I started my career 30 years ago in a large nonprofit advocacy organization. Through hard work and some good fortune, I was quickly promoted to “management” and ultimately served as the organization’s Deputy Executive Director at the age of twenty-five. Baptism by fire and learning by doing were and are hallmarks of leadership development in the nonprofit sector.
There are few resources and little time in the day-to-day, resulting in a limited focus on intentional professional and leadership development. I get it; I really do! But the workforce of today comes with different talents and challenges. As employers and leaders, we need to find practical, effective ways to embed a focus on developing management, communication, and leadership skills as a core pillar of what we do, as essential not only to the advancement of our people but also to the sustainability of our missions.
NextGroup works with nonprofits, large and small, to recruit and grow leaders. We recently connected with more than ten CEOs, CHROs, and CDOs of our clients, and all had leadership development top of mind as a priority for 2026.
Here are a few strategies we find that advance leadership development even in resource-constrained teams:
Build a Culture and Capacity of Coaching
Identify opportunities for managers, directors, and senior leaders to grow their coaching capacity. This can be done by including coaching training as an option for professional development, and making it required for any/all new managers.
Invest in one-on-one coaching for your senior leadership team, combined with training, so they can cascade the coaching competencies throughout the organization. NextGroup can support you in identifying and scoping these services, especially for executive, fundraising/development, and finance/operations leaders.
Demonstrate You Care About Professional Development
Every budget should contain professional development funding for staff, not just the executive level. Jointly set reasonable professional development goals with your annual performance management and goal-setting cycle. And then follow up frequently and consistently.
Partner to Build Leadership Capacity
Clearly, this is an issue for many of our clients. Why not partner with another nonprofit to invest in fundamental workplace communications and management/leadership skills training? This could be a great way to initiate more custom coaching programs internally while simultaneously learning what’s working and what’s not for other teams of similar size and needs.
Understand Communications and Leadership Styles from Day One
NextGroup offers a set of core leadership and communication assessment tools that inform your recruiting process or can be implemented during onboarding for new hires. Understanding how a new leader tends to lead and how they will complement the team is invaluable to their success and yours. NextGroup can offer these tools to support your successful search.
