Your First 60 Days as a Nonprofit Executive Director: An Action Plan

Tim Barnes: 0:07

Welcome to episode 98 of the practice of nonprofit leadership. I'm Tim Barnes and I'm Nathan Ruby. Well, good morning, nathan. We're actually doing this in the morning, so how are you today?

Nathan Ruby: 0:20

Yeah, we are. I'm, you know I'm doing great. It is a Friday and typically on Fridays I, I'm excited, I'm ready for a good weekend and a couple of days off, and it's been a little hot. We're getting into the dog days of summer here in the Midwest and it's you could tell by the weather, but excited for a good weekend ahead. How about you, tim?

Tim Barnes: 0:45

Well, yeah, I'm, I'm trying to stay cool. We, as you know, spent last week in the Seattle area and visiting family and love the coolness and come back to purgatory here. It's just crazy. But yeah, I'm going to try to stay cool and enjoy the weekend. Before we get into the show today, nathan and I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you to all of you who spend time with us each week listening to the show. We just hit an all time record and downloads for a month and we still have a few days to go and we're just really grateful that you guys are showing up and hopefully it's it's being helpful for you.

Nathan Ruby: 1:29

Yeah, absolutely. We're just so thankful that you're here with us on on a week after week basis and you know, tim and I work hard to to bring something valuable to you every week, you know, something that you can use in your work today but also to plan your future and to help you in the future. And we love preparing for each show and we actually I'm not speaking for Tim, but I kind of am, because I know he feels the same way that we just we love the time that we spend recording this and you know it. And what's always really exciting for both of us is when we talk to people who say something like hey, I listened to your show about X, y or Z, whatever it is, and it really helped me through something I was working on and and it just it just brings a lot of joy and happiness to Tim and I, so thank you for hanging out with us. It really does mean a lot for both of us.

Tim Barnes: 2:21

Okay, good, nathan, what are we going to dive into today?

Nathan Ruby: 2:25

Okay, so today we are going to cover how to build your action, steps or your activity for the first 60 days as an executive director. Now, this episode is geared towards executive directors who have just started a new position or are thinking of starting a new position, but it's also valuable for all executive directors, even if you've been in your position for a while, but maybe you're a little stale or maybe you feel like you're a little stuck. So if you've been around a while and and you want to shake things up, you will definitely be able to pick out a thing or two from today's episode.

Tim Barnes: 3:08

You know, Nathan, we know the turnover rate in nonprofit executive leadership has always been a topic of discussion. We've all heard of the trend a few years ago called the great resignation, which chronicled a high percentage of people who switched jobs, and but while it made national and even local news, maybe global news as well, I'm not sure it was abnormal for the nonprofit sector.

Nathan Ruby: 3:35

Yeah absolutely, tim. And here's some recent numbers for executive director turnover from and we'll put these in the show notes. From the zippiercom website, they have executive director of nonprofits turnover at 42% within two years. 42%, tim, that is a massive number. The mission possible strategies website has turnover at 18 to 22% per year and give butter. Give butter is an online giving platform but they've got turnover at 19% per year and a little variance in numbers. But for sure you know you average those all out and we're talking 20, 22, 23% per year. Those are, those are big numbers, tim.

Tim Barnes: 4:26

Well, I think it shows that some of the challenges that come with nonprofit leadership and, yeah, and it's probably going to continue as well, hopefully maybe we're helping bring those numbers down, but we'll see.

Nathan Ruby: 4:40

Yeah, we can bring it down to 17% and that would be better, right there you go hey.

Tim Barnes: 4:45

Before we get into today's topic, I just had to ask you one question. Yeah, a lot of times when we do a podcast like this, we hear about, hey, 100 days to whatever or 90 days to whatever, and today we're talking about a 60 day plan. I'm curious, kind of what's, what's the thinking behind a 60 day plan?

Nathan Ruby: 5:09

Yeah, you know, that's a good question, tim and I think well, I don't think I know. I have always, when I've changed new positions, I have always looked at it as 60 days, maybe a little quicker, a little faster. Obviously, 60 is smaller than 90. So that would be fewer days. That's a big jump. That's a whole month less and I think for smaller organizations the level of complexity may not warrant a whole 90 or 100 days. I think you could do it quicker. I think it's also puts more emphasis on a fast start and getting out, and we're going to talk about this in a minute. Our first topic is going to be establishing relationships and you just that new. Everybody wants to know who the new executive director is and so getting out there fast and it's a sprint, and so I look at it more of a 60-day sprint rather than a hundred-day marathon. So I think that's probably why I've got it at 60 instead of a hundred or 90.

