Different approaches to leadership: Learning from Maytree’s Five Good Ideas

Five Good Ideas is Maytree’s lunch-and-learn program, where industry or issue experts discuss practical ideas on key management issues facing non-profit organizations. Each expert presents five ideas and explores with the audience how these ideas can be translated into action. In this blog post, we have selected three particular sessions that take different approaches to leadership. The videos are 20 to 40 minutes long, and packed with knowledge for new or experienced non-profit leaders.

Glem Dias: Five Good Ideas about how to grow as a leader and engage your staff in an environment of constant change

Glem Dias is Program Director, Talent Management at the Schulich Executive Education Centre; he also runs an independent talent practice. He encourages leaders to reflect on how they interact with their staff.

Dias offers the following five ideas as one approach to leadership.

1. Ask critical questions to your staff such as: what are the three core issues that define your organization.
2. Have in place a development plan for yourself.
3. Hold “stay conversations” with your employees.
4. Use high impact and personalized recognition methods.
5. Build transparency by using the leadership hot-seat exercise.

Watch Glem’s presentation:

Access more resources here.

Andrea Cohen Barrack: Five Good Ideas about leading your organization in a time of disruption

Andrea Cohen Barrack is VP, Community Relations and Corporate Citizenship, TD Bank, and former CEO of the Ontario Trillium Foundation. She uses her experience to talk about disruption and how to adapt to it as a leader. Andrea was asked to lead the Ontario Trillium Foundation in 2012, a year after a report from the auditor general of Ontario questioned the value of the foundation in relation to grants allocation. During her hiring process, the board and committee expressed the need for a change in leadership — they wanted someone who would increase the profile of the foundation, and showcase its impact and values.

Here are Andrea Cohen Barrack’s five ideas on how to lead in a time of disruption.

1. Know the difference between leading change and managing change.
2. Reach beyond the usual suspects to find disruptive ideas.
3. Be mindful of those who benefit from the status quo.
4. Social disruption is about the means, not the ends.
5. Achieving impact is rarely linear.

Watch Andrea’s presentation:

Access more resources here.

Kofi Hope: Five Good Ideas about putting values at the centre of your leadership

Kofi Hope, Executive Director of the CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals, takes us on his personal journey of working with youth. He asks: “How do we lead our teams in an industry where people are overworked, underpaid, undervalued, and surrounded by some of the most raw traumas in this city?” He admits frankly that he does not have all answers, but that in his experience, putting values front and centre is one highly effective approach to leadership.

Here are Kofi Hope’s five ideas for developing values-based leadership.

1. Recognize that all actions begin with values.
2. Explore your own values and communicate them through your leadership story.
3. Build shared organizational values over time, starting from your own values.
4. Consider values in hiring your team.
5. Focus on policies and practices that live out your values.

Watch Kofi’s presentation:

Access more resources, including a full transcript, here.