Summary of the Organization

Summary of the Organization

The organization used in this leadership development and succession planning study is a nonprofit organization called Save Lives. Committed to serving humanity, saving lives, and improving the livelihoods of people, the NGO is guided by the principles of servant leadership and the continuous efforts to uphold moral values and standards. Having volunteered in this organization for four months as a Data Analyst, I have helped in fundraising and observed some of the critical leadership models and styles being used to manage people and resources in the broader context of organizational growth and development. Strategic leadership and management are deeply rooted in the operations of the organization as it seeks to provide the best information to their staff and achieve success in managing resources and planning for the future (Witcher, 2019).

The organization embraces an open, transparent, and employee-based organizational culture where the staff can share ideas and insights on the daily running of the organization. The positive, diverse culture developed at the organization allows the leaders to accept diversified perspectives from their people and implement these decisions for the good of the NGO and the people served. The promotion of creativity and innovation is a critical element of leadership in the organization. For the top leaders, employees need to be innovative in coming up with insights and ideas that can improve the position of the organization on the global landscape (Putman, 2017). Despite the challenges faced by NGOs in the current society- mainly relating to raising funds and accounting for the money, Save Lives has stayed on top of these issues because of the meticulously transparent and robust leadership structures put in place.

Save Lives develops leaders by mentoring its existing employees through coaching and training. Training and development of staff on the management and leadership of NGOs is the primary approach used by the organization to develop its leaders. It has developed an internal succession plan where leaders are picked from the existing workforce and coached through the years to become global leaders in different fields such as global health, finance and economics, human resource management, and other technical areas. The organization has been relying on this internal leadership training and development system to promote its leaders whenever vacancies arise. It is fair to say that the system has worked for the organization to a certain extent.

Even with its currently existing leadership training and development program for new leaders, Save Lives is affected by reduced donor funding, and the number of volunteers has gone down significantly. The financial struggles and somewhat leadership inefficiencies in attracting new volunteers are hampering the ability of the company to run some of its crucial operations effectively, hence the need to come up with an improvement version of the currently existing leadership development and succession planning (Witcher, 2019). The basis of this leadership development and succession planning is the leadership inefficiencies being experienced at Save Lives, particularly on attracting volunteers and donor funding.

Assessment of Leadership

Harrison (2020) defines leadership as the art or the ability to motivate a group of people towards achieving a common goal. In the world of business, leadership means motivating, directing and inspiring employees with a common strategy to meet the needs of the company (Ortega, 2017) Quite frankly, leadership is the ability to set direction, build a motivating and inspiring vision, and create something familiar that people can aspire to achieve (Harrison, 2020). Leaders map out where the organization or entity needs to go to win, with teamwork being the framework of such winning. Leadership should be dynamic, exciting, motivating, and inspiring. These definitions and descriptions of leadership captured the basics of being capable of and prepared to inspire colleagues, followers, and employees.

Effective leadership, as Ortega (2017) supports, is based on inspirational ideas, but cannot and will not happen unless these ideas can be communicated well to followers, colleagues or employees in a way that motivates and engages them enough to act in the form designed and wanted by the leader. Broken further down in simpler terms, the leader should be the inspiration for and the director of these actions. Leaders are the people in the group that have the combination of skills, knowledge, and personality to make the followers want and be inspired to follow their direction. While leaders set the vision and leadership to be developed, they must also bring to fold their management skills to guide their followers to the right destination, efficiently and smoothly.

Why is leadership outstanding, especially in the context of Save Lives and other organizations? Four reasons explain why: creating an inspiring vision for the future, motivating and inspiring people to engage with the created vision, managing the delivery of the vision and coaching and building a team, so that it becomes more efficient at achieving the vision (Harrison, 2020). In Save Lives and the business environment, a vision is a realistic, attractive, and convincing depiction of where the organization and its people want to be in the future. Vision provides a sense of direction, provides a marker, and sets priorities so that the organization can tell it has achieved what it intended to make.