Tim Barnes: 6:22

Okay, that makes sense. Well, let's jump into your points. What do we need to do during those 60 days?

Nathan Ruby: 6:27

All right. Well, so today we got a little bit of of Higher level, maybe 50,000 foot Theory, theoretical topics, but then also a little bit of more tactical things you could do. It's a little a mixture of both. So our first point is I've got is establishing relationships, and For each of these categories I'm going to give you a estimate of the amount of time you should be spending in that particular Category. And so for establishing relationships, I've got it at 60 percent. It is and and these percentages you can adjust up and down based on on your own situation and the situation of the organization. It's not written in stone and you just have to do what works best for you. But I've got it pegged at 60 percent, and so it's definitely the priority of all the things that we're sharing with you to do. This is the priority, and as an executive director, your ultimate success will be Directly tied to your ability to develop meaningful Relationships with a wide variety of people. So if you are thinking of becoming an executive director and your struggle with the Relationship side, that could be well, that could be Tim. It is a skill that you need to start working on. And if you're actually an existing executive director and that's not your strong suit either Definitely worth the time and energy to begin to work on your skills and developing Relationships maybe you can talk a little bit about.

Tim Barnes: 8:02

So who are these people we should be relating to what's? What does that look like?

Nathan Ruby: 8:07

Yeah, you know the list is pretty long, but some of the basic relationship Call them categories that you should be looking at. Obviously, staff how you interact with staff is going to be critically important. So you need to be right off the bat, you need to be making sure that you know people's names and that you know their families and that you you connect with them on a on a personal basis right from day one. But then there's also board members and donors and what I call end users, so that the people that are benefiting from your organization. If you don't have, if you don't have a Relationship with people who are benefiting from what you do as an organization, then you'll you'll never have a full understanding of vision and mission. So end users are very important vendors, community leaders, other nonprofit leaders, local news media. That's just an abbreviated list, him, but that'll, that'll get you going. You start establishing Relationships in all of those categories and you'll have you'll have plenty of work to do. And so when you're doing that, when you're meeting those people and you're getting to know them a little better, I think your best tactic for Starting and building those relationships is to be asking questions and specifically open-ended questions. You want them to be doing the talking, not the other way around. And so let's, let's take donors, for instance. Here are four simple questions that you can use when you you take your, your donor, and let's say it's one of your top donors and use a call them up and say hi, my name is Nathan Ruby. I'm the new executive director We've never met. I would love to visit with you and get to know you a little better and share, you know, my thoughts on the organization, all right, and the donor, if it, if it's a good donor, they're almost always going to say absolutely yes. So you sit down and you're with the donor. And Now what? What do you use as an agenda? Well, well, obviously the first thing you do is thank them for their past giving. That would be topic number one. But then you get into questions, and so here's four easy ones. You can use number one how did you get involved with the organization? And then you just be quiet and you let them talk and you will start to find out how they were connected. Are there other people within the organization? Well, yeah, joe's been on the board and he's my neighbor across street and he connected me. Okay, well, now you know that there's a connection with one of your board members. So how did you get involved with the organization? Number two which of our programs are you most excited about? And this is a key question, because the answer to this question is going to be how you interact with them. Moving forward on the Organization, so I and I think I probably use this story before Tim think of it. Think of a Orchestra and an orchestra you have. Well, orchestra would be strings. So think of a symphony. So you've got. You've got brass, and in the brass you've got trumpets and trombones and tubas and woodwinds, you've got clarinets and flutes and percussion. You have all these different groups and then within each, each of those, you have specifics. So in the brass, I'm a trumpet player, and so within the brass is the trumpets. So if I tell you I'm most excited about the trumpets, well, guess what? The next time that you come talk to me about making a gift, you're not going to talk to me about the flutes, you're going to talk to me about the trumpets, because that's where I'm interested in. So which of our programs Are you most excited about? Number three what do you enjoy about, what do you enjoy about coming to the organization. So are they volunteers? Are they, you know, or do they have something that is unique to them, that they enjoy specifically about the organization? And then the fourth question is how is the organization impacted your life? You Want to connect the passion of the donor with the vision and mission of your organization, and this question Gets right to the heart of that how is the organization impacted your life? So those are those are the four questions I would start with there. Others, I mean any open-ended question, you know, tell me about your family, tell me about your grandkids, you know anything that that elicits conversation works. And I think one of the things that you're really looking for is a deeper understanding. This is this is we're beyond the donors. Now, this is other categories. One of the things you're looking for is deeper understanding of organizational culture, and I guess this really comes back into play when you're talking to staff Board members those two groups specifically, because you have to identify culture quickly and you have to understand it and then figure out how to adapt it to your personal style. And you only figure those things out by interacting with staff, the members of your leadership team, board members. That's how you find out what the culture is. And Now, one thing that you may find out when you get into a new job because, tim, I don't know about you this has happened to me a few times. I've taken a new position. I've come in on the first day and the second day and the third day and the fourth day, and then I realize, oh man, this is not what I expected. This is the. They didn't give me a full picture of what's going on, and so you may find a culture that is bad, or maybe negative or bad or even toxic, and if that's the case, you know, obviously you're gonna have to start working on on changing that, because that takes time and energy and effort, but at least you'll have identified it. So that's it. That's one of the things that you're looking at for when you're building, beginning to build these relationships. And then, lastly, on relationships, you have the organization. The organization becomes the central Connecting point. So let's say, you're going to a, a community leader, and you're establishing a, a Personal relationship with this community leader. It's a council person from the town council. Well, it is the organization itself. That is that. That is the connection. You're coming to see that person because of the organization. So you wanted to add the organization into into this relationship, but it doesn't stop there, it also goes outside of that. So you you've got to be able to make a connection one on one with the person outside of just the organization, and you know there's multiple ways to do that. Maybe, tim, that's a whole, nother podcast episode. But so you're, you're looking to build these relationships through the, the lens of the organization, but you're also building the relationship between the lens of one human being connecting with another human being and and having some point of connection.

