Midwest Center

Allyship Skills

By Shannon Peery

Dozens of nonprofit professionals recently joined MCNL for a program introducing the tenets and practice of allyship. The session was the first of a four-part series facilitated by experienced DEIB consultants Ghadeer M. Garcia and Mark Logan of ALLY LAB, a program of Idealect.

ALLY LAB’s programs focus on ‘behavior not belief’, understanding that allyship is an ongoing process, and that ‘allies act.’

Working Definition

Ghadeer and Mark define allyship as ‘a lifelong process of building and applying skills’ with marginalized groups which you are not a member of. Allyship is neither a badge, a state of enlightenment, nor savior-ship. ‘Ally’ comes from the Greek root ‘to bind together’ and relates to the Zulu phrase, “A person is only a person with people.” Allyship requires proximity; you cannot be an ally from a distance. Allyship is a two-way relationship, benefiting all. Finally, the action of allyship is a skillset.

Putting Allyship Skills into Practice: Listening

Listening starts with gauging the audience. Empathy helps to minimize the distance between people and can actively be practiced with listening both verbally and nonverbally.

  • Use comprehensive listening. Comprehensive listening allows us to fully listen, engage, and more fully understand so that we can respond in ways that make us an ally.
  • Set aside critical listening. Don’t listen to respond or form an opinion.
  • WAIT. The acronym, WAIT, means ‘why am I talking?’ This is a question which needs to be asked when actively listening.
  • Resist the impulse to solve the problem. Ask, ‘Would you like me to help, and if so, how?’ Be aware of the need to balance this ask with not putting additional emotional labor on the speaker.
  • Reflect. What did you hear or see?

How Might We?

This concept comes from design thinking allowing us to know that there is not one ‘right’ answer yet many options for how we might respond and support as we wish, and work, to be allies. Often even as allies we are not sure what we are supposed to do. It is not necessarily one thing. Clarifying and asking the person what they meant, or why they said that can, in some cases, be helpful. Again, it is about context, the relationship dynamics and often there is not one ‘right’ thing to do in the given circumstances.

When we work to be allies in relationships, with others, and in our organizations, we want to ask the questions that can help us better support the person. Perhaps asking how we can help or what would you like me to do?

When Acting as an Ally

  • Err on the side of action (and if you get it wrong, apologize and learn from it)
  • Center the person most impacted
  • Take a risk
  • Proactive beats reactive ALWAYS

Putting processes/policies in motion to prevent overt and microaggressions is important. It is complicated, situational, and contextual.

How to Recover When You Get it Wrong (and You Will Get it Wrong)

It is inevitable that we will make mistakes in acting as allies. Here’s what you can do:

  • Apologize
    • Make it timely
    • Acknowledge the specifics
    • Take accountability
    • Be sincere
  • Learn (on your own) about the marginalized group
  • Ask what made the impacted person uncomfortable
  • Ask for suggestions to help you be more inclusive

The presenters also recommended, from their research, that what was most needed in the moment when something takes place was that it should be followed by action and reported to HR.

Allyship Matters

An organization and its leaders, managers, and staff can all benefit from this work.

Allyship can help people feel:

  • Safer
  • Happier
  • More engaged
  • More productive
  • Less stressed
  • Like they belong

Remember, allies ACT!

360-Degree Leadership for Nonprofit Professionals

By Shannon Peery

This Nonprofit Navigation session explores 360-Degree Leadership, including practical tools about how to lead, wherever you are within your organization. It is presented by Dr. Brent Never, director of the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership,

We often think of leadership relating to the person at the top. But leadership occurs throughout organizations, from the Executive Director to front-line staff to volunteers and everyone in between. Nonprofit organizations must develop professionals with leadership skills at all levels to deliver excellent services in challenging circumstances. Although not wholly endorsed by MCNL or Dr. Never, many of the concepts come from John C. Maxwell’s book The 360-degree Leader : Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization.

You can lead up, down, across and throughout your organization, from all levels. As leaders, by encouraging delegated and modeled leadership throughout organizations, everyone can function more effectively. This is 360-degree leadership.

Fundamentally, those in your organization want to know if they are valued. An element of effective 360-degree leadership is to serve all of your constituents. These include direct reports, funders, team members, board committees, administrative workers and clients. The guidance on how to be an effective 360-degree leader here can help you manage (and lead), care for and build relationships all across your organization.

