Nonprofit Leaders Rate Higher in 360 Feedback
Never assume anything.
It’s an old warning—and one that proved true again when we studied leaders of nonprofit organizations in partnership with Community Resource Exchange during 2007. CRE, a 27-year-old New York City consulting organization, provides high-value capacity building services to nonprofit leaders and organizations.
"Leadership in for-profit endeavors is widely studied," says our associate Jean Lobell, a Managing Director at CRE. "The same is not necessarily true for nonprofits, but the lack of data never stopped people from assuming that nonprofit leaders are less skilled than their for-profit counterparts."
"Imagine our delight and surprise," she says, "when our study showed that nonprofit leaders, as seen by their managers, direct reports and peers significantly (alpha > 0.05) outscored for-profit leaders on 14 out of 17 skills." The study is based on Clark Wilson Group’s validated Survey of Leadership Practices™, a competency-based 360-degree feedback instrument.
The strength of the findings was a surprise to both CRE and PPI, as well as to a group of nonprofit leaders who had participated in the study. While it is premature to declare that nonprofit leaders are clearly more effective, this study challenges the assumption.
Want full details? We were pleased to have the study featured in the Nonprofit Quarterly, a highly respected magazine that focuses on themes of critical importance to leaders in the nonprofit sector.