Tim Barnes: 15:26

The whole idea of intentionality comes to my mind as we talk about All of our points, but especially this one. You know, as a new person, you'll probably have people who want to connect with you, but you also need to to be very intentional, maybe even keeping a list. I'm going to connect with five different people you know every day for the first 30 days or something like that, or are for the whole 60 days, I don't know. But taking, taking the time to be intentional, to make appointments and show up with people and Use those good questions that you've put out there, open-ended questions to understand Intentionality is really a big thing here.

Nathan Ruby: 16:04

You know, I I have a vendor relationship with a vendor that we, that I talk to usually once a year, sometimes twice a year, and we root for the same college basketball team and so every, every time we get together, I always have to make sure I do my research before I go so I'm up to speed, so I can hold out my end of the conversation. But you know, we could spend 15 minutes talking about our team Before we even talk about, about, you know, the business stuff that we have to talk about. But those 15 minutes are critical in, yeah, establishing and keeping that relationship together. Um, that's the human side of the equation, because it builds trust and it builds connection and it builds a likeness, a likeability. That is important when it transfers over to the. Okay, now we have to talk organizational business, but we already have this base that we've established. So, uh, both sides of that are important to him, okay. So our next point Um, I call it reviewing core documents, and I've got five percent of your time on this, so it's important to do. It's probably not the most important, because I've only got five percent of your time on it, but it is important to do, and by core documents. Uh, I'm talking. Uh, I've got four different categories. So the first one is bylaws. Know your bylaws and we've talked about bylaws before on the show and I've used this phrase before but in case you haven't heard it, uh, you can hear it for the first time. If you've heard it before, remember it. Your bylaws don't mean much. I'll admit that your bylaws don't mean much until Something bad happens and then they mean everything. So know your bylaws and I don't have a scientific number behind this term, this is just my experience level, or my experience, I would say 80 to 90% of all organizations are operating outside of their bylaws and your bylaws are a legal document that describes how you are operating as a Organization. So if you're operating outside of your bylaws, you know nothing's gonna happen today or tomorrow or the next day, or probably even the next day, but at some point it's, something bad happens and you're operating outside of your eye, your bylaws. Oh man, then you got problems. So I actually have my bylaws on my homepage, on my laptop and I bet I'm into my bylaws For sure, monthly. You know I'm, I am in it on a regular basis just to double check. You know, do we do? We have to have a vote on that, am I, you know? Is it just? And I can't give you specific examples because it eludes me at the moment, but just Go over the bylaws and know what's in there. So that'd be one number two Board meeting notes. On your first week on the job, I would say get download the previous board meeting notes. I would say, my, what I've always done is I've always gone back three years. That's what I do. My first cut at it is three years and I'm looking for specific things. I'm looking for negativity, not that I'm a negative person, but I want to know if there was Descension among the board in something. I want to know what it was and I want to know the body and the the meeting notes should Should have. Depending on how detailed it notes your board keeps may even have. Who said what about what? So if I have a board member who was vehemently against a new program and it program got passed anyway, I want to know that before I go talk to that board member. So any any negative things, items with significant discussion, even if it, even if it was positive discussion, it gives you a sense of what was important at the time. Policy changes. Those are really important to know. And then