On being a chief executive

Led by: Professor Rob Paton (The Open University Business School)

Background

Richard Brewster was CEO of Scope, one of the UK's largest nonprofits, for eight years. He saw through two major changes and experienced the full range of senior management challenges in a relatively complex charity. On leaving Scope he wanted to reflect on this experience to better understand and communicate the realities of such roles. In discussion he concluded that such an exercise would be more significant and productive if he worked with other, current or recent chief executives to identify critical issues and lessons both for themselves and for leaders in nonprofits generally. His and Rob Paton's shared concern was that such writing and training resources as there are on leadership in nonprofit contexts tend not to address central aspects of the role and experience. While there is extensive and helpful material concerning the 'hard' issues (the objective, external, rational topics of structures, strategy, systems, finance, service and programme delivery, measurement...), there is far less that explores the 'soft' side of leadership. This term encompasses: handling relationships with an unusually diverse range of people (users, advocates, volunteers, trustees, members, staff, funders, politicians...) whose one common characteristic may be strong passions, views and interests; the constant behavioural scrutiny that CEs have to accept and work with; and their own inner world - personal values, feelings, struggles, interests and needs. These 'soft' elements are important in their own right; in addition, how chief executives handle the relationship between the soft and the hard aspects of leadership may be critical to their success (or otherwise) in the role.

Aims and objectives

• To document important, but hard-to-capture aspects of chief executive experience. In particular, to produce credible and well-grounded accounts of the personal dimensions of being a chief executive in a nonprofit organization and how these relate to the other (objective, rational) requirements of the job.
• To create new and useful knowledge concerning these aspects of leadership. This means formulating this know-how in ways that have wider relevance and application.
• To make this learning widely available in accessible and stimulating forms for a wide range of interested parties (in an accessible book, in the first instance).

Methods

The first phase of the research was based on the in-depth reflections of a diverse 'core group' of nine CEs of nonprofit organisations.

These reflections were gathered through the recording and transcription of:

• Individual 3 hour interviews
• Participation in a three-day 'retreat' of all the CEs
• Keeping video diaries over the course of a month
• Participation in a 24 hour 'reunion' held 18 months later

In the second phase an initial thematic analysis of this material was shared with more than 50 other Chief Executives in a series of confidential seminars. The discussions were also recorded and transcribed. The aim was to check, qualify and elaborate the initial analysis by inviting further reflections and stories about their experiences across a much wider range of organizations, large and small.

This material is now being analysed and a book and other resources are being prepared.

Links

• Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (AVECO)

Research theme: Socially responsible management and regulation