Leaders create visions by focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of their organizations. Strategic leaders critically evaluate how the industry is likely to evolve and how their competitors will behave. With such evaluation comes with an analysis of how their organizations can innovate successfully, and then shape their business organizations and their strategies to achieve success in the future. A compelling vision established by the leaders lays the foundation for leadership. However, the leader can inspire and motivate people that help in achieving the vision.

Therefore, leadership is crucial because it motivates and inspires people and followers in the organization to work towards achieving the vision. The vision of Save Lives is to become a global voice of support for local communities in enriching lives, supporting livelihoods, and saving lives. Leaders can inspire and motivate their followers in several ways- dangling the benefits of the vision to them and the customers, use their expert power to inspire people, motivate and influence people through their natural appeal and natural charisma. Leaders also help in managing the delivery of the vision and coaching and building a team to achieve the strategic vision.

Leadership Approach for the Organization

Save Lives is a nonprofit organization dedicated to uplifting the lives of people and serving humanity in general. Based on its overall vision and mode of operations, the servant leadership model best suits how its leaders carry out themselves and their activities on a broader landscape of serving people (Boak & Crabbe, 2019). The servant leadership model is devoted to providing full attention to the needs and emotions of people. Servant leaders serve people. Service to people should be considered the priority for nonprofit organizations because this is the very reason for their establishment. Servant leadership places a particular emphasis on the advantages of establishing trust, collaboration, empathy, and ethics in the process of leadership instead of focusing on how to motivate and influence followers to perform (Boak & Crabbe, 2019).

Servant leadership approach is vital in ensuring that the leader focuses on the needs of the followers first instead of seeking to gain more power (Bennis, 2012). From this approach, the leader does not concentrate on using power to force people to achieve results out of fear. Servant leadership thrives on the assumption that attending to the needs of the followers motivates them to reciprocate the favor by bringing in more teamwork, improved performance, and a deeper engagement in their work. This makes servant leadership an efficient approach to leadership.

The trait approach of leadership emphasizes that leadership is a value that is made up of various components that one is born with. One cannot develop themselves to become a leader if they do not have intrinsic values (Andersen, 2018). The traits theory mentions several characteristics that one should possess to become a great leader. For instance, the approach requires on to portray; intelligence, honesty, creativity, confidence, courage, and drive to become a good leader. The theory has several controversies because not all leaders have the listed traits in their jobs. However, many leaders show a different combination of those values, and they are still useful in delivering their objectives and meeting the organizational goals (Boak & Crabbe, 2019). One of the most significant attributes of leadership is the ability to learn and implement the lessons in future management strategies.

Leadership Development Plan

Save Lives needs leaders in all facets of the organization, especially in human resources, operations, finance, and accounting, areas in which the organization depends heavily on achieving its mission and success (Sessa, 2017). Creating a leadership development plan for the organization is a way of offering them the chance to develop the skills and competencies they need to move up within the organization and grow in their careers. The leadership development plan is not only meant for emerging leaders in the organization but also for motivating and inspiring the staff to become better versions of themselves (Sessa, 2017). The program is also designed to increase the innovation and creativity of the team, and to make the employees feel more connected to the organization, and to fathom how their work adds value to the nonprofit outfit.

For Save Lives, the goal is to develop as many servant leaders as possible to serve the interests of the organization. To promote these servant leaders, these steps are followed: defining the leadership needs of the organization, placing participants in a situation that allows them to learn and grow, identifying potential leaders, measuring development outcomes, and keeping retention in focus.

The first step is defining the leadership needs of the organization (Alter, 2017). Save Lives’ 10 percent of senior leadership and management positions are set to retire in the next two to three years, which means the organization will be lacking leaders at the top without a proper succession and development plans put in place. Therefore, the organization needs executive leaders who will take over the mettle when the current crop retires. The leadership development plan developed accordingly is aimed at coming up with servant leaders who can offer leadership at the apex of the organization. The short-term and long-term strategic goals of the organization also feature when assessing the leadership needs of the organization. Save Lives is on a fast track for expansion and growth, which implies that the leadership development plan is aligned to ensure that the crop of leaders developed to have the right competencies, mindset, and values to achieve these goals and priorities. These needs inform the kind of leadership development program that will be implemented in the organization and how they plan will be applied.