Functions of Leadership

The ‘heroic leader’ astride the pinnacle of the corporation (Ex. Jack Welsh) is an outdated historical perception of leadership – of the 20th Century – that limits the view of who can participate in leadership. We should move beyond the ‘command and control’ understanding of leadership, away from a ‘manipulating’ perception into a whole-leadership empowerment.

Business and their cultures, historically, have had more defined roles and rigid organizational structures than nonprofits. Nonprofit organizations are usually flatter than corporations or businesses. Smaller ‘start-up’ nonprofits may have skeleton crews, constantly collaborating and coordinating. It feels like everyone does everything! As nonprofits grow, scale, and expand (in their lifecycle) more organizational hierarchies and position differentiation is necessary. Yet many small or medium-sized nonprofits have fluid communication and project pathways across departments.

The traditional view (Ex. John Kotter) defines leadership that copes with change through setting direction, aligning people, motivating, and inspiring. Never asserts that although this view of leadership still holds true and resonates, the 360-degree lens allows us to ‘broaden out our lens.’ According to the research of Yukl (2012) there are functions of ‘What Leaders Do’ that are not included in the traditional model.

  • Alignment between objectives and strategies
  • Task commitment
  • Mutual trust and cooperation
  • Collective identity
  • Organizing and coordinating activities
  • Encouraging facilitating collective learning
  • Developing people

This broader level of leadership, although less hierarchical and more fluid, can motivate our organizations, our staffs, our volunteers, and our supporters/funders in fundamental intrinsic and extrinsic ways.

Myths & Misperceptions

There are myths and misperceptions, old or fixed ways of thinking, that are not conducive to 360-degree leadership, such as:

  • Position Myth – Leadership is only from the top
  • Destination Myth – You have to ‘get to the top’ in order to lead
  • Influence Myth – People would follow me if I were on top
  • Freedom Myth – I’ll have freedom once I get to the top
  • All-or-Nothing Myth – If I can’t get to the top, I’m out

All myths have an element of truth, yet if you question yourself and reflect upon your organization, you can see where these myths are not true, and worse, are ‘culture-factors’ that can be corrosive. Adopting new and growth-oriented mindsets, which allow you to lead in creative and practical ways across all levels of your organization, free you from these myths & misperceptions.

The Leadership Loop

The Leadership Loop can be applied to all levels of leadership and includes caring, learning, appreciating, contributing, verbalizing, leading, and succeeding. In fact, these affective elements of the practice of leadership should be utilized leading up, leading down, leading across – and throughout your organization.

Leading Up

Leading up is towards your supervisor, your board, the funders, and the public trust (for nonprofits) to whom you are accountable. Some things to keep in mind when leading up:

  • Lead yourself first and foremost
  • Lighten the load of those above
  • Do more than manage!
  • Invest in relational chemistry
  • Know when to push and when to back off

Leading up within your organization helps to ensure alignment and communication from all levels, from board and other stakeholders, having continual mechanisms for feedback, then across and down.

Leading Across

Leading across is with colleagues, other department leaders, and amongst sector peers. Some key themes to keep in mind when leading across include:

  • Be a friend
  • Let the best idea win
  • Expand your circle of acquaintances
  • Avoid the office politics
  • Don’t pretend to be perfect

Leading across encourages success through organizational mission-alignment and facilitates the ‘lifting of all boats’ and the appreciation of valuable peers, mentors, and other staff.

Leading Down

Leading down refers to those staff, volunteers, and constituents whom you directly (or indirectly) manage. Consider these ideas when leading down:

  • Slowly walk the halls
  • Develop each team member as a person
  • Place people in their strength zones
  • See everyone for all that they can be
  • Model the behavior you desire
  • Transfer the vision
  • Reward success, don’t stop innovation

Leading down asks for an openness, awareness, and an intentionality of your own professional behavior in service of those who work with and for you.

Putting Together your 360-Degree Leadership Plan

You can begin applying 360-Degree Leadership today by planning your next steps.

Remember:

  • You can’t be everything to everyone – own this
  • Co-create systems that allow and encourage the practice of leadership
  • Acknowledge and reward great 360-degree leadership
  • Coach those who are not living up to the ideal

You can take practical steps today that will help you become a better leader. Allow yourself some grace and re-engage in the process of planning areas of improvement periodically.