifying their High Potential employees-but they don’t know what to do once they’ve identified them. If you are running a non-profit, now is the time to figure it out. The Practice of Leadership has ten ways to assist in Spotting a New Leader. Here is one of them:

A quality that makes people listen to them. “Potential leaders have a ‘holding court’ quality about them. When they speak, people listen. Other people may talk a great deal, but nobody listens to them. They’re making a speech; they’re not giving leadership. I take notice of people to whom others listen.”

We are on the cusp of a large turnover in leadership as pointed out by Compass Point. I’ve been hearing about this leadership transition for a while. I’ve been lucky to be a part of organizations that believe in helping staff grow and move onwards and upwards. It is part of our succession planning to ensure that each of our staff have the opportunity to prepare themselves for their next job. The first way to spot a new leader in the list above is Leadership in the Past. Each of our ten Program Directors is in charge of at least one special event, most represent us on some committee in the community and all have been trained in supervision and supervise at least some volunteers if not part-time staff. The supervision aspect is one that was missing when I was in program. Everyone assumes that if you are good in program, then you will be good at helping others with program. Reality is that they are two different skill sets. We also include our senior people at any level in the discussions at the next level up to grow their experience.