As the nonprofit sector has matured, the prevailing attitudes about management and leadership have evolved. A lone manager at the top doesn’t create a stable and sustainable organization. New theories continue to emerge, including an emphasis on shared or collective leadership, which we mentioned earlier. These theories, cited by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, are described as being “based on the premise that leadership is the product of groups rather than individuals. In other words, leadership can come from many places in an organization or a community” (Enright, 2006, p. 20). Organizational health depends on strong leadership in all positions, which brings us to a new way of looking at the definition of leadership itself.

In other words, leadership is action, not a title. As Jim Collins shares in Good to Great and the Social Sectors(2005), the nonprofit sector has complex governance and diffuse power structures that require a different kind of leadership that focuses on the cause, the movement, the mission, the work—not on themselves. This is the kind of leadership we’ re talking about. Within organizations, there are many individuals who exhibit leadership from where they sit each and every day. They do it by engaging others and posing challenging questions, rather than providing all the answers. Ronald Heifetz, director of the Leadership Education Project at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, asks us to “[i]magine the differences in behavior between leaders who operate with the idea that ‘leadership means influencing the organization to follow the leader’s vision’ and those who operate with the idea that ‘leadership means influencing the organization to face its problems and to live into its opportunities.’ That second idea—mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges—is what defines the new job of the leader” (Taylor, 2007). Mobilizing others to tackle tough challenges, rallying people toward a better future, encouraging contribution or involvement—these are all essential elements of moving an agenda forward. We offer these as definitions of leadership, while recognizing that some may not agree with us. Leadership can be interpreted differently, depending on your own cultural lens. For the purposes of this book, however, we will operate from this definition.

Rather than the traditional top-down process of telling people what to do and providing answers, the goal becomes to engage others and support them to tackle challenges and goals. To do this, we need to focus on a new way of developing leadership. We think this new way includes coaching.

We’ re convinced the best way to serve the mission is to encourage and develop existing staff. How do we encourage those we supervise? How do we aspire to professional lives that are purposeful, sustainable, effective—and dare we say it—fun? We may not be able to afford big salaries. But we can be more effective, avoid burnout, and attract and retain staff through something we all need. That something is a chance to grow through ongoing professional development, which, as it turns out, is just what this book you are holding is all about.