the other thing is things that no one told you, probably in the interview process, and so if you want to know where the bodies are buried, tim, you will usually find those bodies in the board meeting notes. So make sure you review them. I do at least three years and then over time I go back. I'll go back even further, but you know, four or five, six years ago is less relevant to today than the last three years. So I would start with last three years. So bylaws, board meeting notes, review your existing contracts. So that would typically be you know, fundraising, database, accounting software. If you have a building and you're under and you have fire suppression, if you have fire suppression code in your building, you're going to have a contract for to have those, the sprinkler systems checked, things like that. Review those contracts, know who your providers are and and start reaching out to those providers and Having conversations with them. You know, as the executive director, you don't have to know everything about every single contract and every single piece, but you have to have a general overview of what the contract is and a sense of if a question comes up. Then you have a relationship Establish with the vendor so that you can call to get the answer. So, for example, if one time I had a board member ask about our fundraising software, the, the overall price of it came up and in a board meeting, in a budget discussion, and they asked a question that I couldn't answer but I knew how to answer it. So the next day I called up our database Company and talked to our rep, asked a question, got the answer and by 10 o'clock the next morning I had to answer the board member. Well, I could do that because I knew who to call and they took my call, didn't go to voicemail and answer my question. It was simple review those contracts, talk to the providers and then the last thing I've got under core documents is insurance documents and you know, insurance for nonprofits. I've been doing this a long time. Tim and I have to admit that I'm still confused when it comes to insurance documents and we actually we actually had Tim and I actually have that on our list for future podcast episodes we're gonna bring on a insurance broker who Specializes in nonprofits and talk through some of that. If you've never looked at nonprofit insurance Coverage is, it's be ready to be confused, so I would include that early on is calling your insurance agent and Sitting down with them and going through what you've got so bylaws, board meeting notes, existing contracts with providers and insurance documents. Those are things you've got to be on right off the bat. Next one is what I call reviewing the big five and the big five this should be 15% of your time and this is a little more focused internally. So in the big five Fundraising, marketing, program Administration, governance those are the big five categories that you got to get your arms around and so start digging into those. What are you doing fundraising wise? What does your marketing look like? What's the social media? Your programs? Are we, you know? Are we evaluating? Do we have metrics? Do we have those things set up? And administration, of course, is staffing and Governance. Is your board? Lots of things to do inside there, and when I say to start reviewing, it's kind of a walk-through. You know what is physically happening in these areas. What are areas that I'm gonna have to address, moving forward, what's working pretty well, and don't forget to evaluate your metrics. You know outputs, outcomes, goals. Are we doing what we say we're doing? Those are all things that you need to be taking notes on and and when you're doing things like this. In your first 60 days, focus on asking questions, not giving solutions. If you walk in right off the bat and start handing out solutions and changing things, guaranteed your staff will resent you. So resist that urge. Ask questions, gather information and then, down the road, you can come back with a solid plan.

Tim Barnes: 24:54

Here's a shameless plug. We've addressed a lot of these big five and other podcast episodes, so if you're stuck on any of those, feel free to go back and grab. Grab one of the episodes on one of these big five yeah, absolutely.

