Collaboration and Leadership: thinking long term about leadership skills and embracing collaboration

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It is positive to see that NFP CEOs remain future-focused despite the chaos caused by the pandemic. They are resisting the temptation to think short-term although it is a daily battle.

The focus on strategy and operating structure needs to be maintained given the role of upskilling as a growth driver and the fact that many of the challenges NFPs face are likely to intensify. 

NFP leaders are juggling a lot. As well as trying to maintain strategic focus, their attention is dispersed across the day-to-day challenges of hybrid working, social distancing and lockdowns, and risk and compliance obligations. 

NFP CEOs are also deeply conscious about the well-being of their workforce with heavy demands on services due to national disasters preceding the pandemic and likely to increase as a result of climate change. NFPs CEOs and boards need to ask themselves: Are we spreading ourselves too thin? And what are the medium to long-term implications of that?

The rate at which NFP leaders are embracing the importance of technology as a growth accelerant is not moving at nearly the same pace as the digital world around them. Less than half (46%) of NFP leaders surveyed say their organisation has made progress improving leaders’ knowledge of technology and its potential implications. This is despite 74% of NFP leaders citing innovation and accelerated digital transformation as a top outcome of upskilling. This represents a missed opportunity and a potential blind-spot to existential threats from new left-field entrants offering slicker digital user experiences. Convenience as currency has been accentuated during the pandemic with Australians spending more time online, and mobile phones in particular. Improving leaders’ knowledge of technology in ensuring a frictionless journey for example can ultimately make the difference between a donor or supporter continuing to transact.

One of the most constructive trends in this year’s survey is the surge in cross-sector collaboration on skills. Half of NFP CEOs say they have made progress in collaborating with academic and government institutions on future skills, a 12% increase on last year. This is one of the biggest uplifts in this year’s survey. 

Lack of collaboration was an aspect we called out as a missed opportunity for the NFP sector last year, with organisations showing a real appetite to leverage alliances but lacking structured opportunity. That’s changing. Mechanisms, such as Infoxchange Group's Digital Transformation Hub, CSI’s Social Impact Leadership Australia (SILA) and the NSW Social Sector Transformation Fund are evolving to provide NFPs with different mechanisms for collaboration.

If NFPs can continue these collaborative efforts and extend them to facilitate greater cross pollination of skills between sectors, the benefits could be vast and mutually beneficial. 

In considering their top opportunities and pain points in the next 12 months, NFPs should look at how they can connect with external collaborators to pursue those goals, and what specifically they might want to achieve through those connections.