by Todd Cohen Nonprofits need to lead, and quickly. At home and abroad, we face serious threats from multiple, cascading crises, including shattered economies and financial systems; toxic and gridlocked politics; poverty, disease and illiteracy; global terrorism; natural and ecological disasters; and, in the U.S., a culture infected with greed, blame and intolerance. Missing in action in taking on those problems is leadership, a role that nonprofits can and must play. Yet with the social and global needs they exist to address escalating rapidly, nonprofits themselves are stressed and increasingly broken by crises of their own over who will lead them, the role their organizations should play, and the business models they will need to survive and thrive. The challenges facing nonprofits … Continue Reading
Workplace Behavior: The Need for Guidelines
Integrity in the Work Place: Part II Last week after I wrote about the issue of integrity in the work place I received a number of responses from people who read the posting and I want to address the issues they raised in their comments. In examining the issue of integrity there are a number of perspectives and a question was raised about the distinction between “disrespectful” and “inappropriate” behavior in relation to integrity. Specifically I wrote, “What distinguishes disrespectful behavior caused by a lack of integrity from inappropriate behavior is the ability to document the specific actions of a professional or lay leader.” Without entering into a polemical discussion and the drawing of fine lines to differentiate between the two, I would posit that in the ongoing life … Continue Reading
Integrity in the Workplace
Sticky Issue: Integrity in the Workplace One of the most difficult issues to identify and discuss is “Integrity in the Work Place.” First of all it is important to identify what is meant by integrity, and second, does it apply to the workplace? Third, who does it apply to, and how are issues of integrity dealt with in the context of several different relationships: employer - employee; supervisor - supervisee; volunteer leader - professional staff member; and employee - employee; volunteer - employee and volunteer - volunteer? In each of these situations it is essential for there to be a clear understanding of the issue(s) and a well thought out approach to deal with the lack of integrity in anyone of these relationships. In order for us to establish a common use of the word, Webster’s … Continue Reading
Are Today’s Innovators “Leaders?”
Bob Goldfarb, in his recent piece Innovation, Management, and Leadership, raises an interesting question about the relationship between “innovation” and “leadership.” He writes: “From a structural perspective… [innovators] have simply added independent, entrepreneurial elements to Jewish communal life that complement the established, centralized bureaucracies.” But is that really all they have done? Goldfarb points out that leadership and management are two separate activities. He claims that “leaders [should] resist institutional inertia, challenge fashionable ideas, question the trends of the moment, articulate new visions, and rally a broad following so that true transformation is possible.” Leadership, then, is as an activity that draws attention to a community’s … Continue Reading
Innovation, Management and Leadership
Jews have been debating leadership since Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. Now, as established institutions begin to make room for innovative startups in Jewish life, discussions of leadership become more complicated and confusing, starting with what the word itself means. A leader is sometimes thought of as anyone who is highly placed in an organization. A major donor may be called a “lay leader,” suggesting that leadership amounts to having power or influence. A consulting firm that focuses on nonprofits, The Bridgespan Group, issued a report called “The Nonprofit Sector's Leadership Deficit,” which reported that nonprofits “will need to attract and develop some 640,000 new senior managers” over the next decade. They use “leader” to mean “manager.” A news story … Continue Reading
A Conversation With Kathy Manning and Jerry Silverman
[part 1 of a conversation with Jerry Silverman and Kathy Manning] This afternoon, in Washington, D.C., The Jewish Federations of North America (formerly UJC) will open their annual General Assembly (GA). The world has seen significant change since the organization adjourned in Jerusalem one year ago: both Israel and the U.S. have elected new leaders; while the financial meltdown was underway we did not yet know of the damage inflicted on the Jewish world by Madoff's sins; and in Israel, daily barrages from the Gaza Strip had not yet caused the latest war to erupt. Much has also changed at The Jewish Federations since last November: as a result of further budget cuts, the organization again cut the professional staff and to reduce expenses relocated their offices to lower Manhattan. Partly due … Continue Reading
What Do We Need From Our Leaders?
This essay was written by Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld for the Samuel Bronfman Foundation “Why Be Jewish?” Conference, in May 2009. With the opening of the Federations of North America GA 2009 later today in Washington, D.C., and the introduction of the organizations' new CEO and the organizations' new incoming Board Chair, this essay is a reminder to all of us of not only what we need, and expect, from our leaders, but of the strength we as a community derive from those who lead us. What Do We Need from Our Leaders? Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld Let me begin by stating the obvious. When we speak of leaders, we are speaking about human beings. This is a self-evident but elusive fact of life; we know it and yet we consistently expect or imagine our leaders to be superhuman, and we are … Continue Reading
The Value of Jewish Leadership
The Fall issue of CONTACT, a quarterly publication of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, delves into the issue of leadership in our Jewish community. from the editor's introduction: In the Jewish community, the concept of leadership often conjures thoughts of professional development, management training, or the relationship between lay leaders and professionals. What is often lost is the larger question of what constitutes genuine leadership, and what attributes the Jewish community needs in its leaders. What exactly is leadership? Why do Jewish movements, both historically and in contemporary times, often rely on charismatic individuals as agents of change? Are individual leaders necessary to propel movements into motion, and if so, what qualities of leadership are both effective … Continue Reading
Enabling Jewish Professionals
An opinion piece from the Forward: Give Professionals Time To Dream More often than not, young professionals in the non-profit world “do” what they “are.” In the Jewish communal world, this is constantly evident: The professionals who work in our communities also pray in our communities, socialize in our communities and volunteer in our communities. They are the personification of the sense of community that we aspire to have felt by Jews throughout our community. But among this group of the Jewish community’s most dedicated, there is a serious problem that ought to cause alarm among the rest of us: Far too many young Jewish professionals are frustrated about their ability to make a difference. … Continue Reading
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