If this man was running for office, I would vote for him. I haven’t yet read his newest release, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, but Seth Godin’s recent blog entries give a sneak peek of his sage advice on marketing and getting your message out in today’s environment.

His post Leadership is the new marketing says it all - focus your efforts on leading a small group of people and take them where they want to go.

Nonprofits and small businesses or organizations alike often fall into the trap of seeking the holy grail of awareness by the general public. This is a waste of time, and a battle you can’t win. You will be more successful with a narrow, dedicated and passionate focus. So many organizations talk about lack of name recognition in their community as an obstacle - but it usually isn’t the real obstacle. The biggest hurdle is getting specific with the audiences that matter.

Time ran an inspiring interview with Nelson Mandela, written by Richard Stengel, author of Mandela’s biography Long Walk to Freedom. You need to read the whole article to appreciate its context, but here’s a summary of his eight lessons in leadership.

1. Courage is not the absence of fear — it’s inspiring others to move beyond it
2. Lead from the front — but don’t leave your base behind
3. Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front
4. Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport
5. Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer
6. Appearances matter — and remember to smile
7. Nothing is black or white
8. Quitting is leading too

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has released a report on how to harness the power of innovation for philanthropic purposes. It looks at commonly-held concepts and practices more often used in the private sector and adapts it as “a commodity for social good.”

Much of the report talks about building and nurturing an Innovation Culture and the need for it to be systematic and outlines the five stages that are required:

• Setting the conditions required to support innovation
• Identifying the problem or opportunity about which you want to innovate
• Generating ideas to solve the problem or capture the opportunity
• Experimenting and piloting those ideas to test how well they work in practice
• Sharing the innovations with a broader set of stakeholders

Read the rest here.

Do you want to learn more about building a culture? Check out my new resource on Building a Better Fundraising Team.

Bad news sells. Most of us have become desensitized. But what happens when the story hits too close to home, for example, controversy or issues hitting the media are about the organization you work or volunteer with?

I hope for your sake that this doesn’t happen to you, but in too many cases, staff and others close to the organization find out when their phones ring and their mothers or neighbours alert them to the front page. This is wrong, and mostly avoidable.

If you are in a position of influence, ensure that you have a plan in place to manage issues and crises before and after they become public. If you’re not sure how, sign up to receive an article on this very topic, in a few weeks’ time.

As the host of this issue of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, I asked fellow bloggers to share their best and worst experiences, or observations on leadership.

Jane Arsenault at FIO Partners Perspectives contrasts her firm’s experience working in three distinct cities with the six essential leadership skills needed to stand the test of turbulent times.

Sam Davidson at CoolPeopleCare reinforces something I like to emphasize often - the ability to define success.

Jason Dick at A Small Change talks about what happens when you don’t have leadership and support for fundraising, and offers some tips on how to build it.

Katya Andresen at Robin Hood Marketing offers her two cents on marketing expert Seth Godin’s recent presentation to nonprofits - how to make people feel heard.

Heather Carpenter at Nonprofit Leadership 601 describes the characteristics of a learning organization, defined as one of the best models for effective leadership.

Coincidentally, my September 30 enewsletter offered a checklist for change, to measure your leadership’s likelihood for success in managing change, a key challenge in these times.

99.9% of the time, the reason I am brought in to an organization to help solve a communications challenge is related to change of some fashion. In about half of these cases, it seems that a problem originated after a poor decision was made  and the other times, because a supremely proactive organization wants to ensure it is done as well as possible.

Here’s the first few points from my September enewsletter on this topic which offers a checklist for the critical success factors of change. If you want to read the full article click here or better yet, sign up, so you get future issues delivered straight to your in box.

How does your organization measure up:

Business case - there has to be a strong business reason to make the change. Without this rationale, and senior management and board support, it will simply not happen. Trying to push through a change alone is like rolling a granite boulder up a very steep hill.

Guiding principles or rules to live by - taking the business case a step further, begin with a critical dialogue. Formal or not, the process should include a frank discussion about how the work will get done, how difficult decisions will be made, and where the inevitable lines will be drawn in the sand. This could be three simple statements, or ten, but it is the process that counts the most.

Schedule and time commitment - change doesn’t miraculously happen, at least, not well! A commitment to a realistic timeline is critical and tells everyone involved that this is a serious project that is happening, with or without them!

Big picture thinking - while it can feel to the people involved that the change is all important and the only critical thing happening in the organization, this is almost never true. It’s important to recognize where this change fits into the larger context. To not do so is to risk errors and to miss opportunities.

Want to read the rest? Click here.

It has taken me a week to simmer down my thoughts about an editorial column that appeared in a Canadian newspaper recently. The column was written by a well known human resources consultant who it appears based her article on books by others. In it, she explains that when faced with a crisis or controversy, it is deliberate public relations strategy to do one of the following - outright denial, justification, explanation, rationalization or providing an excuse or apology.

With words like "deliberate evasion of responsibility" and "even going so far as…" (using employees in commercials) it paints an unsavoury picture of the communications profession. Personally, I have never been expected to lie or witnessed the "deliberate evasion" tactics described in the article. I would not agree that this is standard practice. The second half gets to the heart of the matter - the best reputation repair strategy is to build a good one! Effective leadership, open communication, and ethical cultures are the key. Now that’s what communications is all about!

Great leadership is the topic of the upcoming Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants - and I am the guest host of the October 1 edition. Click here to find out how to submit a post.

Earlier this year I’ve commented on the HR Council of Canada’s project to develop a labour market strategy for the voluntary sector in Canada. To date, two reports have been released, which will contribute to the eventual strategy. Over the summer the second report was released and included survey results of employers and employees. You can read the short summary version here.

What strikes me most is that almost all nonprofits report difficulty recruiting, and rank this as one of their top challenges. Yet they admit they have done nothing to make their workplace more attractive to employees. About one quarter of employees of nonprofit organizations are currently seeking other employment. In many cases they cite better compensation as the root cause (want to know where you rank - check out the council’s salary review). Most are personally committed to the cause of the organization. They also say they would like greater feedback and development on the job.

I call this "low hanging fruit" - if you are in a position of leadership, talk to your staff, connect them to your organization, and provide them with support they need. It will go a long way.

New from Make It Count: The Think Rich! Entrepreneurial Thinking for Nonprofits seminar is now available. You can buy it now, choice of ebook or audio with transcript directly from my secure shopping cart. Just follow the links from the page.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently concluded something close to my heart - that nonprofit organizations need to do a better job of recruiting and training volunteers, and keeping them engaged. We have all been there, personally and professionally, no doubt… asked to join a nebulous committee, perform volunteer feats that no mere mortal could be expected to achieve, pester and bully our family and friends into donating their time and money, and stuff envelopes too.

This is not a recipe for long term success. Instead:

• Recruit and orient your volunteers, and staff, carefully and with consideration for the skills and attributes you need. A live body or bum in the chair is not a recruitment goal! A volunteer or staff mismatch only leads to dissatisfaction.
• Once you have the right people on the bus, give them what they need to work and feel great — tools, information and leadership!
• Keep them informed and engaged, making sure they know how they fit and how their efforts are appreciated.
• And last but not least, listen to them…communication is intended to be two-way!