How Nonprofit Executives Can Empower Middle Managers as Strategic Actors
How Nonprofit Executives Can Empower Middle Managers as Strategic Actors
Leopold Richardson | 2024
Abstract
For several decades, researchers have warned of a looming deficit of junior leaders prepared to assume senior leadership roles in nonprofits. This shortage is spurred, in part, by a sharp increase in the number of retiring Baby Boomers and accelerated by the impact of COVID-19, but it is also driven by the reluctance of current senior nonprofit executives to develop middle managers. That hesitancy stems from several places including a lack of capacity fueled by an ever-present tension between generating revenue, operating the organization, and having limited resources to support leader development. But that is only part of the story. Executives may also undervalue the capacity of middle managers to have organization-shaping insights that positively impact the nonprofit’s work in the present and enable it to prepare for the future.
This work argues that middle managers, due to their central role within organizations, are uniquely poised to have strategic insights that can enrich a nonprofit’s strategy and spur innovation in a way that further assists it in achieving its social benefit mission and generating revenue. It posits that nonprofit executives seeking to create a sustainable approach to how their organization operates must more deeply embrace their nonprofit’s core asset: its people. Specifically, they must become more focused on and adept at recognizing the strategic nature of the middle manager’s role and enhancing their ability to leverage their strategic insight as a core organizational competency. To do so, they must develop middle managers’ capacity for strategic foresight and better integrate their insight into their organization’s work. To grow senior leaders’ capacity to achieve that goal, this book discusses the benefits of strategic foresight in middle managers, details common roadblocks and keys to addressing them, provides tips on developing junior leaders’ capacity for strategic insight, and highlights examples of strategic foresight in practice within nonprofits.