The second step is to place the currently existing staff in an environment and situation where they can learn and grow to become the servant leaders that will serve the interests of the organization. Here, it is not a matter of training leaders but developing them holistically to embrace the concept of servant leadership. Alter (2017) contends that servant leaders can only be nurtured and developed, but not manufactured. The focus here is to place the currently existing crop of staff, managers, and leaders in situations that will require them to learn the attributes of servant leadership and growth.

Examples of these situations at the organization include allowing potential candidates to step up when other executive leaders are away. Instead of making these positions vacant or bringing experts from outside, the organization provides leadership candidates to serve others in these positions when other leaders are absent. The additional opportunity is allowing the candidates to collaborate with expert leaders and other colleagues in other departments on special projects. Potential candidates can be allowed to lead fundraising events. The candidates will also be presented with opportunities in mentorship, training, and organizational planning, where they take part in project leadership, job rotation, and job shadowing. A vital component of this stage is coaching potential candidates and giving them feedback on progress.

The third stage is closing in on potential leaders without focusing on top-performing staff. Not all top-performing employees can be leaders. The process of identifying potential leaders involves inviting promising candidates from other departments and branches of the organization to participate in coaching, training, and mentorship. All employees must also be aware of the leadership development programs and opportunities in the organization and be given a chance to take part.

The last stage is measuring the outcomes of development programs and opportunities described above. The success of the plans must be measured. An example of a measurement metric would be the number of candidates promoted who have completed the program. Feedback from peers can also help in determining whether participants in the program have become effective servant leaders. Additionally, the measurement plan will decide whether the candidates have developed servant leadership traits and skills that will enable them to perform better at their current roles and in the future.

Leadership Succession Perspective for the Organization

McKee and Froelich (2016) explain that succession planning is vital for planning and implementing smooth transitions of leadership in the organization. Succession planning is critical because at the epicenter of the talent management process is identifying crucial roles and mapping out methods and strategies to ensure the organization has the right leaders with the right attitudes, skills and competencies and traits, in the right place at the right time (Varhegyi & Jepsen, 2017). Succession planning is also significant because searching for appropriate servant leaders to fill the vacant executive positions is a massive challenge because it takes time and financial resources. Having the predictability and foresight to develop servant leaders and the top talents to execute the organization’s strategy is vital (McKee & Froelich, 2016).

Succession planning is beneficial in many ways. Varhegyi and Jepsen (2017) explain that succession planning disaster-proofs the organization in the event of any eventualities like natural disasters or accidents. Succession planning also identifies the most qualified future leaders for the organization and prepares them for future assignments (Varhegyi & Jepsen, 2017). With the succession plan in place, the organization can create a structure for training and developing its leaders. Most importantly, the succession plan maintains the identity of the organization.

To build proper leadership succession, Save Lives aims to: map out a clear vision and strategy of the future leadership team, develop future leaders, seek new talents to fill the existing gaps, and monitor and improve the programs put in place to create future leaders. The first step is understanding the leadership capabilities required to meet the strategy of Save Lives. The organization needs servant leaders who will embrace its model and aspirations (McKee & Froelich, 2016). With this assessment, the organization can, therefore, evaluate the potential of the existing staff on whether they become the future servant leaders for the firm.

The second action step is identifying potential future servant leaders, diagnosing their needs, and building them in a systematic way to culture their development. In some cases, the current staff may not fulfill the needs of future leaders, and therefore the organization will be forced to seek external leaders to integrate into the organization (McKee & Froelich, 2016). Lastly, developing leaders must be monitored and improved. To achieve this, the organization will collect information to understand and enhance the best leadership practices.

Self-Development in Leadership Perspective

Coming into the course, I thought that leadership is all about directing people and pushing the staff to meet individual objectives and strategies. My understanding of leadership was limited to seniority and forcing people to do all the hard work while the boss takes the backseat. This line of thought and perspective on leadership has been completely changed and transformed. Following this study, I have developed a completely different approach and attitude on leadership, especially on the traits of leadership that achieve the most success. I have learned that good leaders not only motivate their followers but also inspire them to become better and work towards achieving the vision of the organization.