Nathan Ruby: 25:08

And and we'll probably be Doing more of them in the future because that's those are the five big categories that we, that we really focus on, just like tim said. So you'll probably be hearing more of that in the future as we go forward. So that's a good question. Next one is and I've got this at 20 percent this is connect within the community, and this is 20 percent of your time. So you are the new face of the organization and by connecting in the community there are significant ways you can move the organization forward. But you can't do that sitting behind your desk in your office. So what? What does that mean by connecting in the community? Well, other organizations if you're a social service agency, then go connect with, go meet leaders from other social service organizations, local and regional community foundations, other local funding, like foundations you have foundations here. Other local funding organizations, community groups, rotary, qanus, lions get on their schedule. They are always looking for 15-minute presentations for their chapter meetings and those are every month. Get on the list for those. Chamber events before hours, after hours, networking groups those are all places where you can get out, meet people in the community and begin to share the vision and mission of the organization. That is absolutely where 20 percent of your time and focus. So those are the. Those are the four primary areas and if I've done my math right, tim, that should all add up to 100. So establishing relationships, review core documents, review the big five and start connecting in the community. So one last thing before we wrap up here, and that is how do you handle During the 60 days, how do you handle the relationship with your board president? So here's, here's what we suggest. Um, you should be meeting in those 60 days, so that's Two months, so four weeks. You should be meeting once a week with that board president. In person is better. If in person is not better than the secondary would be, zoom. So I typically do mine on a friday, so every friday, and I set those up in advance. Now, of course, this is assuming that your board president has the ability to do that or the availability to do that. So we're going to meet on friday once a week for the next eight weeks. And here's the agenda, or it's the agenda I've used. Who did I talk to this week? So who did I meet? Didn't have to be every single person, but you'll pick out two or three highlights. This is who I met with this week. What did I learn about the organization? What will I do with that information that I learned? And then, lastly, what is my plan for next week? And this does a couple of things. One, it sets a pattern to where your board president says, okay, they said that this was their plan for next week. Next week comes, oh, I did the plan I said, I did what I said I would do. So you're building credibility with your board member. You're learning the organization. The other thing is the third bullet point what will I do with the information that I learned? Because your board president doesn't want you to come in and say, oh well, I found this, I found this, I found this, I found this, and then just dump it in their lap. What the board member wants to hear is I found out this, this is what I'm gonna do. I found out this, this is what I'm gonna do. You bring solutions to your board member, even if the solution is, you know what? This is something that I'm gonna have to address. It's too early now. I'm putting it into my second month or third month planning. That's good enough. So you're setting the stage for your board board president and your relationship moving forward and it's a positive. It's a positive way to do it.

Tim Barnes: 29:05

Well, all of that is so good. And again, as we said at the beginning of our episode here, even if you're not a new executive director, these things are so important. You need to continue to work on the relationships. You need to continue to make sure that core documents are in line. You know what's in there. All the things we've talked about are so important. To continue, Even meeting with your board president. They're gonna be a key cheerleader for you as you go forward, so that's so important.

Nathan Ruby: 29:37

Yeah, if you, tim, if you've been around for a while and you know you could take some of these points and say, okay, I'm gonna do a one week sprint or a two week sprint, and you don't even have to do all of it. You could just pick out some of that and say you know, I'm a little weak in this, I haven't been doing this. So, yeah, I'm gonna hit this hard for the next two weeks and see how it goes. So definitely applicable to wherever you are as an executive director, wherever you are in your tenure. Well, summarize it all up for us, nathan, as we kind of wrap up, okay, the first 60 days of any new position are critical to establishing the groundwork for a successful tenure. It all starts, and in some respects ends, with relationships. It is so crucial to get out and meet as many people as possible from multiple different stakeholder groups. It is also time to dig into the details. Grab your favorite beverage, sit on the patio and read everything you can get your hands on, from bylaws to board meeting minutes to all the literature that you can find. You'll be amazed at what you learn. And finally, like I said before, when you start the learning process on the big five, resist the urge to make changes within those 60 days. Now, my only caveat to that would be if you see something that is horribly wrong, like the organization is breaking the law, or you know some massive big thing that's like, oh my gosh, I can't believe you're doing that. You know, short of those type things, you can build in real animosity from staff if you come in from the start and start changing things. I don't know. You know, tim, you may not know this, but most people don't like change. So change comes after you've built relationships, after you've had input from the people that are gonna be experiencing the change, and after you have a plan. So stick to the questions, gather information and do the changing later.

Tim Barnes: 31:45

So thanks for listening today and if you're in that position, maybe you're changing jobs, you're changing organizations and you would like some counsel, some coaching, some help. Nathan and I would be happy to touch base with you and talk to you about this. You'd like to get in touch with us and talk about that? Our contact information can be found in the show notes and we appreciate you being here. That's all for today, Until next time.